Chapter 9 Section Four: The Ancient Social Life and Dialectical Thoughts Reflected in "Book of Changes"

"Book of Changes" was compiled based on old divination records, so the content is very extensive.Such as marriage, childbirth, diet, disease, hunting, animal husbandry, migration, litigation, rewards and punishments, sacrifices, wars, etc., cover almost all aspects of social life.Although simple, it is still a little clue to understand ancient society.Such as: "Xie" ninety-two: "Tian, ​​get three foxes, get yellow arrows, Zhenji." (hunting) The ninth day of "Guan": "Regret for death, don't chase away a lost horse, and restore yourself." (Animal Husbandry)

"Yi" sixty-two: "The king's use is enjoyed by the emperor, auspicious." (sacrifice) "Tun" sixty-two: "Tun Ru, Bing [zhan Zhan] Ru, riding a horse class like. Bandits (not) bandits, marriage." "Ben" Sixth Four: "Ben Ru, Bo Ru, White Horse Han Ru. Bandits, Marriage." The first six of "Tun": "Riding a horse is like riding a horse, and weeping blood is like a ripple." (Marriage) These lines in the hexagram "Tun" reflect that there was a system of marriage grabbing in ancient my country.Among them, the image descriptions of horse-riding robbery and women crying provide rare materials for studying ancient society.

"Book of Changes" still preserves some ancient ballads, the age is even earlier than that.Such as: The ninth day of "Ming Yi": "Ming Yi (the name of the bird) is flying, hanging down its wings. A gentleman's trip, three days without food." (Writing about the hard work of travelers) "Zhongfu" ninety-two: "The Minghe is in the shade, and his son is with him. I have a good noble, and I (share) it with Ermi." (Writing about close friendship) These are ancient literary works, which vividly reflect the social life of that era.Of course, the purpose of ancient divinationists collecting these materials was not archaeology, but practicality.That is to use these materials that can be interpreted flexibly to attach at will, and to explain the hexagram images smoothly, in order to "come true".

However, the original hexagram and image explanations and metaphors in the "Zhouyi" scriptures were transformed into preaching suitable for Confucian political needs in the hands of the authors of "Zu" and "Xiang" in the late Warring States period.For example, the hexagram "Family" was originally used for divination and housework, and the hexagram only had the words "Li privet".However, "Zhuan Zhuan" made use of the topic and said: "Family has a strict ruler, and parents are also called parents. Father and son, brother and brother, husband and wife, and family morals are right. Family morals are right and the world is right!" Obviously, This is the Confucian political theory that "aligning the family is the foundation of governing the country", and this kind of thinking would not exist in the early Western Zhou Dynasty.Therefore, "Yi" and "Xiang" explain "Yi" mostly not in line with the scriptures.Zhu Xi, a scholar of the Song Dynasty, made a very pertinent criticism: "The "Yi" is a book of divination, but the ancient ones are hidden in Taishi and Taibu. There is not much to say about divination." Therefore, there are two parts of work", "I don't know the origin of the "Yi" written by the sage today, so I have to explain the truth. Even if it is well said, it has nothing to do with the "Yi"" (see "Zhu Zi Yu Lei").You are quite right.

But it is not that "Ten Wings" does not contain things that elucidate the thoughts of the scriptures.On the contrary, like "Xi Ci", it has well inherited and developed the valuable dialectical thought in the scriptures. Divination was originally a superstition and a product of theocracy.But he has another aspect, that is: divination must have results, and people require it to be effective.This raises new questions.How did the ancient divinationists solve this problem?It turns out that human beings can see the internal and inevitable connections of certain things, phenomena, and behaviors in the objective world from their long-term production practice and social practice.For example, if there is any antecedent, there will be any consequences; if any conditions are met, there will be any endings, and so on.Over time, these regularities based on the long-term life experience of human beings will be reflected in people's minds consciously or unconsciously, and divination people can often see this regularity from a large number of divination materials in the past.After the analysis and generalization of the divinationists, coupled with their own rich life experience, they can use this regularity to guide people's actions and tell people how to seek good luck and avoid bad luck, and seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.Therefore, many divination results seem to have the factor of "effectiveness".This regularity is nothing but the ever-present and ubiquitous scientific truth—dialectics.This is the reason why scientific ideas can be derived from the superstitious activities of divination.

The basic point of view of dialectics is: everything in the world is the unity of opposites, and everything changes in its opposite direction under certain conditions.For example, "Thai" ninety-three lines said: "There is no flat, no bad, and there will be no return. There is no blame for hardship. Don't be sympathetic to your husband, and you will be blessed with food." It means: "There is no flat land (flat), there is no such thing as a hillside ( Pei); if there is no going (going), it does not matter to come (return). [This is to tell the person who asks divination: there is no permanent peace in the world, and things will always go wrong. The sea turns into a mulberry field, and the mulberry field turns into a sea, this is the law .] But as long as you stick to the right way (difficult and true), there will be no disasters. Don’t worry about gains and losses, and worry (sympathy) that your sincerity (fu) will not get good results, and life will be happy.” There is no return" is a dialectical proposition.It believes that "Ping" and "Bei", "Wang" and "Fu" are relative and can be transformed into each other.It is a law that prosperity must decline, and prosperity will come.Only by recognizing this inevitability, staying calm and creating conditions can we turn the crisis into safety.

