On the Meaning of the Hexagram 讦 in the Bamboo Slips Manuscript of the Zhouyi

The 35-36 slips in the bamboo slips manuscript of the Zhouyi collected in Shanghai Museum is the hexagram讦.This character appears 8 times and corresponds to蹇(hexagram 39) in the received version,to in the Fuyang bamboo slips manuscript of the Han dynasty and Mawangdui silk manuscript,and to寋 in the inscriptions on stele of the Zhouyi.In addition,according to WANG Yi's annotations to the Songs of Chu and LI Shan's annotations to the Wen xuan,it seems that 蹇is also a variant character of謇.The Yi zhuan(Commentaries) interpreted 蹇as difficulty.Yet,some contemporary scholars take advantage of the character 讦in the bamboo slips manuscript as reference and construed its meaning as certification and contend that hexagram 蹇specially discourses upright advices offering.The author ventures to extend his humble comments on the variants of 蹇,based on received literature,hexagram and line statements,structure of the hexagram's sequence and images,to examine the real meaning of 蹇.