Shao Yong

Shao Yong (1011-1077 C.E.), also known as Shao Kang-Jie, was one of the most prominent philosophers of the Northerng Sung Dynasty (960-1126 C.E.). Although he was born into poverty, unlike most philosophers of the time, he was able to study and learn through borrowing books as he traveled afar. Eventually, Shao Yong came upon the I Ching, on which he would dedicate many decades of study and contemplation. He later established his own system, “The Earlier Heaven I,” based off of Fu Xi’s arrangement of the eight primary gua and explained it in the book Huang Ji Ching Shi. Shao Yong also summarized the findings of preceding I Ching philosophers and rearranged the 64 gua into both square and circular patterns. Additionally, he was well known as an adept predictor of future events through the use of mathematics and perception.