About the I Ching, we have heard too much about its legend. For example, the two meters, four elephants and eight trigrams, and then such as the five elements of yin and yang, Hetu Luoshu, taiji diagram, and so on and so forth. They are mysterious and obscure, but also fascinating to think about. It seems that as long as the “I Ching” true transmission, you can predict the future, to avoid disaster on the blessing.
The true meaning of “I Ching” refers to the three books of Yi, namely “Lianshan” from the Xia Dynasty, “Guizang” from the Shang Dynasty, and “Zhou Yi” from the Zhou Dynasty. They are called the “Three Books of Yi” together.
During the Zhou Dynasty, the three books of Yi, namely Lianshan, Guizang and Zhouyi, were controlled by three divination officials, who would make predictions on state affairs, military wars and rituals through these three books. This was the original purpose of the I Ching itself, which is also known as “trigram reading” or “trigram viewing”.
So, in essence, the I Ching is a book about change and has long been used for “divination”. Divination is the prediction of future events, and the I Ching is the book that summarizes the theory of the laws of these predictions.
But nowadays, the “Lianshan” and “Guizang” of the three Yi have been lost, and only the “Zhou Yi” has been handed down. Therefore, the I Ching is now generally referred to as the Zhou Yi.
The I-Ching is an outstanding representative of traditional Chinese culture, and is a source of living water for Chinese civilization. Its content covers philosophy, politics, life, literature, art, science and many other fields, and is the first of the group of scriptures, the common classics of Confucianism and Taoism.
Nowadays, we study more of its philosophy, thus becoming a profound dialectical philosophy book.
The Historical Status of the I Ching
This classic work, born more than 3,000 years ago, is called “the first of all scriptures and the source of the Great Way”, and reveals the laws of the development of everything in the universe in 64 hexagrams.
It is said that Fuxi, one of the three emperors, created the eight trigrams, Shennong Yandi made the “Lianshan Yi” and Xuan Yuan Huangdi made the “Guizang Yi”, until Ji Chang, the King of Zhou, left us the “Zhou Yi”. The I Ching is not only the art of divination, but also the beginning of Chinese philosophical thought.
Both Confucianism and Taoism have been influenced by the I Ching. When Confucius saw the I Ching, he exclaimed that it was not about fortune-telling, but about the destiny of heaven, when Confucius was fifty years old, so Confucius was fifty and knew the destiny of heaven.
Confucius interpreted the I Ching and made the I Chuan, bringing into play the spirit of the Qian trigram. The basic spirit of Confucianism is a masculine spirit, that is, self-improvement, perseverance and fortitude. Although Laozi did not mention the Qian Gua and Kun Gua in the Tao Te Ching, he mentioned yin and yang, “everything is negative yin and hold yang, impulse for harmony”, putting yin in the front and yang in the back, the yin and softness advocated by Laozi comes from the Kun Gua. Chinese culture, yin and yang, and the I Ching fully embodies the vitality of this culture.
What is the use of the I Ching?
Each trigram in the I Ching contains a pattern for the development of things. It does not correspond to just one thing, but to a class of things, where each trigram each line corresponds to three points, the first point in time and space is good or bad, the second you should do, the third result how.
For example, the Qian Gua, the first nine lines: latent dragon do not use. We say that when a child is just born, childhood is the first nine, need to accumulate energy, but then grow up just started a business, also in the first nine, also want to latent dragon do not use, do not rush to do the project, but to lurk there, the dragon potential water is looking for his water, we just run a business, to find contacts, money, resources, which does not seem to be my water? For example, we just went to work, to a new unit, do not rush to show their talents, need to lurk there, to find out the situation, familiar with the environment, adapt to the environment, this is the most important.
This is the charm of the I Ching, which teaches you to speculate from one thing to the next, called the class of all things, to speculate on the situation of all things.
So, can the I Ching change destiny?
Can people’s destiny be changed? The Zhou Yi is precisely to teach us how to change our fate!
One’s destiny has to be changed according to the destiny of heaven, in accordance with the way of heaven, which is one of the laws in the great law of cosmic change, called the law of cause and effect. Kun Gua has, “the family of good deeds, there will be a residual celebration, the family of bad deeds, there will be a residual disaster. This is cause and effect, those who do good deeds have good rewards, and those who do evil deeds have evil rewards.
Another example is the Wuji Tai Lai, Wu Gua and Tai Gua, the earth is on top of the sky is below the Tai Gua, the sky is the yang to rise, the earth is the yin to fall, so the yin and yang will communicate, the Wu Gua is the sky on top of the earth in the bottom, that is, the yang in the top, the yin in the bottom, the middle is not communicated, no communication, he blocked.
Conflict between people is how to cause, 99% of the conflict lies in misunderstanding, misunderstanding 99% lies in not communicating, not communicating whether the trigram, it is dangerous, so this trigram is to tell us to communicate with yin and yang, heaven and earth to meet.
So that when people go to extremes, such as extreme hardship, all kinds of blows all kinds of hardships come, this time you are like whether the trigram, blocked, it does not work.
And Tai Gua is Yang in the lower, Yang to rise, Yin in the upper, Yin to fall, how about the middle of this, communication, traffic, so “heaven and earth and all things through, up and down to cross and gas will be the same”, cross the Thai, you will be the extreme Tai Lai. So when people are in a desperate situation, they must think this way, to communicate.
The I Ching tells us this law of heaven, you follow this law, you can tend to good fortune and avoid evil, tend to benefit and avoid harm, this is to change the fate.
The I Ching is the source of living water of Chinese culture
The I Ching covers many fields of philosophy, politics, life, literature, art and science, and is a source of living water for Chinese culture.
It is not only a book for divination, but also a philosophical work with a unique way of thinking, in which the laws of all things change and future developments are latent, while your every meal, breath, word and deed are inextricably linked to this classic.