On ZHOU Dun-yi’s Yi-ology

Facing the situation that Confucianism was in a declining position in contrast to Buddhism and Daoism after the Ancient Style Prose Campaign initiated by HAN Yu (768-824), a large number of Confucian scholars, who bear the sense of responsibility for the transmission of Confucianism, strove for resuming Confucianism’s orthodoxy position by reconstructing it. So the Zhouyi, owing to its ample metaphysical wisdom and ideological source, became a classic admired by contemporary Confucian intellectuals. It was not until the beginning of the Northern Song dynasty that the reconstruction was completed preliminary by the Five Masters. ZHOU Dun-yi, as one of the Five Masters and the initiator of the neo-Confucianism, successfully set up his ideology concerning heaven and humanity with the Zhouyi as his academic basis. At present, the academic circle tends to pay more attention to textual research on the origin of his Tai ji tu, but seldom has the academic circle attached importance to the profound philosophical connotations of his Yi-ology. Focusing on the philosophical connotations and on the basis of precedent achievements related, this paper tries to clearify the line of thought in his Yi-ology.