Seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages is an instinct that even unicellular animals has, and humans are no exception. This instinct makes mankind have a strong desire to predict the future. Among them, agricultural civilization is the most important thing. Rooted in people's concern about the uncertainty of the agricultural harvest, no matter the east or the west, the wise people always use their best efforts to study the methods of predicting the future. Thus, fortune-telling came into being.
Western divination was deeply influenced by the Sumerian civilization. The Sumerians once built seven-level temples in Wuer and Uruk. Each level represents a celestial body: Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The small living space and pessimistic psychological sentiment make the Sumerians always focus on the shining stars in the dark night sky.
Western divination is therefore called astrology. Until the Renaissance , astrology and astronomy were still not separated. Of course, this also objectively promoted the rapid development of Western astronomy. Finally, from Copernicus to Newton, it was astronomy that triggered the scientific earthquake in the West one by one, and completely changed the destiny of Europe. This is another story.
Zhouyi Hexagram
In China, the way of divination is quite different. The vast land and endless resources make Chinese divination inextricably linked with all aspects of the natural world.
The word divination comes from a way of predicting the future in the Shang Dynasty, called divination. People engraved questions about diseases, dreams, field hunting, time of day, age, etc. on tortoise carapace or cow scapula (also useful for other animals), and then made a few cuts, and then cut the red-hot little ones. Pressing the stick on the cut can predict good and bad luck according to the shape, arrangement and direction of the cracks. As for accounting, it means asking "divination" by "mouth".
These divination scripts are the earliest scripts in China. They are called oracle bone scripts because they are carved on oracle bone .
Oracle
Sumer’s cuneiform writing originated from commercial records, and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs originated from priests worship the gods, Chinese oracle bones originated from divination. From this it can be seen that the cultures of different regions of the world have obvious differences, and the importance of divination in Chinese culture can also be seen.
Ji Chang deduced in the prison, but another set of divination methods, called the 筮. The method of 筮 was recorded in detail in the " affiliation " by later generations, and it has been passed down to this day. Different from the oracle bone divination, the tool of the 筮 is very simple, only fifty yarrows. But it takes eighteen changes to find a hexagram. The hexagram book that explains these hexagrams is " Zhouyi ". (Whether the hexagrams of Zhouyi came from Ji Chang is quite controversial under the prevalence of suspicion of ancient thought in modern times. But without stronger evidence, we might as well believe the words of Simaqian.)
The influence of Zhouyi on Chinese culture hardly needs to be said. In the golden age of Chinese philosophy a few hundred years later, the shadows of Zhouyi thought are everywhere in the hundreds of scholars, especially , Confucianism and Taoism .
As for the fortune-telling stalls that can be seen everywhere in the market, they have to hang the sign of "The Book of Changes", attracting hundreds of people to rush. To this day, the wind has not stopped, but with the help of computer networks extending in all directions, it has become more and more intense.
It is necessary for us to take a look at the content of "The Book of Changes" itself, to study its origin and the reasons for such far-reaching influence.
When you say "The Book of Changes", you must start with gossip.
Derivative gossip
Gossip has existed since ancient times and represents the eight natural substances most closely related to people's lives: sky, earth, water, fire, wind, thunder, mountains, and ze.
All civilizations in the world probably have extremely frequent contact with these eight things. If the gossip is just to give them the eight mysterious names of Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Xun, Zhen, Gen, and Dui, it is not enough. Surprising. However, one of the subtleties of gossip lies in the image and symbolization of them.
We should not underestimate these few broken or connected horizontal bar symbols, which are called "Yao". We can almost say this. This is the unity of early human mathematics and philosophy.
The ancient Chinese may not have such a clear idea of the base system, but they are also dimly aware that only two elements are needed to write an infinite number. This thought was written in philosophical language in "Xi Ci" by later generations: one yin, one yang and one is Tao. Later, during the five generations of , the fascinating Chen Tuan ancestor exquisitely painted the yin and yang thoughts contained in the gossip into a picture of yin and yang in yin, yin in yang, yin in yin, dynamic and static in harmony, and two instruments. Tai Chi diagram has become a symbol of Chinese civilization and wisdom. And these abstract and mysterious pictorial symbols add to the mystery of Tai Chi and gossip and strongly attract thousands of people.
This even includes Koreans. It is extremely ridiculous that the Koreans, who like to take other people's things as their own, rushed to snatch the four trigrams of Gan, Kun, Kan, and Li, and put them on the national flag. It's just that they can't seem to understand the essence of the Tai Chi picture. They randomly painted the two pieces of the picture in red and blue. They thought it was very bright, and they used it as a symbol of the Republic of Korea.
is too far away. By the end of the Shang Dynasty, the development level of China's productivity and the richness of life had been greatly improved compared with the ancient times. Ji Chang stacked up the eight hexagrams to form sixty-four hexagrams, with more changes and accompanied by hexagrams. In the future, his versatile son Zhougong gave each line a line of speech, and the "Book of Changes" was declared complete.
For these sixty-four hexagrams, apart from the eight heavy hexagrams of Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Xun, Zhen, Gen, and Dui, there are fifty-six hexagrams. I made a rough classification based on the source of these hexagram names. Among them,
describes those related to agriculture, animal husbandry, fishery and hunting: Tun, Mongolia, small animals, Dayou, Gu, biting, big animals, Dazhuang, Jie, Cui, Distress, Ge, Feng, Zhongfu, a total of 14 hexagrams;
describes the family and society related: litigation, teacher, comparison, fellow, modest, casual, unreasonable, salty, family, 睽, Suo, Sheng, Jing, Guimei, Lu, Jie, a total of 16 hexagrams;
related to the laws of natural phenomena: Tai, No, Daguo, Heng, Jin, Mingyi, Huan, Xiaoguo, Jiji, Unji , A total of 10 hexagrams;
The remaining 14 hexagrams: need, footwork, Henan, presence, perception, ben, peeling, rejuvenation, yi, yan, jian, loss, gain, sorrow, tripod, gradual, all of which are related to people’s daily life Inseparable.
