This paper examines Edward L. Shaughnessy’s views on the Yi Jing and the cultural context into which his ideas were born. Shaughnessy’s studies on the early history of China and Chinese classics had undergone a focus shift from the history of ideas to the interpretations of archeological discoveries，which had great impact on his studies of the ancient history of China and the Yi Jing. In terms of ancient history，he practiced and developed the “double evidence method” proposed by Wang Guowei，though he approved of Gu Jiegang’s skeptical spirit. Shaughnessy stressed contextual criticism in his interpretations of ancient text，that is，locating and explaining the target text in specific time and place in history. With regard to the Yi Jing，he positioned the text in the court culture of the Western Zhou dynasty and attempted to recover the understanding of the text at that time. With the Chinese readers in his mind，Shaughnessy managed to explain the development of China in its own specific terms，which was named China-centered approach，and took approaches and drew conclusions quite different from his contemporaries. Shaughnessy held that the Yi Jing was composed in the late Western Zhou period，which was originally used as a divination manual. It was intentionally and systematically composed by one or more compilers，and the line statements were interconnected which reflected the thought of the composer. Shaughnessy aimed at reconstructing the original meaning of the Yi Jing in the western Zhou dynasty，so he quoted extensively from the carvings of the oracle bones，the inscriptions on the bronze vessels，poems of the Book of Songs，and recordings from the Zuo’s Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals to prove his readings of the Yi Jing，which attests to his positivistic pursuit in the studies of the Yi Jing.