Before studying "The Book of Changes", I thought "The Book of Changes" was a foggy, awesome and mysterious guy. After studying for a period of time, I have some understanding of the development and evolution of "Zhouyi".

Regarding the origin of the "Book of Changes", the traditional view is that the "Book of Changes" was written by three saints. As Kong Yingda said in the "Preface to the Commentary on the Book of Changes":

Before the Qin Dynasty, "The Book of Changes" has already been regarded as a classic, but people generally regard it as a book of divination, so it can survive the fire of Qin and continue to be passed down. As for the development of Yixue between the Han and Song Dynasties, you can quote the brief summary of the "General Catalog":

It is naturally extremely brief to attribute the development of Yixue over more than a thousand years to "two schools and six sects" To summarize, not every scholar may be able to accurately predict the situation. However, we can use this framework to roughly outline the evolution of Yixue during this historical period.

Scholars in the Han Dynasty inherited the legacy of pre-Qin Yixue studies and interpreted the Yixue with images and numbers. The study of Yixue then embarked on the path of prophecy; while Han Confucianism focused on textual exegesis in governing classics, which made the Yixue study cumbersome.

The opposite is true. By the end of the Han Dynasty, this research method came to an end. Wang Bi understood "Yi" with righteousness and eliminated the shortcomings of Xiangshu. "General Catalog" commented on this:

Wang Bi's research on Yi studies has mixed merits and demerits for Confucianism. Wang Bi (and Han Kangbo) made Yi Xue get rid of prophecy and wei skills, which was their contribution; but they also introduced Yi Xue into metaphysics, which quite dissatisfied Confucian scholars. As the "General Catalog" says:

Before the Wei, Jin and Sui Dynasties, the two schools of Xiangshu (represented by Zheng Xuan's annotations) and Yili (represented by Wang Bi's annotations) existed in parallel.

In the Sui Dynasty, "Wang's annotations became popular and Zheng's studies became more popular" ("Sui Shu·Jing Ji Zhi 1"). The Han Confucian interpretation of the "Yi" was so useless that when Kong Yingda annotated the "Book of Changes", he had no other ancient annotations to cite, and "mostly used empty words to interpret the text." This shows the great influence of Wang's annotations. Kong Yingda complied with the imperial edict and devoted his attention to Wang's annotations, which was nothing more than a further sweep of other theories.

Confucianism was revived in the Northern Song Dynasty, and both the Xiangshu and Yili schools of Yi studies were restored. Of course, this kind of restoration is not about the unearthing of cultural relics, but about re-creation under new circumstances.

Although the Giri School inherited the tradition of understanding "Yi" based on righteousness, it replaced metaphysics with Confucian ethics to "clarify Confucian principles."

The Xiangshu School inherited the tradition of using Xiangshu to interpret the Book of Changes and proposed various schemas. Therefore, the Xiangshu School of the Song Dynasty was called the "Science of Books".

In short, the "Book of Changes" has been continuously elucidated by scholars of all generations, and its content has become more and more abundant, gradually becoming an all-inclusive collection of knowledge. Mr. Zhu Bokun pointed out in the "History of Yixue Philosophy: Preface":

To put it bluntly: "The Book of Changes" was originally a fortune-telling booklet, just like the crystal ball used by Westerners for divination, it is a prop and tool; Later, many people attached many principles of social life, like a collection of maxims; later, many people systematically organized these principles, and finally developed into a set of "world view + outlook on life + values ??+ methodology". The guide to life in China has become an all-encompassing behemoth.

(Answer to Zhihu question: What do you feel most deeply after learning "The Book of Changes"?)