Zhouyi · Yu Gua "Xiang" says: "Thunder comes out of the earth to stir up excitement, Yu; the ancestors used music to worship virtue, and Yin recommended the God to match the ancestors."
Approximate meaning: Thunder comes from the ground, the earth dances with joy, the king Singing and dancing, they offer sacrifices to God and ancestors and praise their merits.
Thunder is said to come from the sky, why is it said that "thunder comes from the ground"? Some people criticized the ancients for being ignorant based on this, while others explained it vaguely. This is definitely inappropriate. The original meaning is very clear, "It's the sound of thunder coming from the ground." There is no need to avoid it.
The accurate meaning of "Thunder comes out of the ground and is exciting" should be: the crocodile comes out of the ground and roars with thunder, and the earth dances for joy. This is an accurate description of the phenology at that time, but we just don’t understand it.
" Book of Changes ": "In ancient times, the Baoxi family ruled the world. They looked up at the ground and looked down at the ground. They observed the patterns of birds and animals and the suitability of the ground. They took objects from a distance and objects from a distance. They did the Eight Diagrams to "Bao Xi is Fuxi, and Bagua was created by Fuxi to imitate and summarize all things in nature."
Fuxi's age was probably between 7000 and 5000 BC. The climate in North China was humid and hot, with a subtropical climate. At that time, the coastline went deep into the inland, and the flooding rivers turned North China into a large swamp. The Great Plains had not yet form. See the picture below:
Henan was called " Yuzhou " in ancient times. Yu was the symbol of a person holding an elephant. At that time, there were elephants, rhinos and crocodiles in Henan. There are many records about elephants in oracle bone inscriptions: "It rained this month, and only elephants were harvested." Elephants are also the objects of daily hunting. At the Yangshao Cultural Site in 6,000 BC, skeletal remains of tropical animals such as deer, bamboo rats, and elephants were discovered. Crocodiles were even more frequent visitors.
Crocodiles hibernate from December to April next year. After waking up from hibernation and entering the mating season, male crocodiles will make a sound like drumming, while female crocodiles will make sounds like thunder. The crocodile thunders, everything wakes up, and the earth revives. Isn't this the scene of "thunder comes out and the earth is excited"? This is the time when the cold is gone, warmth is coming, food is plentiful, and it is worth singing and giving thanks.
In the era and area where Fuxi lived, crocodiles were often seen, so it was logical to use the living habits of crocodiles as the basis for formulating the calendar.
"The vernal equinox ascends to the sky, the autumnal equinox dives into the abyss." The famous scholar He Xin verified that the original animal of the dragon totem was the crocodile, which was in line with the geographical environment and species status at that time.
and Lei Ze Guimei hexagram, Zhen means thunder, means dragon, Dui means Ze, means sister, dragon returns to Daze, which exactly describes the situation when the crocodile dives into the abyss to hibernate after the autumnal equinox.
Don’t think that the ancients must be more ignorant than modern people. If you use existing knowledge to judge things you don’t understand, you will often narrow yourself.
