Wen | original to Xinzhitang
Two basic questions about the Qiangua Elephant
Opening the ancient book of the I Ching, we will first see the Qiangua, which is the first trigram of the I Ching. Qiangua is a symbol composed of six yang, and when we see qiangua, we naturally ask the following two questions: What is the meaning of qiangua (that is, the symbol composed of six yang) represented? What is the meaning of the word "Qian" in the name of Qiangua? There is an answer to these two questions that are traditionally easy to learn. According to the "Yi Chuan", the Liuyao Qiangua is actually derived from the overlapping of the two Three Qiangua, and the Three Qiangua is one of the Bagua, and in the Bagua, the Three Qiangua represents the heavens, so the meaning represented by the Liuyao Qiangua is also heaven. Then, the word "dry" in the name of the gua is also heaven.
The statement that the Yi Chuan qian symbolizes heaven is not believed
However, when we understand the meaning represented by the Six Trigrams as heaven, we cannot be in harmony with the words of the trigrams and the words of the words. There is not a single sentence in the qiangua and the qiangua, and we cannot find evidence in the text description of the qiangua that this symbol represents the heavens. That is to say, we understand the meaning represented by the Liu yao Qiangua as the contradiction between heaven and the content of the text description part of the Qiangua.
In addition, if we define the meaning of the word "dry" in the name of gua as heaven, then there will also be contradictions with the word 卦爻. For example, the words of Qiangua Jiusanyao are: A gentleman is dry all day long, and he is happy to be a gentleman. If we replace the word qianqian with tiantian, then it will make this passage semantically incomprehensible. How do you reconcile the contradictions between the two? We cannot sacrifice the specific content of the trigram and the trigram as the traditional easy-to-learn practice involves the assertion that the trigram represents heaven.
The traditional easy-to-learn practice of gua ci and yao ci clearly does not talk about heaven, and it is necessary to lean them towards the heavens. What exactly the meaning of the Qian gua gua xiang represents, and what is the specific meaning of the qian character of the qian name, can only be explained through the content of the qian gua xiang and the gua ci jiao.
Where does the assertion that qiangua represent heaven come from? In fact, this thesis was first found in the Yi Chuan. The Yi Chuan (易傳) is a commentary by scholars studying the I Ching during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and is said to have been written by Confucius. The statement of Confucius by the author of "Yi Chuan" is not credible, that is just a pretext. Where does the basis for the theory that Qian represents heaven in the "Yi Chuan" come from?
There is no knowledge of gossip in the ancient texts of the I Ching, so the conclusions of the I Ching cannot come from the ancient scriptures. It is actually taken from the relevant gossip legends of the Spring and Autumn period or the Warring States period. Fuxi paintings cannot reflect true historical facts. The Yi Chuan only supplements the lack of gossip knowledge in the ancient I Ching with the help of the legends about gossip of the time, but its knowledge of gossip is not based on a full understanding of the content of the ancient scriptures, so we cannot regard the knowledge of gossip provided in the Yi Chuan as true. The knowledge of the heavens represented by Qiangua is not an inherent content in the scriptures, they are added by the earliest researchers of the I Ching from outside the scriptures, and our study of the I Ching can only be based on a full understanding of the content of the ancient scriptures, so we cannot accept the statement that qiangua represents heaven without criticism.
The abstract concept of yin and yang does not apply to the analysis of the meaning of the guaxiang
Since we do not believe in the knowledge provided by the Yi Chuan about the meaning of the Bagua Gua Xiang, where should we begin our exploration? We have only two starting points: the symbol of the gua and the literal content of the trigram. The Qiangua Gua Xiang is a symbol composed of six yangs, and if we want to understand its meaning, we must first understand the knowledge of yin and yang.
What are yin and yang? What do they mean? There are a total of sixty-four gua paintings in the I Ching, and each of them is composed of six gua paintings. There are two kinds of yin, one is a short solid line, called yang, and the other is a short dotted line, called yin. Yin represents yin, and yang represents yang.
What is Yin? What is Yang? If we look at the phenomena in nature a little, it is not difficult to find that there are many opposing and complementary things in nature. For example, cold and summer, day and night, male and female, male and female, dynamic, rigid and soft, high and low, noble and so on. These phenomena can easily lead us to form the idea of the dualistic existence of matter. Therefore, we guess that the ancients also created the concept of yin and yang based on similar observations and thinking, which divided everything in nature into two categories of masculine and yin.
