The earliest philosophical work Zhouyi

The earliest philosophical work Zhouyi

Zhouyi is the theoretical source of natural philosophy and humanistic practice in China's traditional ideology and culture, the crystallization of China's ancient thoughts and wisdom, and is known as the "source of Tao". According to legend, it was written by Zhou people. The content is extremely rich, which has had a far-reaching impact on China's politics, economy, culture and other fields for thousands of years.

That was in ancient times, people didn't know why it rained, snowed, thundered and flashed in the sky, and why it was windy and foggy on the ground.

Through long-term observation and thinking, Emperor Fuxi found that there is a law between all things in the universe. At that time, humans had no writing. In order to express this rule, the clever Fuxi used the symbol "-".

"-"Tai Chi, Tao and the vitality of the chaotic world. Fuxi believes that everything in the world comes from the whole of vitality. The primordial qi generates Yang, and Yang is Yang, which is represented by "-",and Yang is singular; The vitality is static and produces Yin, and Yin is Yin, which is indicated by "-",and Yin is even. One yin and one yang, two devices. Fuxi believes that Yin and Yang are the most basic elements that make up everything in the universe.

However, how do yin and yang change among all things in the universe? What is the law of transformation? Fuxi wanted to think, but he couldn't think of a clue.

One day, Fuxi caught a white turtle while fishing by the river. This turtle is nearly round, with claws like dragons, white and exquisite. The texture of the turtle is patchy: there are five in the middle, eight around, 24 around the shell, and 12 on the ventral floor.

Fuxi thought the white turtle was sacred, so he didn't eat it, but dug a pool and put it in. Every time Fuxi catches some small fish and shrimp to feed the white turtle, the white turtle will come to Fuxi and lie quietly by the pit. Fuxi sat by the pit, looking at the white turtle, thinking about the laws between all things in the universe.

One day, Fuxi folded a straw and drew it on the ground against the pattern on the white turtle shell. Painting, painting, actually drew four elephants, namely Shaoyang, Lao Yang, Shaoyin and Laoyin. Then, on the basis of the four images, eight new symbols, namely, eight diagrams, namely, innate gossip, were produced by drawing all the way for the sun, all the way for yin, all the way for yin, all the way for yang and all the way for yang.

After the gossip came out, Fuxi arranged the "five elements" symbolizing gold, wood, water, fire and earth in the order of the five textures in the center of the turtle cover; Arrange the "stem, root, truth, training, reading, reason, Kun and dui" symbolizing the eight diagrams in the order of the texture around the turtle body; The symbols symbolizing the twenty-four solar terms are arranged in the order of the texture of the 24 blocks around the turtle cover; Arrange the children, ugliness, yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai, which symbolize the twelve earthly branches, in the order of the texture of the bottom of turtle belly 12.

At that time, people lived by fishing and hunting. When a person goes out fishing and hunting, he is most afraid of encountering fierce weather changes on the way and has no time to escape. So many people go out fishing and hunting and ask the leader Fuxi what the weather is like.

After accurately predicting the weather again and again, people trust Fuxi more and more. There are more and more people asking about the weather, and Fuxi can't cope. He said: starting from tomorrow, I will hang an image on the tree at the entrance to the village. You can know the weather tomorrow by looking at the image.

From then on, every time the villagers go out, they just need to look at the gossip paintings at the entrance of the village to know whether they will encounter bad weather after going out.

From then on, Fuxi hangs eight basic natural phenomena with gossip at the entrance of the village every day. That is, "Gan, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Root and Right", which is called the Eight Classics.

Dry represents the sky. The reason why the sky is a "dry divination" is that Sanyang divination leaves a certain space. Sanyang divination is an approximate number, indicating that I don't know how high the sky is, that is, there is an invisible sky in the sky.

Kun stands for land. The word "Di" is a "Kun Gua" with three yin bases stacked. It means, I don't know how deep it is. There are also canyons, mountains, rivers, lakes and cliff caves on the ground.

An earthquake represents thunder. At that time, people were most afraid of thunder, so it was represented by two yin 1 yang. It means that thunder is deafening, lightning and thunder can tear the image of the sky.

Xun represents the wind. At that time, people thought that the wind was flowing in the world, so it was represented by two yang hexagrams and one yin hexagram. Because people know best that there is wind in caves, mountains, hills and vast plains.

Ridges represent water. There is a yang in the middle of the divination, a yin above and a yin below. The yang in the middle symbolizes the river, and the yin in the upper and lower parts symbolizes the running water.

