Lecture 26 Thoughts Throughout Zhou Yi (I)
"Zhou Yi" is essentially a philosophical work, the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient saints in China, so the basic philosophical ideas of the saints will surely run through the whole process of "Zhou Yi". These basic philosophical ideas include the idea of the unity of heaven and man, the idea of the five elements being mutually exclusive, the idea of moderation, the idea of change, the simple materialistic dialectical thought, and so on.
First, the idea of the unity of heaven and man
The unity of heaven and man is one of the most basic philosophical ideas of Zhou Yi. "Yi" and heaven and earth are quasi-" is the meaning of the unity of heaven and man. The "Yi Zhi Dictionary" says: "Yi is accurate to heaven and earth, so it can miru the way of heaven and earth." Looking up at the astronomy and looking down at the geography is the reason for knowing the secret. The original anti-final, so know the theory of death and life. Essence is a thing, and the wandering soul is a change, which is the state of knowing ghosts and gods. It is similar to heaven and earth, so it is not violated. Knowing all things and helping the world, so it is not. Walking by and not flowing, Lotte knows his destiny, so he is not worried. Antu dun is kind, so he can love. The scope of the transformation of heaven and earth, but the curved into all things and not left behind, through the way of day and night and known, so god has no direction and "Yi" has no body. Confucius's words expounded in more detail the idea of the unity of heaven and man, unifying the way of heaven and earth with humanity, and there is no blame for humanity following the way of heaven and earth. The Zhou Yi has sixty-four trigrams, each of which is a concentrated embodiment of the idea of the unity of heaven and man. The idea of the unity of heaven and man is evident in the words of each gua. The symbols of each gua are divided into two parts, the former part reflects the way of heaven and earth, and the latter part reflects humanity, these two parts are inseparable organic wholes, the way of heaven and earth and humanity are merged into one, forming an organic whole, which is the prominent embodiment of the idea of the unity of heaven and man. For example, the "Zhou Yi" first gua "Qiangua", its "Xiang Ci" said: "Tianxingjian, a gentleman with self-improvement." "Tianxingjian" is the way of heaven and earth, and "a gentleman who perseveres in self-improvement" is humanity. "A gentleman who perseveres in self-improvement" is to imitate the strong and healthy law of the operation of heaven and earth. "Tianxingjian" can become the law of the cycle of four seasons and the change of day and night, and "self-improvement" can realize the true value of life of a gentleman.
Traditional interpreters of "Yi" separated the two parts of the "Xiang Ci", believing that the first part was the "Zhou Yi" scripture, and the latter part was the "Elephant Biography" written by Confucius for the "Zhou Yi", and named it "Elephant Biography", which is subjective assumption and fabrication, destroying the overall idea of the unity of heaven and man in the "Zhou Yi", which is very wrong. The Xiang Zhuan is a commentary on the Words of the Elephant, not a commentary on the Words of the Elephants. The "Elephant Biography" is divided into "Elephant Biography Shang" and "Elephant Chuan Xia", which respectively annotate the words in the Zhou Yi Shang Jing and the Zhou Yi Xia Jing, rather than divided into the "Elephant Biography" and the "Little Elephant Biography", let alone the so-called "Elephant Biography" that explains the "Elephant Ci", and the "Little Elephant Biography" explains the Words. Both parts of the Xiang Ci are the Zhou Yi sutras, rather than the former part being the sutra and the latter being the sutra. The two parts of the "Xiang Ci", the former part embodies the way of heaven and earth, the latter part reflects humanity, and the unity of heaven and man as an organic whole, rather than the latter part explains the former part, in fact, there is no relationship between interpretation and interpretation in these two parts.
Second, the idea that the five elements are mutually exclusive
The Five Elements Thought is the soul thought of Zhou Yi, and the Five Elements are the basic law of the movement and change of all things in the world. "Zhou Yi" is a doctrine based on the law of the five elements of mutual resistance. The Yi Lineage Dictionary shang says: "Heaven one earth two, heaven three earth four, heaven five earth six, heaven seven earth eight, heaven nine earth ten." The number of days is five, the number of earth is five, and the five are compatible. The number of days is five out of twenty, and the number of earth is thirty. There are five out of fifty in the number of heavens and earth. This is why the ghost god also acts as a change. This means that the five yang numbers of one, three, five, seven, and nine are the number of days, and the five yin numbers of two, four, six, eight, and ten are the earth numbers. The number of days is combined to twenty-five, the number of earth is combined to thirty, and the number of heavens and earth is fifty-five. It is these numbers that can deduce the law of change of all things, which is the law of the five elements, the so-called "five bits are compatible and each has its own.". The specific content of "five people get together and each has its own" is not said here, perhaps this was common knowledge at the time. The so-called "five bits get together and each has its own combination" means that the number of days and the number of earth are obtained and each has its own combination, so as to form the number of five elements. This is clearly recorded in the "Shang Shu Da Biography and The Five Elements Biography": "Heaven is born of water, and the earth is 60%; the earth is born of fire, and the heavens are 70%; the heavens are born of wood, and the earth is 80%; the earth is born of gold, and the heavens are 90%; the heavens are born of earth, and the earth is 10%. "That is to say, the number one of the days and six of the earth produce water; the number three of the days and the number eight of the earth produce wood; the number five of the days and the number of the earth are combined to produce earth; the number seven of the days and the number two of the earth produce fire; the number nine of the days and the number four of the earth produce gold. Water, wood, earth, fire, and gold are the five elements. The five elements refer to the five forms and their properties of things in the process of movement and change. There is a law between the number of days and the number of earth in the five elements, that is, subtracting to get five.
The writing of "Zhou Yi" has undergone a long process and the efforts of several generations of saints, and is the inheritance and accumulation of the wisdom of generations of saints in ancient times. "Zhou Yi" eventually became a complete philosophical book, inseparable from the "River Map" and "Luo Book". Yi Zhi Ci Biography Yun: "The river is out of the map, Luo is out of the book, and the saint is out of it." "The River Map and the Book of Luo are both digital atlases composed of the number of five elements, and based on these maps, the saints finally created the innate gossip and the acquired gossip. Innate Gossip, also known as Spatial Gossip, was created according to the Book of Luo (Turtle Book), while Acquired Gossip, also known as Time Gossip, was created according to the River Diagram (Dragon Horse Diagram). The method of creation is to convert the number of the five elements of the River Chart and the Book of Luo into gossip. The Bagua Diagram was created, and then the Eight Eighty-Sixty-Four Gua was deduced, and the saints tied words in the Sixty-Four Gua, and finally formed the complete "Zhou Yi" Benjing, and then Confucius studied the "Yi", annotated the "Zhou Yi" benjing, and formed the "Ten Wings". This "Ten Wings" became the "Zhou Yi" scripture. In this way, later generations classified both the Zhou Yi sutra and the Confucius sutra as the contents of the Zhou Yi. It can be seen that without the Five Elements Thought, there would be no Zhou Yi, and the Five Elements Thought is the soul of Zhou Yi. The Zhou Yi has sixty-four trigrams, each of which has its five elements. For example, "Tai Gua" is a day time, the season is in mid-spring, and the five elements belong to wood; "Qiangua" is noon, the season is in midsummer, and the five elements belong to fire; "No Gua" is unitary in the day, the season is in mid-autumn, and the five elements belong to gold; "Kun Gua" is a child in the day, the season is in mid-winter, and the five elements belong to the water; the "Qiangua" is not in the sky, the "遯卦" is Shen, and the season of the two gua is between summer and autumn, and the five elements belong to the earth.
(To be continued)
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