by Beihai Laoren (北海老人)
Calendar and Principles of Change (歷年易理, Linian Yili) is a chronicle and cosmological treatise by Wang Jueyi (王覺一, 1821--1884), the fifteenth patriarch of the Yiguandao (一貫道) lineage, also known as Beihai Laoren -- the Old Man of the Northern Sea. Written over the course of years and compiled after his death, the text weaves together the patriarchal transmission history, Yijing-based cosmology, and urgent spiritual exhortation into a single record of an era in which the Dao lineage fractured and the mandate passed in secret.
The book takes its title from its method: "Principle is rooted in the Three Changes" -- the Unchanging Change (不易), the Transforming Change (變易), and the Exchange Change (交易) -- and the record spans the years of Patriarch Wang's mission and its aftermath. It is not a systematic treatise like Exploring the Origin of Unity or Principles and Numbers Combined, but a living document: year-by-year letters, poems, prophecies, and instructions addressed to the faithful in a time of crisis.
This translation presents the Introduction and Preface -- the philosophical and historical framework for the entire work. The yearly chronicles that form the body of the text remain for future translators. The Chinese source text is from the Morality Books Library (善書圖書館, taolibrary.com), which states: "Welcome to reprint, upload, reproduce, and circulate" (歡迎轉載，上傳，翻印，流通). This is the first English translation.
Introduction
The Doctrine of the Mean says: "The way of the gentleman is broad yet hidden. Even the simplest husband and wife can know something of it. But at its farthest reach, even the sage has limits to what he can know."
The Great Dao does not descend except at the appointed time. It has both the subtle and the manifest. The subtle is hard to perceive; the manifest is easy. This is because the heavenly mandate's bestowal and reception happen of their own accord -- no one makes them so, yet so they are. Since this cannot be fully investigated, the true Dao alternates between concealment and revelation, and the people of the world cannot fathom it.
In the past, the Fifth Patriarch bestowed the dharma upon the Sixth Patriarch and passed him the robe and bowl, saying: "You are the Sixth Patriarch." Moreover, he declared that the robe serves as proof of faith, passed down from generation to generation. This was the manifest face of the heavenly mandate's transmission. After this, the Dao turned toward the burning house. The robe ceased to be passed. This was the hidden face of the true Dao.
After the Sixth Patriarch, the mandate was passed successively to the Thirteenth Patriarch, Xu and Yang. The heavenly mandate hovered between concealment and revelation. After the Thirteenth Patriarch, the mandate secretly turned to Patriarch Yao Hetian of Shanxi -- the Fourteenth Patriarch. At that time, demonic forces arose, contending for the heavenly altar. After the Patriarch returned to emptiness, the Dao lineage fell into confusion.
The mandate was passed down to Patriarch Wang Jueyi. But the secret transmission could not stem the growing chaos. Patriarch Wang, in his compassion for heaven and pity for humanity, feared that the teaching would fall to false gates and that seekers would lose the true path -- squandering this once-in-eternity opportunity. And so this book was written.
This book was not written all at one time. Its principle is rooted in the Three Changes. Hence its title: Calendar and Principles of Change. All of it illuminates the nature of principle and the heart-method, and shows who received the heavenly mandate -- that is, the Enlightened Teacher -- and where the gate of non-duality stands.
Throughout the book, the gathering and completion of souls is spoken of again and again. Yet in Patriarch Wang's own lifetime, the gathering never came. This is because Number changes yet has its constancy -- the gathering truly begins from here.
In the tenth year of Guangxu, the bingxu year [1884], in the spring of the third month, Patriarch Wang returned to emptiness at Yangliuqing in Tianjin. After this, Patriarch Liu of Qingxu inherited the heavenly mandate as the Sixteenth Patriarch. He transmitted it to Patriarch Lu -- the Seventeenth Patriarch, also known as the First Patriarch of the White Sun. In the fourteenth year of the Republic, the yichou year [1925], Patriarch Lu returned to emptiness. The heavenly mandate was transmitted once more to the Second Patriarch, who took up the final task, and the universal salvation of the Three Realms began.
Since the opening of heaven, nothing has been as great as this time. What is spoken of as the "gathering and completion of the Third Period" is now imminent.
One who does not know the Mandate cannot be a gentleman. It is also said: the gentleman stands in awe of the heavenly mandate; the small person, not knowing it, treats the great with contempt and mocks the words of the sages.
Let the reader of this book ponder it again and again until something stirs in the heart. Then discern the time and perceive the opening -- and do not squander this single auspicious moment in one hundred and twenty thousand years. Seek the golden thread of the Great Dao, and transcend the catastrophe of the final age, and transcend the wheel of death and rebirth.
Patriarch Wang Jueyi -- personal name Xuemeng, style name "the Old Man of the Northern Sea" -- authored the Commentaries on the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean, Exploring the Three Changes, Exploring the Origin of Unity, Three Teachings Perfectly United, and other works. All of these illuminate the nature of principle and the heart-method, and the principle of the unity of heaven and humanity. This particular book focuses on illuminating the heavenly mandate, and is especially essential for those who seek or cultivate the Dao. Let the reader not treat it with contempt.
