Life
Shao Yong, posthumously named Kangjie, spent most of his life as a recluse in Luoyang in the Northern Song, in the company of Sima Guang and the Cheng brothers. He never took office and called his home the 'Nest of Peace and Joy'. Starting from the 'Former Heaven' arrangement of the trigrams, he used numerical reasoning to explain the cosmos and the cycles of history, setting out a scheme of cosmic eras (yuan, hui, yun, shi) in the Huangji jingshi. The popular 'Plum Blossom' divination method is also attributed to him, though the attribution is not well supported.
The system
- The Former Heaven (Fuxi) trigram and hexagram diagrams.
- Yuan-hui-yun-shi: numerical cycles of cosmos and history.
- 'Observing things' by their own principle rather than from the self.
Key works
- Huangji jingshi (Supreme Principles that Rule the World)
- Yichuan jirang ji (poems)
- Meihua yishu (attributed)
Where to start
- Start with a history of Yijing studies (image-and-number school), then the 'Observing Things' chapters.
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