Abstract: The interpretation of Book of Changes, a system with its own unique structure, requires a series of metalanguages. The Yi jing code is virtually a combination of hexagram images, hexagram statements, line statements and words of judgment. This system allows people to reveal laws, make predictions and tell fortunes through divination practices. In these practices, the diviners, after obtaining the images, explain them with their corresponding hexagram and line statements. These explanations must be translated into their corresponding metalanguages before the significance of the hexagrams can be fully appreciated. Among the metalanguages of Book of Changes are wei (position), zhong (moderateness), shi (time) and dang (appropriateness). The first three specify the spatial-temporal contexts of the signifying process and the fourth is a judgment of these contexts. As the value judgment of the other metalanguages, dang serves as a meta-metalanguage.
Keywords: Book of Changes, semiotics, metalanguage, code
DOI: 10.13760/b.cnki.sam.201601005