The “Global Yijing” Lecture Series (XIV) -- Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate太極圖說 and the Diagrams of the Heavenly Mandate天命圖

This lecture attempts to introduce one aspect of Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate (太極圖說) by Zhou Dunyi (周敦頤) accepted in the Joseon Dynasty through the Diagrams of the Heavenly Mandate (天命圖). These diagrams are famous for being the trigger for the Four-seven debate (四端七情之論辯), the most important debate in the intellectual history in the Joseon Dynasty. The Four-seven debate began when Ki Daeseung (奇大升) sent a letter with questions to Yi Hwang (李滉) in 1559. However, if we look into the authoring of the 天命圖, we may learn that the diagrams are not single-authored by Yi but is originally drawn by a young scholar Jeong Ji-un (鄭之雲) and was continuously revised during the debate and even contained the outcomes of the arguments by Yi at the end. Besides the Explanation of the Diagram of the Heavenly Mandate (天命圖說) authored by Jeong contains Yi’s epilogue, in which Jeong’s original diagram and his revision following Yi’s correction, and how the 太極圖 condensed and absorbed into their diagrams were mentioned. In the 16th century Joseon, not only Jeong and Yi, Kim In-hu (金麟厚) and Ki Dae-seung also contributed to the authorship of the 天命圖 under the influence of the Four-seven debate. In spite of the discrepancies in the description of the human mind-nature by different scholars, the authors concur that the circles in the 太極圖, in which the ontological order unfold vertically, overlap with a circle, the symbol of ideal form of circulation and the terrestrial beings appears in hierarchically in each天命圖.

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