Chapter 6 Section 1 Basic Concepts of Divination in Zhouyi

"Book of Changes" is a book about divination.Divination is fortune-telling.Originally, "divination" and "divination" are two methods of fortune-telling. "Divination" is to use a specific tool to drill and burn tortoise shells and animal bones, judge good or bad according to the cracks that appear on the oracle bones, and then engrave the results on the oracle bones for future reference.During the Guangxu period of the late Qing Dynasty, a large number of oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty were discovered in Anyang, Henan Province, which were the records of "divination" at that time.Therefore, oracle bone inscriptions are also called "divination words".

"Divine" is to use yarrow [shishi] grass (wrong grass) to tell fortunes.It is said that 49 roots of yarrow are randomly divided into two parts and held in two hands, and then divided according to certain requirements, and "Yin" and "Yang" are determined according to the odd and even number of their number combinations, and then the hexagrams are drawn. Come, judge good or bad.It's about divination and fortune-telling.Yin people used tortoise divination; Zhou people used tortoise divination and divination together.Because divination method was developed from the Western Zhou Dynasty, it is also called "Book of Changes". "Book of Changes" synthesizes and summarizes the long-term accumulated data and experience in history, types and theorizes various number combinations, and serves as the basis for fortune tellers to judge and explain good and bad fortune.This is the original nature of "Book of Changes".

The theoretical basis of "Book of Changes" is a pair of contradictory concepts such as "Yin" and "Yang", which are represented by two short lines.If a line is broken in the middle, it is drawn as "--", representing "Yin"; if a line is continuous, it is drawn as "--", representing "Yang".These two lines are the basic symbols for divination in Zhouyi. According to the "Book of Changes", everything in the universe and all phenomena in the world can be abstracted into two categories: yin and yang.For example: the earth is yin and the sky is yang; the moon is yin and the sun is yang; night is yin and day is yang; low is yin and high is yang; inside is yin and outside is yang; Females are Yin, males are Yang and so on.Therefore, the two symbols "--" and "--" can represent everything in the universe and the world.

The ancients observed the composition of the world from another point of view, that is, there is heaven above, earth below, and human activities in between.The ancients called these three "three talents" (representing the three realms of heaven, earth and man), so the two symbols of yin and yang are stacked into three layers according to various arrangements, and eight combinations can be obtained.Each combination is called a "gua", and the eight combinations are called "eight trigrams", and each hexagram is given a name, which represents the vast world of all phenomena.They are:

The combination of these eight hexagrams is just opposite in pairs: the two hexagrams of Qiankun have a three-connected line and the other has a three-broken line; Line, a connecting line in the middle; Dui Xun [xun training] two hexagrams, one broken line on the upper one, and one broken line on the lower one.So in the past, there was a formula for remembering gossip: Dry three times, kun six breaks, shake the bowl (like a water bowl with the bottom down), cover the bowl (like a water bowl with the bottom up), empty from the center, full in the ridge, empty on the top, and break on the bottom.

This arrangement is for ease of memory.According to the arrangement of "Book of Changes Shuo Gua", it is "Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, Dui".In addition, there is another arrangement according to the orientation, which is "Qian (Northwest), Kan (Zhengbei), Gen (Northeast), Zhen (Zhengdong), Xun (Southeast), Li (Zhengnan), Kun (Southwest), Dui". (Due West)". Each gossip has its own natural phenomenon.According to the "Book of Changes Shuo Gua", "dryness is the sky, kun is the earth, earthquake is thunder, sunda is wind, ridge is water, distance is fire, gen is mountain, and dui is marsh".This is the most basic and primitive representative relationship.Later generations gradually added many representative relationships.Such as orientation, season, human body, animal, ethical relationship and so on.The image represented and symbolized by a hexagram is called "hexagram image".Eight Diagrams can also embody various properties: Qian: vigorous; Kun: supple; Zhen: start; Xun: enter; Kan: sink;The nature of these hexagram images is called "gua de".

