Taixuangjing 太玄經

Taixuangjing 太玄經 "Classic of the supreme mystery" is a metaphysical treatise written by the mid-Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) scholar Yang Xiong 揚雄 (53 BCE-18 CE). In the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, it is called Taiyuanjing 太元經 in order to avoid the personal name of the Kangxi Emperor 康熙帝 (r. 1661-1722), Xuanye 玄燁. The meaning of xuan is "obscure" or "impenetrable", but the term also means the refined basic nature of the Daoist dao 道.

The Taixuanjing imitates the structure of the "Book of Changes" (Yijing 易經), one of the Confucian Classics. Accordingly, the Taixuanjing is written as a kind of prognostication or mantic book based on the philosophies of Yin-Yang and the Five Agents, and contemporary astronomical knowledge. Beyond the objective of prognostication, the Tianxuanjing designs a whole cosmic worldview. In complexity it surpasses the Yijing. While the latter has a binary worldview, the Taixuanjing has three originary realms (fang 方) in space, divided into the nine provinces (jiuzhou 九州), 27 departments (bu 部) and 81 "families" (jia 家).

Concerning the aspect of time, Yang Xiong developed 81 tetragrams (shou 首), analogous to the 64 hexagrams in the Yijing. Each tetragram is described in nine commends (zan 贊), corresponding to the explanations of the hexagram lines (yao 爻) in the Yijing. The Taixuanjing also includes, very consistently, a series of nine separate commentaries similar to the "wing" commentaries in the Yijing.

There is a commentary written by the Jin-period 晉 (265-420) scholar Fan Wang 范望, the Taixuanjing zhu 太玄經注, which is included in the series Sibu congkan 四部叢刊. Another commentary has been written by Sima Guang 司馬光 (1019-1086) from the Northern Song period 北宋 (960-1126), the Taixuan jizhu 太玄集注, which is included in the Sibu beiyao 四部備要. The Taixuanjing can also be found in the series Chizaotong siku quanshu huiyao 摛藻堂四庫全書薈要, Zishu baijia 子書百家, Baizi quanshu 百子全書 and the Daoist Canon Daozang 道藏.

There is a complete translation by Michael Nylan (1993), The Canon of Supreme Mystery by Yang Xiong (Albany: State University of New York Press). An older, partial translation is Derek Walters (1983), The T’ai Hsüan Ching: The Hidden Classic (Wellingborough: Aquarian Press).