Is "The Book of Changes" worth studying? What does it mean to us modern people?

In the eyes of extreme pragmatists, there is nothing worth studying except livelihood skills. Just like the calls for the abolition of higher education in mathematics and English in recent years, many people believe that learning that cannot be used in life is naturally useless. Since it is useless learning, what is the use of learning?

Even language knowledge such as English that has nothing to do with the confinement circle of small-scale social life has been sprayed as useless learning, and has even gradually reduced its importance in higher education. So studying the human spiritual level What is the meaning of philosophy? ——After all, people still want to go abroad and travel, so no matter how much they speak English, they can still use it. Philosophy, when can we use it?

The images, numbers, and objects in "The Book of Changes"

Unlike most people's imagination that "The Book of Changes" is Chinese mysticism, it is actually a philosophical work that embodies It not only reflects the philosophical thinking of the ancients, but also is an ethical work that reflects the social and political ethical concepts of the ancients.

Then why when we mention "The Book of Changes" now, do we directly think of ancient Chinese prophecy science such as fortune telling and prediction?

Because philosophy is useless, and because philosophical thinking is not popular among Chinese people.

As a work of philosophical thinking, with a social, political and ethical perspective, the common people actually do not like such a book that talks about great principles. Due to the simplicity of the language, the semantics are ambiguous, and it is praised by Confucianism as the "first of the six classics", which provides countless opportunities for latecomers to become affiliated with mysticism. Gradually, with the blessing of prophecy, the five elements and yin and yang were combined and used. The interpretation of mysterious events and mysterious predictions was carried forward by Yu Fan of Soochow at the end of the Han Dynasty and became a new "Xiangshu sect".

Parallel to the Xiangshu school is the "Yili school", which pays attention to the philosophical thoughts in the "Book of Changes" and continues the tradition of Confucius' "Yi Zhuan".

In fact, this development process is similar to the Hinayana and Mahayana of Buddhism, and the inaction and immortality of Taoism. A philosophical thinking must eventually be implemented into the secular world. The knowledge of "The Book of Changes" is philosophy, and its implementation is mysterious prediction. So speaking generally, the fortune tellers we usually see are actually from the Confucian school. Their knowledge comes from the "Book of Changes", which is actually a Confucian classic. Buddhism and Taoism do not practice fortune telling and prediction. This is a relatively big misunderstanding of gods, ghosts, Tao and Buddha in the secular world.

Mysterious things like fortune telling actually originated from Confucianism, which "respects ghosts and gods and keeps them at a distance", while the other two major religions that specialize in talking about gods, demons, Taoism and Buddhism never predict the future. It's actually quite interesting to think about it. .

So is "The Book of Changes" worth studying?

It is certainly worth studying. The research of Xiangshu School is both long-standing and mysterious, so I won’t go into details here.

As the successor of the proletariat, it is obvious that the "Giri School" is more worthy of study and discussion than the "Xiangshu School". The reason we have also mentioned above is that the so-called Xiangshu Sect is just a more mysterious and flattering path chosen by the Giri Sect to exit the secular world. This caters to the imagination of ordinary people, but it is idealistic and does not conform to today's society with highly developed science and technology.

Of course, we do not deny the function of divination predictions, but people with faith will naturally study it.

In fact, the philosophical thinking of "The Book of Changes" itself is materialistic, a methodology that summarizes laws. The philosophical thoughts embodied in the "Book of Changes" can be summarized in terms of numbers, images, and things. The logic of its philosophical thinking is to first study "numbers", that is, the laws of the universe; secondly, study "images", that is, the phenomena of the universe; and then use this as a basis for Basic research on "things" means investigating all things in the universe.

The entire "Book of Changes" is about exploring the laws of the universe in an attempt to explain the phenomena of the universe, thereby discovering the laws of all things in the universe and using them as a guide for behavior. At the same time, it also uses observations of all things and phenomena in the universe to verify and explore the laws of the universe.

This is no different from solving problems in our daily lives. We also summarize the rules in life, observe the occurrence of phenomena, and verify the correctness of the rules, so as to deduce what may happen next time based on the universality of the rules.

This is how the ancients predicted the future from the "Book of Changes", and it is no different from people today and around the world. Why do we say that understanding history can help us see the future? The principle is the same. Summarize the development rules from historical facts and apply them to predictions for the future, and then verify the correctness of your theory through observation.

Use certain laws to explain phenomena, and at the same time use new phenomena to verify and supplement the laws. This is the basic line of thinking for humans to observe society, nature, and the universe, and there is nothing special about it.

After long-term social practice and observation of the universe, people will form certain regular views on this. These are summarized and formed into words, which become "Yi".

In addition to a large number of regular descriptions, "The Book of Changes" also has a lot of historical materials. The purpose of recording these historical materials is of course not for historical thinking, but to use these facts as evidence to prove the "laws" that have been discovered.

The "Book of Changes" also uses a large number of fables, fairy tales, analogies and other figures of speech to illustrate principles, as well as rhyme techniques. This can of course be regarded as literary material for the study of ancient prose.

Do these laws apply today? With the rapid development of society, technology, and humanities, some must need to be updated, while others are still available. From the perspective of the Giri school, the cosmic knowledge contained in the Zhouyi may not be as powerful as it is today. Its significance lies more in philosophical thinking.

As for the Xiangshu school, don’t talk about the meaning, just believe it.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe it.