“Simulating Images” (xiangxiang 像象): Qian Yiben’s Reconstruction of Cosmic Principle and Human Transcendence in the Yijing

This study examines the relationship between “image” (xiang 象) and “simulation” (xiang2 像) in Qian Yiben’s theory of “simulating images” (xiangxiang 像象) and argues that this relationship constitutes a reconstruction of how cosmic principle (li 理) becomes manifested in human affairs. The central problem this study addresses is the precise meaning of “image” and “simulation” in Qian Yiben’s thought: what does it mean for “images” to “simulate,” and how does this bridge the gap between the hidden dao of Heaven and Earth and human affairs? Qian opposes both the view of taking “images” as “imaginable approximation,” and “principles abstract truths to be grasped apart from images.” Instead, he insists that “images” and “simulation” form a unity: “images” refer to simulations, and “simulation” is the process by which principles are embodied in human life. Therefore, Qian Yiben proposes his theory of “simulating images” on three interconnected perspectives. Cosmologically, “images” are generated throughout the interaction of yin and yang and realized through the human heart/mind (xin 心). From the perspective of cultivation, “knowing images as simulations” guides the practitioner from observation to profound, inscrutable and wondrous insight as divinities. Practically, “simulation” culminates in the practitioner’s active embodiment of the dao through participation in the three powers (sancai 三才, Heaven, Earth, Humanity); one “establishes the dao through oneself” (dao zi wo er li 道自我而立), thereby participating in the ceaseless creation and generation of the cosmos. Qian’s theory thereby reveals the religious and metaphysical dimensions of late-Ming Yijing scholarship.