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CCTV's large-scale cultural program "China in the Classics" broadcast "Zhou Yi", focusing on the interpretation of King Wen and Confucius's spiritual journey of understanding the avenue of heaven and earth of perseverance and self-improvement and virtue in the midst of difficulties, and fused it into "Zhou Yi".
So why is the book "Zhou Yi" called "Zhou Yi", and what is the mystery of this title?
What is the difference between the Book of Changes and the Book of Changes?
What do the so-called "I Ching" and "I Chuan" refer to?
Why is "Zhou Yi" regarded as "the head of the group of classics, the source of the avenue"?
1. What does "week" mean?
As a strange book, "Zhou Yi" is first strange in its title, "Zhou Yi", which can be very rich in understanding. "Zhou" in "Zhou Yi":
One view is that "Zhou" refers to the Zhou Dynasty and is a dynastic name. According to the records of "Zhou Li, Chunguan, Taibu", there were three kinds of fortune-telling books in ancient times, namely "Lianshan", "Guizang" and "Zhou Yi", of which "Lianshan" was from the Xia Dynasty, "Guizang" was from the Shang Dynasty, and "Zhou Yi" was from the Zhou Dynasty. "Historical Records: Taishi Gong's Self-Preface" also said: "King Wen detained and acted in "Zhou Yi". "Zhou Yi" was deduced by King Wen of Zhou, so it is called "Zhou Yi".
Why is the Zhou Dynasty called "Zhou"? The general saying is that the Zhou Dynasty arose in the land of Qi and Zhou, and the "Book of Songs, Daya, Mian" was "Zhou Yuan", so it was called "Zhou". The place name of Zhou Yuan may be related to the agricultural expertise of the Zhou people. The ancestor of the Zhou people is Houji, that is, the god of grain (Ji) sacrificed by the altar of the descendants of the society, and he was a peasant official in the Yaoshun era, and he taught the people to cultivate the fields and cultivate the land, which is recorded in the Book of Songs, Daya, and Shengmin. Judging from the oracle bone glyph of "Zhou", the original meaning of "Zhou" seems to refer to a reasonable and densely planted farming method, so the "Shuowen" says "Zhou, dense also". The fields that are good at cultivating in this way are called "Zhou Yuan", and the people who are good at using this method are called Zhou people. Later, it became the name of the state and dynasty established by the Zhou people.
Another point of view is that "Zhou" is the meaning of Zhou Pu, Zheng Xuan said: "Zhou Yi" is the Tao of Zhou Pu, all-encompassing. In other words, the book "Zhou Yi" contains a very wide range of content and is all-encompassing, so it is called "Zhou Yi".
2. What does "easy" mean?
After talking about the word "Zhou" in "Zhou Yi", let's talk about the word "Yi" in "Zhou Yi". According to the Shuowen, the original meaning of "Yi" is an animal such as a lizard, and because it is good at changing color, it is used to express the meaning of change. The "easy" in the title of "Zhou Yi" was interpreted by the ancients in at least three ways: changeable, simple, and not easy. Change is the most basic meaning, the so-called "poor change, change is general, general is long", "Zhou Yi" is a book to study change. Simplicity means that the law of change itself is simple. "Zhou Yi" said that "dry is easy to know, Kun is simple to know, easy is easy to know, simple is easy to follow", the simpler the thing, the more passable. Just like Douyin is so popular now, at least one reason is that it is easy to operate and anyone can play it. It is not easy, the law of change is unchanging, this is the way it is not easy.
All in all, "Zhou Yi" is a book that studies the way of change in heaven and earth.
3. Is there a difference between the Book of Changes and the Book of Changes?
Broadly speaking, the Zhou Yi and the I Ching are different. The Book of Changes is a general concept that includes three ancient books of Changes, "Lianshan Yi", "Guizang Yi" and "Zhou Yi". These three books of change appeared in different historical periods, reflecting different divination methods and philosophical ideas.
"Lianshan Yi" is the earliest book of changes, which is said to have been created by Fu Xi, headed by the Gen hexagram, mainly talking about the confrontation of the yin and yang hexagrams. "Returning to Tibet" is the second book of changes, which is said to have been created by the Yellow Emperor, headed by the Kun hexagram, mainly talking about the transformation of the yin and yang hexagrams. "Zhou Yi" is the third book of changes, which is said to have been created by Ji Chang, the king of Zhou Wen, headed by the Qiangua, mainly talking about the changes of the Yin and Yang hexagrams.
