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Taixuanjing#Unicode

{{Short description|Confucian divination text (2 BCE)}}

{{italic title}}

{{Infobox Chinese

| title = Taixuanjing

|t=太玄經

|s=太玄经

|showflag=p

|p=Tàixuánjīng

|w=Tʻai4 hsüan2 ching1

|gr=

|mi=

|ci=

|j=Taai3 jyun4 ging1

|y=

|poj=

|suz=

|h=

|l="Classic of Supreme Mystery"

|mc=

|oc-bs=

|hangul=태현경

|rr=Taehyeongyeong

|mr=T'aehyŏn'gyŏng

|kyujitai=太玄經

|shinjitai=太玄経

|hiragana=たいげんきょう

}}

The Taixuanjing is a divination guide composed by the Confucian writer Yang Xiong (53 BCE{{snd}}18 CE) in the decade prior to the fall of the Western Han dynasty. The first draft of this work was completed in 2 BCE; during the Jin dynasty, an otherwise unknown person named Fan Wang ({{zhi|c=范望}}) salvaged the text and wrote a commentary on it, from which our text survives today.

Content

The Taixuanjing is a divinatory text similar to, and inspired by, the I Ching. The I Ching is based on 64 binary hexagrams—characters composed of six horizontal lines, with each line either broken or unbroken. Meanwhile, the Taixuanjing is based on 81 ternary tetragrams—characters composed of four lines, with each line either unbroken, broken once, or broken twice.{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02089-tet.pdf|title=L2/02-089: Proposal to add monogram, digram, and tetragram characters to the UCS|date=2002-02-11|first1=Richard|last1=Cook|first2=Michael|last2=Everson|author-link2=Michael Everson|first3=Michael|last3=Nylan|ref=none}} Like the I Ching, it may be consulted as an oracle by casting yarrow stalks or a six-faced die to generate numbers which define the lines of the tetragram, which is then looked up in the text.

{{Explain|reason=What is a 'moving' line? Is there a non-moving or static line also?|date=September 2018}}

A tetragram drawn without moving lines refers to the tetragram description, while a tetragram drawn with moving lines refers to the specific lines.

The monograms are:

  • the unbroken line (16px ⚊) for heaven ({{zhi|c=天|p=tiān}}),
  • once broken line (16px ⚋) for earth ({{zhi|c=地|p=dì}}),
  • twice broken line (16px 𝌀) for man ({{zhi|c=人|p=rén}}).

Numerically the symbols can be counted as ⚊ = 0, ⚋ = 1, 𝌀 = 2, and grouped into sets of four to count from 0 to 80. This is clearly intentional as this passage from chapter 8 of the Taixuanjing points out the principle of carrying and place value.

class="wikitable"

! Chinese

English
{{blockquote|{{lang|lzh|推玄筭：

家 一置一，二置二，三置三。

部 一勿增，二增三，三增六。

州 一勿增，二增九，三增十八。

方 一勿增，二增二十七，三增五十四}}}}

|

{{blockquote|Push Profound Calculation:

First Part: one sets one, two sets two, three sets three.

Second Part: one doesn't add, two adds three, three adds six.

Third Part: one doesn't add, two adds nine, three adds eighteen.

Fourth Part: one doesn't add, two adds twenty-seven, three adds fifty-four.}}

Translation

An English translation by Michael Nylan was published in 1993.

  • {{cite book |last= Nylan |first= Michael |date= 1993 |title= The Canon of Supreme Mystery: A Translation with Commentary of the T'AI HSÜAN CHING |location= Albany |publisher= State University of New York Press |isbn= 0-7914-1395-0 |series= SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture }}

Unicode

{{Infobox Unicode block

|blockname = Tai Xuan Jing Symbols

|rangestart = 1D300

|rangeend = 1D35F

|script1 = Common

|symbols = Tai Xuan Jing

|4_0 = 87

|note = {{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/ucd/|title=Unicode character database|work=The Unicode Standard|access-date=2023-07-26}}{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/enumeratedversions.html|title=Enumerated Versions of The Unicode Standard|work=The Unicode Standard|access-date=2023-07-26}}

}}

{{commons category|Unicode 1D300-1D35F Tai Xuan Jing Symbols|Tai Xuan Jing Symbols}}

In the Unicode Standard, the Tai Xuan Jing Symbols block is an extension of the I Ching symbols. Their Chinese aliases most accurately reflect their interpretation; for example, the Chinese alias of code point U+1D300 is "rén", which translates into English as man and yet the English alias is "MONOGRAM FOR EARTH".

= Block =

{{Unicode chart Tai Xuan Jing Symbols}}

= History =

The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Tai Xuan Jing Symbols block:

{{sticky header}}

class="wikitable sticky-header"
Version{{nobr|Final code points}}CountL2 IDWG2 IDDocument
rowspan="7" | 4.0rowspan="7" | U+1D300..1D356rowspan="7" | 87{{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02089-tet.pdf L2/02-089]}}[https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n2416.pdf N2416]{{Citation|title=Proposal to add monogram, digram, and tetragram characters to the UCS|date=2002-02-11|first1=Richard|last1=Cook|first2=Michael|last2=Everson|author-link2=Michael Everson|first3=Michael|last3=Nylan|ref=none}}
{{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/consortium/utc-minutes/UTC-091-200205.html L2/02-166R2]}}{{Citation|title=UTC #91 Minutes|date=2002-08-09|first=Lisa|last=Moore|ref=none|section=Consensus 91-C4|quote=UTC accepts the 87 tetragram and related characters for encoding at 1D300..1D356.}}
{{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2005/05267-n2998-name-annot.pdf L2/05-267]}}N2998{{Citation|title=Proposed annotations for Annex P -- reference N2988|date=2005-09-15|ref=none}}
{{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2005/05260-n2988-tai-xuan-jing.pdf L2/05-260]}}{{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n2988.pdf N2988 (pdf],}} [https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n2988.doc doc]){{Citation|title=Proposal to correct the Character Names for Tai Xuan Jing (U+13D00 ~ U+13D05)|date=2005-09-21|first=Taichi|last=Kawabata|ref=none}}
{{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2005/05281-n2998.pdf L2/05-281]}}[https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n2998.doc N2998R]{{Citation|title=Proposed annotations for Annex P -- reference N2988|date=2005-09-28|ref=none}}
{{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n2953.pdf N2953 (pdf],}} [https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n2953.doc doc]){{Citation|title=Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 47, Sophia Antipolis, France; 2005-09-12/15|date=2006-02-16|first=V. S.|last=Umamaheswaran|ref=none|section=M47.15 (Defect in names of Tai Xuan Jing symbols)}}
{{nobr|[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06088-02n3837.pdf L2/06-088]}}{{Citation|title=Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 47|date=2006-02-22|ref=none|section=11.4}}
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| colspan="6" | {{reflist|group=lower-alpha|refs=Proposed code points and characters names may differ from final code points and names}}

See also

References

External links

{{Wikisource|zh:太玄經|Tai Xuan Jing}}

  • {{Wiktionary-inline|Taixuanjing}}
  • [http://ctext.org/taixuanjing 《太玄經》] - Full text in Chinese
  • [http://chinesenotes.com/taixuanjing/taixuanjing001.html Canon of Supreme Mystery 《太玄經》] Chinese text with matching English vocabulary

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taixuanjing}}

Category:Han dynasty texts

Category:Chinese literature

Category:Chinese books of divination

Category:1st-century books

Category:Unicode blocks