With the concept of yin and yang, we guess that the ancients also drew symbols of yin and yang to represent things or concepts of yin and yang. On this basis, the ancients could use yang and yin to construct bagua and sixty-four gua.
But if we accept this statement and understand yin and yang as high and low, noble, dynamic, soft and rigid, etc., it is still difficult for us to analyze the meaning of the gua xiang. For example, the six yangs of Qiangua can be understood as six rigid, six moving, six expensive, six high, or full rigid, full moving, full expensive, full height. But none of this makes sense, because their counterparts cannot be found in nature. The reason for this result is that the process by which we suspect that the concept of yin and yang occurs is not real.
To understand the meaning of the trigrams, we should start from a certain philosophical idea, rather than simply starting from the symbols as symbols, and the meaning they represent is not inherent in these symbols themselves, that is, we cannot construct the meaning of these symbols purely. These symbols reflect an ancient philosophical thought, or the symbol is the symbolic language of this ancient philosophical thought. Therefore, in order to understand the meaning represented by the symbol of the guaxiang, we should start from a certain philosophical idea, rather than relying solely on the symbol system of the guaxiang.
The actual process is that an ancient philosophical idea captures the symbol system of guaxiang and gives it a specific meaning, thus using the guaxiang as a tool to express this ancient philosophical thought. This relationship is very similar to the relationship between modern physics theory and its mathematical tools. Therefore, the basis of our understanding of the I Ching is the culture of the era in which it lived, a certain philosophical doctrine that people generally believed in at that time. The I Ching is a product of a particular culture of that particular era, and it reflects the philosophical ideas of the people of its time.
On which ancient philosophical basis is the I Ching based? Through exploration, we have found that this foundation is the ancient theory of yin and yang of the four qi and four elephants. Agricultural production is closely related to climatic phenomena, so astronomy and calendar are the earliest developed disciplines, and the yin-yang theory of the four qi and four elephants is based on the observation of seasonal changes and the corresponding phenomenon of object replacement. The most primitive concepts of yin and yang are cold and hot qi, and their meaning is concrete rather than abstract. Abstract concepts of yin and yang came out late.
Spring, summer, autumn and winter are four-hour cycles, spring and summer are yang, and autumn and winter are yin. But the spring temperature is not hot, and the summer is hot, so the spring is a small yang, and the summer is a big yang. Autumn is cool but not cold, and winter is cold, so autumn is a small yin, and winter is a big yin. In this way, the four-hour cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter will also become the secondary cycle of small yang, big yang, small yin, and big yin. This is what the ancients called the four elephants of shaoyang, sun, shaoyin, and taiyin.
The objects of spring, all things are old, from the inside out, summarized as spring; the objects of summer, all things are beautiful, the yang is full of yang, summarized as summer long; the objects of autumn, all things converge, from the outside to the inside, summarized as autumn harvest; the objects of winter, all things dwell deep inside, no yang outside, summarized as winter Tibet. Too little yin and yang cycle back and forth, the growth of collections of objects and elephants, this is the main content of the ancient four qi and four elephants theory. Many of the ancients' remarks were based on this doctrine, and the I Ching was also based on it.
How does the I Ching relate to this doctrine? It is with the help of the second trigram. There are four elephants in total, namely Shaoyang, Sun, Shaoyin, and Taiyin. The ancients used them to symbolize the four hours of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and gave them the meaning of growing collections. Therefore, the main content of the doctrine of the four qi and four elephants is condensed in the four symbols of the erzhu gua. At this time, the meaning represented by the four symbols of the Erzhu Gua is not contained in the characteristics of these symbols themselves. For example, Shaoyang is a small yang, which can be like spring and like birth; the sun is a big yang, it can be like summer, like a long; shaoyin is a small yin, it can be like autumn, like a harvest; taiyin is a big yin, it can be like winter, like Tibet. The meaning of the four qi and four elephants theory is the basis for the popularization of the guaxiang symbol system. The meanings of the Bagua and the Sixty-Four Gua Gua Xiang are also based on the meaning of the Erzhu Gua. The symbology of Bagua and Sixty-Four Gua is based on the Erzhu Gua, rather than Yin and Yang. The Tao Sheng One, One Life Two, and Two Birth Three, which is often quoted in order to explain the Triad, does not exist in which the process of one life two does not exist.