From this, we can know that the sixty-four hexagrams are a summary of all aspects of the ancients’ lives. But the reason why "Zhouyi" is great is that Ji Chang weaves it into a system that is both abstract and mysterious, but also sophisticated and grand. We might as well explore a few characteristics of this system.
First of all, Zhouyi is full of the notion of universal connection. This is probably related to the combination of various factors that depend on a good harvest in agricultural civilization.
In the Book of Changes, all things between heaven and earth are connected to the 64 hexagrams; and the 64 hexagrams are all combinations of the eight hexagrams; these eight hexagrams are all derived from the yin and yang lines. In this way, everything becomes an organic whole through the dual connection of one yin and one yang. This kind of universal connection has profoundly affected the subsequent Chinese culture.
is only one of metaphysics. The five elements theory produced by in the Western Zhou combines east, west, south, north, heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys, sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty, including other five colors, five o'clock, five qi, five orifices, five thieves, and so on. Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth are connected.Undoubtedly, it was deeply influenced by Zhouyi. The mutual growth and mutual restraint of the five elements has penetrated into every corner of Chinese culture and has even become the guiding ideology of Chinese medicine for more than a thousand years, which is related to curing diseases and saving people.
Almost every ancient Chinese who has read a book, I am afraid that there is a concept of universal connection in his mind, which makes the Chinese and Western thoughts clear here.
Secondly, when we read Greek mythology, we can see the strong fatalistic color . It can also be seen from the constellation theory of Western astrology that has been preserved to this day that many destinies of life are doomed at birth. Of course, the Chinese birth date is also very important. Many coincidences in human life often lead to irreversible consequences, making it difficult to erase the shadow of fate in human hearts.
However, Zhouyi focuses on the exploration of the laws of the world itself. According to " ", the word "yi" is derived from the word "liizyi", which means change. (In my opinion, later generations have other simple and difficult explanations for "yi", which is quite far-fetched.) The entire "Book of Changes" focuses on the method and process of change. Even if there is a result, there will still be changes again. Possible. The term "intricate" originated from the change of hexagrams in Zhouyi. The cognition of the law of change makes "The Book of Changes" no longer a pure divination book, but sublimated into the source of Chinese philosophy.
Third, the Zhouyi attaches great importance to the concept of "position" . Since the sixty-four hexagrams are compiled in a binary way, the position is extremely important. For example, in decimal, 1 is placed in the ones place to represent 1, placed in the tens place to represent 10, and placed in the thousands place to represent 1000. The same applies to binary. Therefore, the same yang line or yin line, placed in different hexagrams, in different positions, will have different meanings. By extension,The same hexagram, at different times, in different directions, for different people, for different purposes of divination, also expresses different meanings. 's concept of "position" had a very significant influence on the emergence of the ritual system during the Zhougong period and the establishment of Confucianism in later generations.
Fourth, let’s briefly talk about the beginning and end of the sixty-four hexagrams in the Book of Changes. Wenwang wrote the Book of Changes, but the Book of Changes is not the beginning of the Book of Changes. It is rumored that before the "Book of Changes", Xia had " Lianshanyi " and Shang had " Guizangyi ", but it has been lost. We only know that "Lianshanyi" starts from the hexagram Gen, and "Guizangyi" starts from the hexagram Kun. According to Sima Qian, King Wen had only gossip before, so "Lian Shan Yi" and "Gui Cang Yi" should be the evolution of gossip. According to human psychological analysis, the initial hexagram should be the most important hexagram for human activities. So, it seems that before "Gui Zang Yi", China's agricultural civilization was not developed, and the relationship with the earth was not close enough.
In the Book of Changes, not only did it increase to sixty-four hexagrams, but the beginning also became Qian hexagram. This may symbolize that time has replaced land and has become the most concerned thing for people. Weekly Culture ’s emphasis on the sky has now been .
Look at the Weiji Hexagram at the end again, it means getting into the fire and getting into the water, implying the meaning of using water to put out a fire without accomplishing great achievements. The sixty-four hexagrams are used as a knot, which is quite unfinished, and contains further changes. The breaking of fate and the eternity of change are here to show.
Regarding Zhouyi, there is too much to say, no matter philosophy or metaphysics. There are more than hundreds of ancient and modern writings, and here is only a historical point of view and explanation.
Ji Chang, who played the sixty-four hexagrams, seems to have understood the way of heaven and earth. At this time, his subordinates presented to King Zhou with beauties, BMWs, and Qizhen through King Zhou 's ministers Fei Zhong . As we said earlier, King Zhou is not a fool, and even quite clever. Anyone like this is most afraid of being in a high position. Once the people around you keep praising it, it's easiest to forget about it. After offering treasures and flattering, I gradually felt that little Zhou clan was the opponent of Shang Dynasty . How could I be so cautious in the first place? Isn't it unnecessary, instead, I was laughed at by the world. So, I quickly explained to the officials that it was not my intention to arrest Ji Chang, and it was purely a misunderstanding of Chonghouhu's framing. Ji Chang was released to his hometown.
King Zhou's face is back, but his death is not far away. Ji Chang, who had returned to Qishan, immediately found a very capable helper. With the assistance of this mythical figure, he overthrew the Shang Dynasty, and the plan that was once a dreamlike dream finally entered the implementation stage. It's time for us to tell the story of this amazing character.
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