But the eight hexagrams are limited after all.In order to reflect more and more complicated relationships between things, the eight hexagrams were overlapped in pairs to become 8×8=64 hexagrams.The overlapping of gossip is called "heavy hexagram".The 64 hexagrams after overlapping are called "Bie Gua".The original eight hexagrams that make up the 64 other hexagrams are called "Jing Gua".Each other hexagram is composed of upper and lower sutra hexagrams.The upper hexagram is called "upper hexagram", also known as "outer hexagram"; the lower hexagram is called "lower hexagram", also called "inner hexagram".The graphic of each other hexagram is called "gua painting".The name of each other hexagram is called "gua title".After repeated hexagrams, if the upper and lower hexagrams are the same, the original name of the hexagrams will be used for the title of the hexagrams (such as

Simply put, a Bie Gua is a set of symbols.Arranging the two symbols of Yin and Yang six times into a group, a total of 64 symbol combinations are obtained.This is the general outline of a "Book of Changes". All the principles of divination in "Book of Changes" are contained in these 64 symbol combinations. The two symbols of yin and yang are called "Yao [yao Yao]" in hexagram paintings. "--" is called "Yin Yao", also called "Soft Yao". "—" is called "Yang Yao", also called "Gang Yao".Each hexagram has six lines.When talking about hexagrams, the two lines of yin and yang have their own terms: the yang line is called "nine", and the yin line is called "six".The lowest line among the six lines is called "Chu Yao", and the top line is called "Shang Yao".The other lines are numbered from bottom to top, and they are called "two lines", "three lines", "four lines" and "five lines".If the first line is a yang line, it is called "the ninth day"; if it is a yin line, it is called "the sixth day".For example, Qian Gua (

In "Book of Changes", each other hexagram has a "Gua Ci", and each line has a "Yao Ci".The hexagrams are used to judge the good or bad of the hexagram; the lines are used to explain the symbolic meaning of each line in the hexagram.For example, there are four words "Yuanheng, Lizhen" under Qian Gua, which is the hexagram speech of Qian Gua.It means that the person who speaks this hexagram is very smooth, that is, auspicious. "Yuan" means first. "Heng" means smooth. "Zhen" means asking for divination. "Lizhen" is beneficial to those who ask divination.Next, the sentence "Ninth day of the ninth day, don't use Qianlong" is the line of the first line of this hexagram.The first line is the Yang line, which is at the bottom, so the meaning of this sentence is: At the beginning, be like a lurking dragon, don't take any action (don't use it), but wait for the opportunity.and so on.The upper, middle and lower positions of Yin and Yang in the hexagram painting are called "gua positions".Different hexagram positions have different meanings. In the 64 other hexagrams, each hexagram has six lines, a total of 384 lines.In addition, two special lines of "Yong Jiu" and "Yong Liu" in the two hexagrams of Qian and Kun are added, and a total of 386 lines are obtained.It is said that these 386 lines and the relationship between them represent the relationship between all things in the world that are ever-changing.According to the hexagram images, hexagram virtues, and hexagram positions of these other hexagrams, combined with the specific situation at that time, it is possible to infer good and bad fortune.There is another set of terminology when inferring.For example, "Yin", "Yang", "Gang", "Soft", etc., refer to the nature; , "no blame", "benefit", "disadvantage", etc., refer to misfortune and fortune;Looking at "Book of Changes" from the perspective of divination, the core part is like this.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, "divination" and "divination" used to go hand in hand.Because Bu has a long history, it has greater authority.According to "Zuo Zhuan" records in the fourth year of Duke Xi: Duke Xian of Jin wanted to make his concubine Li Ji his wife, "It's not auspicious for divination, but auspicious for divination."Jin Xiangong said: "Then according to the result of the divination!" But the person in charge of divination disagreed, saying: "The divination method is simple and close, and the divination method is the authentic one, and it should be based on the authentic one."

Fortune telling is a superstition and we don't believe in it.However, to study the "Book of Changes" from the perspective of cultural history or philology, we also need to understand the basic knowledge in this area.