英语学界“历史中的《易》”学派的形成与发展

The Formation and Development of“The Book of Changes in History”School in the Anglophone World

20世纪80年代以来,英语学界对《周易》的认识从“智慧之书”向“历史中的《易》”解易范式转变,逐渐形成了“历史中的《易》”学派。该学派不欲探求《周易》的本来面貌或掌握作者意图,而是运用伽达默尔诠释学方法,关注文本、时代与读者三个要素的“视域融合”关系,即《周易》文本在历史流变的过程中不断展开,与不同时间的读者或占者不断进行“视域融合”,最后产生出“一人一经”甚至“一瞬一经”的易学新解。“历史中的《易》”学派的易学研究可分为三个阶段:范式初始阶段,以1990年出版的《宋代对〈易经〉的运用》为标志;范式发展阶段,以2005年出版的《〈易经〉与中国政治——经典诠释学与北宋士人的行动主义》为标志;范式开新阶段,以何茂康的《伊川易传》英文全译本(2019)和艾周思的《周易本义》英文全译本(2020)为标志。三十年来,“历史中的《易》”学派推出了一系列重要易学著作的首个英文全译本,围绕易学的核心问题展开了细致讨论,不断加深和推进对中国易学的理解,也不断拓展着易学的海外传播。

Since the 1980s,the focus of the Yijing studies in the Anglophone world has shifted from viewing the Yijing as a“Book of Wisdom”to“the Book of Changes in history”and has gradually formed a school of research.A main characteristic of their approach is that they are not interested in finding the original meaning of the Yijing text or the author's purpose.Rather,based on Hans-Georg Gadamer's hermeneutical method,they pay attention to the“fusion of horizons”of the text,the historical context and readers,which is,the text of the Book of Changes continues to unfold in the historical changes,continues to fuse horizons with different readers and fortune tellers in different times,and finally produces new interpretation of Yi,namely“one person had his or her Yi”,even“every moment has one Yi”.The Yi study of the“the Book of Changes in history”school has undergone three stages:the initial stage of the paradigm,taking Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching published in 1990 as signal;the development stage signalled by The Yijing and Chinese Politics:Classical Commentary and Literati Activism in the Northern Song Period published in 2005;the flourishing stage,signalled by The Yi River Commentary on the Book of Changes(2019)—edited and translated by L.Michael Harrington and The Original Meaning of the Yijing:Commentary on the Scripture of Change(2020)—translated and edited by Joseph A.Adler.Hence,for thirty years,the school of“the Book of Changes in history”not only published the first full English translation of a series of important works on the study of the Book of Changes,but also engaged in detailed discussions around the core issues of Yi studies,continuously deepening and advancing the understanding of Chinese Yi study,and continuously expanding its overseas dissemination.