皇極經世書 HuangJiJingShiShu
皇極經世書 HuangJiJingShiShu is a Daoist treatise written by the early Northern-Song 北宋 (960-1126) numerologist and philosopher Shao Yong 邵雍 (1011-1077). According to Chao YueZhi's 晁說之 (1059-1129) biography of Shao Yong's teacher Li Zhicai 李之才 (980-1045), the arithmetical knowledge and the metaphysical speculation derived from it goes back to the Daoist master Chen Tuan 陳摶 (871-989).
HuangJiJingShiShu is a writing about the "order of things on earth" (物理 WuLi, the modern term is "physics"). The term HuangJi 皇極 comes from the chapter HongFan 洪範 "The Great Plan" in the Confucian Classic Shangshu 尚書 "Book of Documents", where "the establishment and use of royal perfection" is one of the divisions of the "Great Plan". The Tang-period 唐 (618-907) commentator Kong Yingda 孔穎達 (574-648) explains that HuangJi signified the "great centre" (大中 DaZhong) which was a means to measure the affairs of the world (經緯世事 JingWeiShiShi).
The 12-juan-long book is divided into three parts and describes the whole course of Chinese history from the viewpoint of the effects of the trigrams (卦象 GuaXiang) of the 易經 Yijing "Book of Changes" . In the first six fascicles, the author explains, with the logic of the Yijing hexagrams and their visual realization, how the world and society developed from mythological times under the reign of Emperor Yao 堯 to the end of the Five Dynasties period 五代 (907-960). The fascicles 7 to 10 are dedicated to the explanation of the influence of cosmology on music.
The central part of the book are the chapters 觀物內篇 GuanWuNeiPian and 觀物外篇 GuanWuWaiPian. The WaiPian was presumably written by disciples of Shao Yong. In the GuanWu chapters "Observing things", Shao Yong explains his doctrine of the Anterior Heaven (先天之學 XianTianZhiXue). He argues that there were pre-modeled patterns for all objects and living beings in the Anterior Heaven, according to which the ten thousand beings were generated. All things on earth were therefore only copies of these ideal models. With the help of many illustrations and diagrams, Shao Yong demonstrates the patterns of the Former Heaven models and their realization. In this type of creation, numbers play an important role and show that Shao Yong's philosophy was heavily influenced by numerology with a little taste of what modern Chinese scholars call "occultism" (神秘主義).
皇極經世書
《皇極經世》，北宋邵雍撰，是一部河洛數術之書。《皇极经世书》共十二卷六十四篇。首六卷《元会运世》三十四篇，次四卷《声音律品》十六篇，次《观物内篇》十二篇，末《观物外篇》二篇。《四庫全書》稱其“辭約而義廣，天下之能事畢矣。”
邵雍窮三十年之精神，觀察天地自然之消長，推究宇宙萬物之原理，深研人事之變化，運用伏羲先天易數，把自然和人事加以有系統的組織，形成一種以數理為基礎的哲學。邵雍之子邵伯溫解釋《皇極經世》的意義：「至大之謂皇，至中之謂極，至正之謂經，至變之謂世，大中至正應變無方之謂道」，故「皇極經世」四字就是「道」的意思[1]:11：
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《皇極經世》一書，凡十二卷：
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其一至二卷，總元會運世之數，易所謂天地之數也。
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三至四卷，以會經運，列世數與歲甲子，下紀帝堯於五代歷年表，以見天下離合治亂之跡，以天時而驗人事者也。
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五至六卷，以運經世，列世數與歲甲子，下紀自堯帝至於五代，書傳所載興廢治亂得失邪正之跡，以人事而驗天時也。
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自七至十卷，則以陰陽剛柔之數，窮律呂聲音之數；以律呂聲音之數，窮動植飛走之數——易所謂萬物之數也。
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其十一至十二卷，則論「皇極經世」之所以為書，窮日、月、星、辰、飛、走、動、植之數，以盡天地萬物之理，述皇帝、王霸之事，以明大中至正之道，陰陽之消長，古今之治亂，較然可見矣。
天地終始之數
参见：六十四卦
邵雍認為天以一元為極限，地以一歲為極限。當一元、一歲盡時，週而復始。
““天地之數，窮於八八，故元會運世、歲月日辰之數極於六十四也。
陽數以三十起者，一月有三十日，一世有三十年也，
陰數以十二起者，一日有十二辰，一歲有十二月也。
天地之數，至於八八遂窮乎，曰窮則變，變則生，蓋生生而不窮者也。……”——西山蔡氏
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““《經世》天地終始之數，以十二、三十反覆乘之也。
元之元一，
元之會十二，是以十二乘一也；
元之運三百六十，是以三十乘十二也；
元之世四千三百二十，是以十二乘三百六十也；……以下倣此。”——元代黃瑞節
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““……此《皇極經世》一元之數也，
一元象一年，
十二會，象十二月，
三百六十運，象三百六十日，
四千三百二十世，象四千三百二十時也。
蓋一年有十二月，三百六十日，四千三百二十時故也。
《經世》一元，十二會，三百六十運，四千三百二十世，
一世三十年，是為十二萬九千六百年，是為《皇極經世》一元之數。一元在大化之間猶一年也。
……使人引而申之，可至於終而復始也。其法皆十二、三十相乘，十二、三十，日月之數也。”——邵伯溫
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據推算，“一元之數”為129,600年，而“天地終始之數”為559,872,000[1]:73-75（五億五千九百八十七萬二千）。