Since change was synonymous to transformation, evolution, circulation, transaction and transition, Mao Qiling thought that it was by the sense of transition that we are to interpret The Book of Changes, which he expounded by quoting from The Book. Based on the ideas of “Heaven and Earth constitute a sequential order”, “The hard and the soft are interactive”, and “in the universe things classify and people group” in The Biography of Words of the Chinese Book of Changes, Mu introduced the view of transitional phenomena by synthesizing views of changing phenomena based on divinatory diagrams in the history of study of The Chinese Book of Changes, on the basis of which he reinterpreted the relationships of hexagram. From the view of transitional phenomena, Mu interpreted the text of The Chinese Book of Changes and The Biography of Words of the Chinese Book of Changes from a novel perspective of transitional divinatory diagrams and developed such concepts as “transition”, “synthesis of divinatory diagrams”, “analysis of divinatory diagrams” and so on. Furthermore he decomposed and reconstructed the symbolic system of hexagram to explore the internal relationships between divinatory diagrams, thus contributing a symbolic system on the basis of the view of transitional phenomena totally different from the former views of divinatory symbols. Mao Qiling interpreted The Chinese Book of Changes based on transitional and other relevant phenomena, whci was regarded as the most important sign of the revival of study of The Chinese Book of Changes in the Qing Dynasty.

Mao Qiling; The Book of Changes; Study of The Book of Changes; variation of divinatory diagrams; transition; the revival of the study of The Chinese Book of Changes in the Qing Dynasty