ABSTRACT
W hy has this stark Bronze Age manual exerted such a powerful fascination for so many people throughout the centuries?
The status of Yijing as an imperially canonized classic encouraged such men to study it. They fell under its spell, but the spell was cast more by the Ten Wings than by Zhouyi. It would be centuries before the Chinese would again think of the book in any other light than that with which it was suffused by the wings, especially the Great Treatise. Wang Bi, while arguing strongly for the direct meaning of the text to be considered, was convinced that the true meaning was abstract. Not only did he transmit the text; his influence set the general course of Yijing study for nearly two thousand years.
