Han Kangbo's life, official career, and birth and death years are difficult to verify; today only his name and the transmitted Commentary on the Book of Changes (Zhouyi zhu) are known. Public information is limited, and his native place, courtesy name, and scholarly lineage cannot be described in detail. Judging from his extant work, however, he may be counted among the classical scholars who annotated the Book of Changes. His Commentary on the Book of Changes falls under the category of historical reading; its content consists mainly of annotating the hexagram and line statements and clarifying their meaning and principles, reflecting the exegetical trend of Wei-Jin scholarship, in which the Changes moved from image-number speculation toward philosophical interpretation. The book is concise in style and clear in argument, emphasizing human affairs and political and moral instruction in explaining hexagram meanings, with little elaboration of complicated image-number calculations, making it easier for readers to grasp the basic purport of the Changes. As Han Kangbo's only work in the collection, it is both the main basis for studying his understanding of the Changes and a concise reader for later generations seeking to understand the text, holding a certain reference value within the tradition of Changes commentary.