Preface
It is said: the words of the sages arise from their nature, and the nature of the sages comes from Heaven. The Five Classics and Three Commentaries are all the ancient sages borrowing written words to carry the Dao -- revealing the hidden depths of nature and heaven, nothing more.
After Mencius, the heart-method was lost. Most who taught transmitted words without meaning. Most who studied recited words and forgot the taste. This is why the study of the classics has remained unclear. If the classics are not understood, how can one understand the sages' nature? If the nature is not understood, how can one know that nature comes from Heaven?
The Doctrine of the Mean says: "What Heaven decrees is called nature." This is the transmission that proceeds from root to branch -- from Heaven downward to nature.
Mencius said: "One who fully engages the heart knows one's nature. Knowing one's nature, one knows Heaven." To reason from heart and nature upward to Heaven -- this is the learning that traces the stream back to its source.
Before the hexagrams were drawn, Change was in heaven and earth. After the hexagrams were drawn, heaven and earth were in the Changes.
The Changes contain sixty-four hexagrams and three hundred and eighty-four lines -- all of them following the principle of nature and destiny, exhausting the way of transformation. Seen in this light: one who wishes to understand the principle of nature -- apart from the Changes, where else can one turn?
Wuji -- the Boundless -- is the perfectly still, unmoving Principle of Heaven. This heaven is still yet able to respond. It is constant and never changes. It is the heaven that gave birth to heaven and earth. Only the mandate bestowed by this heaven -- the original nature -- is where the heart of the Dao arises.
The Great Ultimate is the constantly moving, flowing Breath-heaven. This heaven has a cycle of one hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred years as its beginning and end. It is the destiny of breath-and-number, the temperamental nature -- where the human heart arises.
One Principle is the father and mother of the Two Breaths. The Two Breaths are the father and mother of the Myriad Forms. Principle gives birth to Breath; Breath gives birth to Form. This is the great parentage of the heavenly order.
Breath in turn gives birth to Form. The Myriad Forms are rooted in the Two Breaths. The Two Breaths are rooted in One Principle. Heaven is the Principle that unifies all things as one body. Nature is the heaven that each thing possesses within itself. Form is the parentage of the human order. Great and small have their ranks. First and last have their order. The five degrees of mourning, the five grades of nobility -- all are distinguished from this.
One root, myriad branches. Myriad branches, one root. This is why heaven and humanity are threaded through as one.
One who knows this can transmit the Dao. One who speaks this is said to leave a scripture. Teaching the people through this is called governance. Forbidding the people from violating this is called law. Therefore: Principle is the way that is constant and never changes. And scripture is the teaching that endures and is never cut.
Rites regulate it. Music harmonizes it. Reward draws it forth. Punishment drives it home. Root and branch have their order. First and last do not mingle. Trace it to its origin and grasp its conclusion. From heaven downward to humanity. Fulfill humanity and unite with heaven. Then the work of the sages and worthies is complete.
The method begins with the investigation of things. One who cannot investigate the things of the world cannot fulfill the human. One who cannot investigate the things of desire cannot unite with heaven. When both are investigated, heaven and humanity are threaded through entirely.
Applied to oneself, the person is cultivated. Applied to one family, the family is ordered. Applied to one state, the state is governed. Applied to all under heaven, all under heaven is at peace.
Let the person of broad vision ponder and explore until understanding comes. Then apply it for a lifetime -- and find that it can never be exhausted.
Colophon
Calendar and Principles of Change (歷年易理) is a patriarchal chronicle and cosmological treatise of the Yiguandao (一貫道) tradition, written over the course of years by Wang Jueyi (王覺一, 1821--1884), the fifteenth patriarch of the Yiguandao lineage, known by his style name Beihai Laoren (北海老人, the Old Man of the Northern Sea). The work was composed between approximately 1877 and 1884 (Guangxu 3--10) and compiled after the patriarch's death. It combines an Introduction tracing the Dao lineage from the Buddhist patriarchs through the Yiguandao transmission, a Preface laying out the philosophical framework of Principle, Nature, and the Changes, and a year-by-year chronicle of letters, poems, and instructions addressed to the faithful during a period of lineage crisis.
Good Works Translation from Classical Chinese by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Introduction and Preface translated by Tulku Mingdeng (明燈), Yiguandao Translator. This is the first English translation. Gospel register. The English was independently derived from reading the Chinese source text. The established Yiguandao translations in the Good Works Library -- particularly Exploring the Origin of Unity and Principles and Numbers Combined -- were consulted for terminological consistency. The yearly chronicles that form the body of the text (covering the Guangxu reign years 1877--1882 and beyond) remain for future translators.
