Zhang Shanwen

Zhang Shanwen was born in 1949 in Changle, Fujian. He is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the College of Literature of Fujian Normal University and director of its Institute of Yi Studies, where he has long been engaged in research and teaching on the Book of Changes. Trained under the Yi scholar Huang Shouqi and inheriting the scholarly lineage of Zhang Taiyan, he gives equal weight to image-number and meaning-principle approaches. His publications include An Annotated Translation of the Zhouyi, A Dictionary of the Zhouyi (revised edition), Image-Number and Meaning-Principle, and The Zhouyi and Literature, along with more than a hundred articles; he has also served as vice president of the Chinese Association for Yi Studies. Writing for readers of history, culture, and Eastern philosophy, he combines translation, annotation, and thematic study to connect the text of the Zhouyi with its intellectual context. His style is rigorous and plain, offering general readers a reliable and accessible introduction to the classic, and his work has exerted a steady influence in Chinese reading circles.