Distance represents fire. There is a yin in the middle, with 1 yang above and a yang below. Leaving hexagrams will drill wood for the man to make a fire, two yang hexagrams are two trees, and the yin hexagrams are flames drilled from them. What people saw at that time was the raging of mountain fires, the eruption of volcanoes and the fluttering of flames on wooden sticks. It is generally believed that fire is flowing. Therefore, it is represented by two male hexagons with a female hexagonum between them.

Gen stands for mountain. Gen hexagram is a yang hexagram above and two yin hexagrams below, which highlights the mountains in the world and the mountains on the ground. Gen hexagrams can be understood not only as "the mountain is in the world, the mountain is in the world", but also as "the sky is in Yamanoe, and the mountain is above the ground" and so on.

Exchange representatives ze. Divination is that one yin is above and the other yang is below. These two penises can be understood as places or utensils for holding water. At that time, people thought that water was falling from the sky, flowing and pervasive. Therefore, generally thin vessels can't fit and leak, so two male vessels should be used to represent wooden and ceramic vessels or thick swamps or lakes.

Although gossip can represent the eight basic attributes of everything in the world, there are endless concrete things in the world, and there can't be only eight. Gradually, Fuxi and innate gossip, who are used to reflect the laws of heaven, can no longer accurately reflect the increasingly complex laws of human society.

At the end of Shang Dynasty, Shang Zhouwang, the monarch, was ignorant, and Ji Changguang, the commander-in-chief of the western regions, and Shi Rende, the corporal, developed production and won the support of the people. This aroused Shang Zhouwang's suspicion and dissatisfaction. Shang Zhouwang listened to the rumors and imprisoned the spinulosa in the then national prison, Woori City.

In the first few days of Ji Chang's imprisonment, he kept pacing in this Taiwan-shaped prison five meters above the ground because of his anger. Finally, he calmed down and understood that no matter how dissatisfied and angry he was, he had to accept the reality: he could not get out of this prison for the time being.

In that case, find something to do, otherwise, how can we spend the long days and nights? But what can a samurai do in prison? At this time, he thought of Fuxi's gossip, including Gan, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen and Hui, so he thought about it and started his own discovery and creation.

Ji Chang was imprisoned for seven years. During this long day, Ji Chang took yarrow growing on the prison floor as a tool and selected eight natural objects from nature as the origin of all things. Then abstract the ever-changing and complicated things in the world into two basic categories: yin and yang; He regards the combination of rigidity and softness as relative and changeable, which is his basic view on the world and life.

Finally, Ji Chang overlapped the eight diagrams in pairs, forming sixty-four different combinations of six strokes, namely "sixty-four hexagrams". The two bagua symbols in each hexagram are called "Xia hexagram", also called "Inner hexagram", and the upper hexagram is called "Upper hexagram" and "Outer hexagram".

Each hexagram in Sixty-four hexagrams has six lines, which are called "hexagrams". The original meaning of "stubbornness" is the alternation of yin and yang. Therefore, "-"is called "yin" and is represented by "six"; "-"is called "Yang" and is represented by "Nine". The position of a hexagon is called a hexagon, from bottom to top, that is, beginning, second, third, fourth, fifth and last.

In addition, Zhou Wenwang also wrote words under each hexagram-shaped symbol, that is, one for each hexagram, summarizing the general idea of the whole hexagram, one for each hexagram, and pointing to the purpose of each hexagram. There are three hundred and eighty-four hexagrams and three hundred and eighty-four hexagrams.

Through these 64 hexagrams and 384 hexagrams, Zhou Wenwang showed himself how to aspire, how to live, how to treat people, how to make friends, how to get out of adversity, how to govern the country, how to be prepared for danger in times of peace, and how to treat marriage and family affairs. Ji Chang sometimes used metaphors, sometimes symbolized, sometimes sighed, and sometimes alluded, and put what he wanted to express on the hexagrams.

If "Guaci" is the general statement of each hexagram, that is, every situation, then "Guaci" is the specific change of each hexagram, that is, every situation. The general statement and sub-statement of six modes are hexagrams and six sentences. Sixty-four hexagrams, including sixty-four hexagrams and 384 sentences, total 448 sentences.

Zhou Wenwang's work in this book is the Book of Changes, which is called "the head of the group classics and the source of the avenue" and contains the philosophy of life and the world modality.