In a narrow sense, the Zhou Yi and the I Ching are the same. Since the "Lianshan Yi" and "Guizang Yi" have been lost, the only I Ching that people can see today is the "Zhou Yi". Therefore, Zhou Yi has become synonymous with the Book of Changes, and the "Book of Changes" we talk about today usually refers to the "Zhou Yi".
4. The "Sutra" and "Biography" of the Book of Changes
The Book of Changes is divided into two parts: "Sutra" and "Biography", and the "Sutra" is the hexagram, the hexagram name, and the hexagram and epigram written by the father and son of Zhou Wenwang and Zhou Gong.
"Biography" is the "Ten Wings", that is, the commentary on the "Sutra", which makes the "Book of Changes" richer, more valuable and connotative.
The "Elephant Biography" is divided into elephants and baby elephants, and the one that explains the whole hexagram is called "The Legend of the Elephant", and the one that explains the hexagram is called "The Legend of the Little Elephant";
"Wenyan Biography" only discusses the two hexagrams of Qiankun and explains them carefully;
The Legend of Hexagrams explains the meaning of gossip and the origin of the overlap of gossip;
The Preface Hexagram explains the order of the sixty-four hexagrams.
The Miscellaneous Hexagrams are not in order, but explain the meaning and characteristics of the 64 hexagrams, and explain the two hexagrams with opposite or related meanings together.
Nowadays, what we call the Book of Changes has become an independent and complete classic, including the Book of Changes. Its main body is the hexagrams, hexagrams, epigrams, biography, elephant biography, literary biography, and system biography of the sixty-four hexagrams.
Generally speaking, most of the energy spent on studying the I Ching is spent here.
5. "I Ching" "the head of the group of classics, the source of the avenue"
"I Ching" is one of the oldest philosophical classics in China, Confucianism listed it as the first of the Five Classics, Taoism is listed as the first of the three mysteries, for thousands of years almost all Chinese literati spent their lives studying this classic, Confucius in his later years carefully studied Yi, and left the reputation and legend of "Wei compiled three uniques". Confucius once said: "Add me a few years, and learn Yi in 50 years, and you can do it without a big deal." That said, one of the fundamental aspects of the wisdom of the I Ching is that it helps us make the right choices in life and avoid making mistakes.
In the Book of Changes, there is only one hexagram that is auspicious or blameless, and this hexagram is the humble hexagram. The "Biography" of the humble hexagram says: "The way of heaven is profitable and humble, the earth is profitable and humble, the ghosts and gods are harmful and rich and humble, and humanity is evil and humble." It shows that whether it is heaven, earth, man, god or ghost, we should follow the way of humility, so as to have good development prospects, which is the way of humility in the world, the wisdom of life of "humble gentleman, humble self-shepherd". Another example is the six hexagrams of Qian, from the hidden dragon not to the dragon regrets, revealing the objective law of the development of life and all things, just like the sentence: life is a phased process.
Another example is an idiom called "No Ji Tailai", which involves the Thai hexagram and negative hexagram in "Zhou Yi". The hexagram of the Thai hexagram is that the lower hexagram is dry (i.e., heaven) and the upper hexagram is kun (i.e., earth), while the negative hexagram is the opposite, the upper hexagram is dry and the lower hexagram is kun. At first glance, in the Thai hexagram, heaven and earth are misaligned and should be unlucky, and in the negative hexagram, heaven and earth are in their respective places, which should be auspicious. However, "Zhou Yi" does not think so, "Biography" said that the Thai hexagram is "heaven and earth and all things are connected, up and down and their like-minded also", applied in daily life, is the wisdom of rigidity and softness, grace and power, and sympathy. Otherwise, like the negative hexagram, "heaven and earth do not communicate and all things do not communicate, and the upper and lower levels do not communicate and the world has no state", which reflects the wisdom of the Book of Changes.
In short, the Book of Changes is a philosophical book of dialectics that accumulates words and is full of wisdom.
The book expounds the ancient scriptures of the heavens and the earth about the changes of all things. To understand and grasp the world from a holistic perspective, we should regard man and nature as an organic whole that induces each other. Its content covers many fields such as philosophy, politics, life, literature, and art.