New Publication: Hexagrams and Mathematics
A new publication by A. Bréard with the title “Hexagrams and Mathematics: Symbolic Approaches to Prediction from the Song to the Qing” appeared in Tze-ki Hon’s edited volume The Other Yijing. The Book of Changes in Chinese History, Politics, and Everyday Life (Brill 2021). It analyzes the motivations and solutions of several Song to Qing dynasty scholars (from approximately the tenth to the nineteenth centuries) to connect mathematical considerations with the procedural and structural aspects of The Changes. Here, A. Bréard understands “mathematical considerations” as the number theoretical practices rather than “numerology” (or shuxue 數學, lit. learning about numbers), that was commonly used in China. This chapter, therefore, is not about correlative cosmology and the numerological readings concerned with the polysemantics of numbers but, rather, about theories from the Chinese mathematical tradition that are modified from, mapped onto, or juxtaposed with The Changes tradition.