The meaning of the Qian Gua Gua Xiang and the meaning of the Qian character of the Gua Name
With the above foundation, we can discuss the meaning of the Qiangua Gua Xiang. There are eight elephants (i.e., bagua) in the Three Trigrams, and their meaning is generalized from the meaning of the Two Trigrams, rather than being created by the image of the Fuxi Guan. The reason why we are so sure of this is because the statement that bagua symbolizes eight things does not help us understand the gua xiang and the content of the scriptures, but the understanding of the bagua based on the meaning of the two gua gua can help us understand the gua xiang and the content of the verses in the I Ching very well. Specific to Qiangua, the Three Yang Qiangua is composed of two sun gua and an impotence, so the three yang gua is composed of two parts, not three parts, because the sun gua composed of two junior high schools needs to be seen as a whole. Therefore, the three qiangua are the extension of the two sun gua, the sun is the great yang, and the meaning represented by the three dry gua is the great yang xingjian.
Relatively speaking, spring is a small yang, summer is a big yang, and spring yang occurs, from the inside out. The summer sun is out. Underage teenagers are Xiaoyang, mature men are Big Yang, teenagers are in the stage of growth, and if they are immature in their minds, they cannot work hard and cannot stand on their own. If the strength is not mature, it cannot be labored, and it cannot be a long way to go. And mature men, physically and mentally prosperous, hard work, heavy tasks and long distances, this is called Dayang Xingjian.
The three are dry, yang and no yin, moving without stopping. A studious gentleman who studies hard all day long, sleeps and forgets to eat, which is yang and no yin, and does not stop moving. Qiangua Jiu San Yao Zhi: A gentleman is dry all day long, and the sunset is like a good thing. That is to say, the diligent gentleman walks healthily all day long, studies hard, does not release the scrolls, and at night he is still vigilant and cannot sleep, and his heart still cannot let go of the day's homework. The word Qianqian is used to describe the appearance of endless health. Non-stop busyness, uninterrupted hard work, this can be described by the word dry. Therefore, we take the meaning of Xingjian in qianzi, and the qiangua name of the book "Zhou Yi" is the key word, and the key has the meaning of xingjian in it.
In the Qian gua yao, the gentleman and the dragon are said to be together, and the gentleman is the symbol of xingjian, and the dragon is also the symbol of xingjian. A gentleman's outward movement is to go far, and upward is to seek a higher social status. Long Xingjian competed for the sky. But we should note that the dragon mentioned in the Qiangua Dialect still takes its symbolic meaning in social life, rather than the mythical dragon. For example, good people are often referred to as dragons among men. Kings and nobles also often used dragons as metaphors.
The dragon in the field of jiu'er yao refers to being extraordinary among the local masses, outstanding, and able to be a famous party. And the Nine-Five Flying Dragon in the sky is talking about ascending to the pole. For example, local celebrities were highly valued by the imperial court, and the people were promoted to high-ranking officials, which was also called a step to the heavens. Under one man and above ten thousand people, it is also a flying dragon in the sky. The warlord and the yellow robe added to the body, ascended to the pole of the king, called the lonely widow, and even more is the flying dragon in the sky. So the dragon should understand it in the sense of its symbolic fitness.
Liuyao Qiangua is composed of two three Qiangua stacked on top of each other, the lower Qiangua represents the dragon on the ground, and the lower Qiangua represents the dragon in the sky. The three yao of the lower Qiangua, the first nine represent the dragon on the ground that has not shown its form, and the ninety-two represent the dragon on the ground. Ninety-three represents the dragon on the ground. Shangqiangua Sanyao, Jiusiyao represents the Heavenly Dragon Battle but has not yet succeeded. The Nine-Five-Year Plan represents that the dragon has successfully ascended to heaven. Shangjiu Yao represents the heavenly dragon's tireless struggle. To understand the Qian gua gua xiang in this way, the content of the gua gua words is easy to understand.
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