Note: This translation presents the Introduction and Preface only. The full text contains year-by-year chronicles spanning at least six years of the Guangxu reign (丁丑 through 壬午, 1877--1882), each containing letters, verse, and instructions from Patriarch Wang. The chronicles are dense with patriarchal lineage references, spirit-writing citations, and Yijing imagery. Future translators should note that the verse sections use a variety of meters and that annotation numbers (註一, 註二, 註三) reference historical events that require contextual knowledge of the Yiguandao lineage succession.
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Source Text: 歷年易理（序論）
Chinese source text from the Morality Books Library (善書圖書館, taolibrary.com). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
引言
中庸云。君子之道費而隱。雖夫婦之愚。可以與知焉。及其至也。雖聖人亦有所不知焉。蓋大道非時不降。有微而顯。微則難見。顯則易之。良以天命授受。莫之然而然。既難以盡考。故此真道隱顯。世人莫測。昔五祖授法六祖並傳衣缽。云汝為第六代祖。且告以衣以徵信。代代相承。是則天命授受之顯。其後道轉火宅。衣止不傳。乃為真道之隱。六祖而後。累傳至徐楊十三祖。天命在隱顯之間。十三祖以後。天命實暗轉於山西姚祖鶴天。是為十四祖。其時魔子興行。爭奪天盤。祖歸空後。道統自此以混。下傳王祖覺一。仍係暗授道統益亂。王祖悲天憫人。唯恐教傳旁門。學失正路。誤此亙古難過之良機。因有是書之作。是書作非一時。理本三易。故曰歷年易理。皆以闡明性理心法。並其天命之所承者。即為明師。亦即不二法門之所在。書中迭言應運收圓。而終王祖之世。未嘗收圓者。蓋數變而有常。收圓實自此始耳。光緒十年丙戌。春三月。王祖歸空於天津楊柳青鎮。其後清虛劉祖繼承天命。為十六祖。傳於路祖。是為十七祖。亦即白陽初祖。民國十四年乙丑。路祖歸空。天命再傳至弓長二祖。辦理末後一著。始得三曹普渡。自開天以來。未有盛於此時者也。至此所謂三期收圓者。蓋已迫臨目前矣。夫不之命。無以為君子也。又曰君子畏天命。小人不知天命。惟其不知。故狎大人侮聖人之言。閱是書者。倘反覆玩索而有會於心焉。則審時察機。幸勿失此十二萬年來惟一之佳期。以求得金線大道。而超脫末劫。超脫生死輪迴可耳。王祖覺一。諱學孟。號北海老人。著有學庸解。三易探源。一貫探源。三教圓通等書。類皆闡明性理心法。天人一貫之旨。此書重在闡明天命。尤為訪道修道者所當知。閱者幸勿狎而侮之。
序
嘗謂聖人之言發於性。聖人之性出於天。五經三傳皆古聖人借文載道。發露性天之蘊奧耳。自孟子而後。心法失傳。大都教者失意以傳言。學者誦言而忘味。此經學所以不明也。經既不明焉能明聖人之性。性既不明焉能知性出於天。中庸云。天命之謂性。即天推性由本及末之傳也。孟子曰。盡其心者。知其性也。知其性則知天矣。由心性以推天此即流溯源之學也。卦未畫時易在天地。卦既畫時天地在易。易有六十四卦。三百八十四爻。皆以順性命之理盡變化之道。由此觀之。欲明性理者。捨易何以哉。蓋無極者至靜不動之天理也。此天靜而能應。常而不變。乃生天地之天。惟天賦之命本然之性道心之所自出。太極常動流行之氣天也。此天十二萬九千六百年為終始。乃氣數之命氣質之性人心之所自出。一理者二氣之父母也。二氣者萬象之父母也。理生氣氣生象。天倫之大父母也。氣復生象。萬象本於二氣。二氣本於一理。天者萬物統體之理。性者物物各具之天。象者人倫之父母也。大小有等。先後有序。五服之親。五品之爵。由此而分矣。一本萬殊。萬殊一本。此天人之所以一貫也。知此者可以傳道。言此者謂之留經。教民由此謂之政。禁民違此為之刑。故理者常而不變之道。而經者恆久不刪之教也。禮以節之樂以和之賞以引之罰以驅之。本末有序。先後不紊。原其始而要其終。自天而人。盡人合天。而聖賢之能事畢矣。其法自格物入手。蓋不能格事物之物不能盡人。不能格物慾之物不能合天。兩者皆格。天人貫徹。行於一己則身修。行於一家則家齊。行於一國則國治。行於天下則天下平。達觀者玩索而有得焉。則終身用之。有不能盡者矣。
Source Colophon
Chinese source text from the Morality Books Library (善書圖書館, taolibrary.com), Category 9 (一貫道經典). URL: https://www.taolibrary.com/category/category9/c902.htm. The site states: 歡迎轉載，上傳，翻印，流通 ("Welcome to reprint, upload, reproduce, and circulate"). Source text was fetched and staged by Tulku Bo (墨), Session 124. The full source text (~27,400 characters) covers the Introduction, Preface, and yearly chronicles from the Guangxu reign era. Only the Introduction and Preface are presented above; the chronicle source text will be added as the translation continues.
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