Another example is the ninety-three lines of "Qian", which says: "A gentleman works all day long, and if he is vigilant at night, he is fierce and blameless." It means: If a person in power strives to improve himself (dry work) every day, he will not lose his vigilance at night (Ti Ruo), although the situation is dangerous (Li), there is no disaster.Here, the judgment of "no blame" is conditional, that is, "do it all day long" and "be vigilant at night".Only when this condition is met can disasters be turned into good fortunes, and misfortunes turned into blessings, and will be "no blame".Otherwise no.

"Conditions" are the prerequisites for the existence and transformation of things.Therefore, many good and bad judgments in "Book of Changes" are based on conditions.for example: "Tun" Ninth Five-Year: "Small Zhen is auspicious, big Zhen is fierce." (This is based on the size of the divination event) "No" sixty-two: "The little man is lucky, the adult is not." (This is based on the status and status of the questioner) "Lin" hexagram: "Yuanheng, Lizhen. As for August, there is fierceness." (This is based on time)

We often say: "Everything depends on time, place, and conditions." This is the principle of dialectics. The scriptures of "Book of Changes" show that people in the Yin and Zhou dynasties already had the germination of this dialectical thought. In the Warring States period, due to the great social turmoil, the dialectical thought in "Book of Changes" had a great development in "Xi Ci". The author of "Xi Ci" used the concept of "Tao" as the starting point of the theory in "Book of Changes", and put forward the proposition that "one yin and one yang are called 'Tao'".It means that the opposite change of one yin and one yang is called "Tao".Conversely, "Tao" is the opposite change of yin and yang.So it says "hardness and softness are pushed together, and change is in it".

The author of "Xi Ci" put forward another explanation about "Yi", saying that "life is called 'Yi'".Conversely, "Yi" refers to the generation and transformation of all things.So it also said, "The great virtue of heaven and earth is life." It can be seen that according to the viewpoint of "Xi Ci", "Tao" and "Yi" are originally the same thing.That is to say, the development, change and endless life of all things based on the opposition of yin and yang is the "Tao", or "Yi", which means the universal law of the universe. The author of "Xi Ci" believes that it is this universal law that governs everything in nature and society, and of course it also governs the good and bad fortune of human affairs.

"One yin and one yang are called 'Tao'", "hardness and softness are pushed together, and changes are in it", this is the theory of Taoism.However, "Shengsheng is called 'Yi'" and "the great virtue of heaven and earth is life", but they come from the Confucian viewpoint of "benevolence and love". The author of "Xi Ci" introduced the combination of Taoist theory and Confucianism to explain the fundamental nature of "Book of Changes". high.Therefore, "Xi Ci" is full of the concept of "change", and the concept of "change" is used everywhere to explain the thoughts of "Book of Changes".It tells people: The principle of "Book of Changes" is "Change if you are poor, change if you change, and long-term success if you change."That is to say, the change and migration of the world is a certain principle, everything is not static, people can only adapt to the changes of the environment, and cannot cling to an old imperial calendar.It instructs people to have laws in all behaviors, and to be vigilant at all times and everywhere, so that they can seek good luck and avoid evil.This means that the viewpoint of dialectics is used to guide people's actions.So Confucius said: "Add me a few years, fifty years to learn "Yi"; there is no big difference!" (See "The Analects of Confucius Shuer") However, "Book of Changes·Xi Ci" is an idealist view of history rather than a materialist view of history after all, so it cannot make people find the correct way to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. The author of "Xi Ci" wrote: The prosperity of "Yi" also coincided with the end of the Yin Dynasty and the prosperity of the Zhou Dynasty!When the matter between King Wen and Zhou is evil!That's why his resignation is in danger.Those who are in danger make peace, and those who are easy make them lean.Its Dao is very great, and everything is never abandoned.Fear begins with end, and there is no blame for it.This is called the way of "Yi". [To the effect] "Book of Changes" may have appeared in the last years of the Shang Dynasty and the prosperous period of the Zhou Dynasty. It may be aimed at the conflict between King Wen of Zhou and King Zhou of Yin, so many of the words in it have a sense of danger.A person with a sense of fear will make him safe; but a person who is casual will make him down. The theory of "Zhouyi" is vast and nothing is omitted.If people have a consistent sense of danger, no disaster will result.This is the purpose of "Book of Changes". From here we can see another aspect of the dialectical thinking in "Xi Ci".That is: it guides people's practice to be passive, forbearing, and evasive, rather than active, vigorous, and aggressive.It only requires people to lower their heads to adapt to the environment, rather than raise their heads to transform the environment, so it can't point out the correct way forward for people. In short, the original nature of "Book of Changes" is to use the hexagram image and the number of six lines (called "Xiang Shu") to explain the principle of change (called "Yi Li"), and to predict good and bad.After the Warring States period, one aspect of yili was developed and sublimated, and the "Book of Changes" became the ancestor of Chinese philosophy.However, the aspect of image and number was also used by Confucian scholars who were alchemists in the Han Dynasty. Combined with the Yin-Yang and Five Elements thoughts at that time, a superstitious and fatal theory of magic number was formed.The two factions struggled continuously in the history of "Yi" studies for the next two thousand years.In the Wei Dynasty, He Yan annotated "Yi" and swept away the spells.In the Song Dynasty, Chen Tuan (tuan Tuan) and Shao Yong advocated the art of speech and further mystified the study of "Yi".However, Ouyang Xiu and Zeng Gong in the Song Dynasty, Wu Cheng in the Ming Dynasty, Huang Zongxi and Zhang Huiyan in the Qing Dynasty all denounced the absurdity of algebraic calculations and promoted the theoretical principles of "Yi".Today, there is a boom in the study of "Yi" at home and abroad.This struggle will inevitably be reflected in new forms (such as "scientific divination").This is what we should pay attention to and distinguish.