Yu Yan俞琰

Style & Daoist names

courtesy name Yuwu, sobriquets Quanyangzi, Recluse of Linwu Mountain, and Daoist of the Stone Ravine (Shijian Daoren)

Period

Late Southern Song–Yuan

Dates

1258 — 1314

School

Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir (Nanzong)

Role

Commentator on Alchemical ScripturesScholar of the Book of ChangesLay Practitioner

Birthplace

Wu Commandery (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu)

Life

Yu Yan, style name Yuwu, was a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu, and a scholar of the Book of Changes and internal alchemy at the Song–Yuan transition. After the fall of the Song he lived in reclusion and never took office, devoting himself entirely to writing, and became renowned for his mastery of the Zhouyi and internal alchemy. His works include the Zhouyi cantong qi fahui (Elucidation of the Zhouyi Cantong Qi) and its Shiyi (Explanation of Doubts), which interpret the Cantong qi through the image-and-number system of Yijing studies and hold that the way of the elixir is identical with the way of Heaven — one of the most influential commentaries in the history of the text's exegesis; he also wrote the Yiwai biechuan (Separate Transmission Outside the Changes), which explains internal alchemy through the hexagrams, and the Xishang futan (Rambling Talk at the Table), a miscellany on alchemy and the nourishing of life. Yu Yan's position within alchemy leaned toward quiet cultivation, and he opposed sexual and combative techniques of the bedchamber arts, differing in this respect from Chen Zhixu. Combining the identity of a Confucian scholar, he represents literati studies of Daoism in the Yuan. He was born in 1258 and died in 1314 (one account gives 1327).

Contributions & Influence

• Interpreted the Cantong qi through the study of the Changes, producing a classic commentary
• Wrote the Yiwai biechuan, bridging the study of the Changes and internal alchemy
• Studied Daoism as a lay practitioner (jushi), typifying Confucian scholars' engagement with the Dao in the Yuan

Works

• Elucidations of the Zhouyi Cantong Qi (Fahui)
• Resolving Doubts on the Zhouyi Cantong Qi (Shiyi)
• Separate Transmission Outside the Book of Changes (Yiwai Biezhuan)
• Trivial Talk at the Banquet Table (Xishang Futan)
• Collected Explanations of the Zhouyi (Zhouyi Jishuo)
• Commentary on the Yinfu Jing