Using Numbers to Comprehend the Cosmos: An Analysis of Liu Mu’s Yishu gouyin tu

Abstract

This article examines the cosmological arguments advanced within Liu Mu’s 劉牧 (n.d.) Yishu gouyin tu 易數鉤隱圖, a short work composed in the 1030s that was dedicated to explaining the meaning of the Yijing. In the Yishu gouyin tu, Liu used combinations of diagrams and text to argue that numbers underlay, and provided the keys to understanding, the development of the cosmos and the creation of the myriad entities that inhabited it. He further asserted that the important role numbers played in the process of creation and transformation was revealed to the ancient sage Fu Xi 伏羲 via two important diagrams, the Hetu 河圖 and Luoshu 洛書. In addition to explicating Liu’s conception of how the numbers of the Hetu and Luoshu informed both cosmological development and the composition of the Yi, this article situates his views within the context of Northern Song thought in an effort to shed light on their larger significance and influence. It argues that Liu played a key role in promoting several ideas that would assume great importance in the mid-eleventh century, including the questioning of the received exegetical tradition, the claim that the dao had a cosmological foundation, and the use of diagrams and numbers to explicate cosmological process.