Book of changes - I ching - illustrated.pdf - I Ching - wfhobbit

The Illustrated Book of

Changes

F OREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS

BEIJING 1997

First Edition 1997

CONTENTS

Preface to The Illustrated Book of Changes

Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate

Hardback ISBN 7-119-01990-2

Paperback ISBN 7-119-01991-0

Published by Foreign Languages Press

24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037, China

Distributed by China International Book Trading Corporation

35 Chegongzhuang Xilu, Beijing 100044, China

P.O. Box 399, Beijing, China

Printed in the People's Republic of China

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Catalogue on Request

Part One

Qian (1)

Kun (2)

Zhun (3)

Meng (4)

Xu (5)

Song (6)

Shi (7)

Bi (8)

Xiao Xu (9)

E0 (10)

Tai (11)

Pi (12)

Tong Ren (13)

Da You (14)

Qian (15)

Yu (16)

Sui (17)

Gu (18)

Lin (19)

Guan (20)

Shi He (21)

Bi (22)

Bo (23)

Fu (24)

Wu Wang (25)

Da Xu (26)

Yi (27)

Da Guo (28)

Kan (29)

Li (30)

Part Two

Xian (31)

Heng (32)

Dun (33)

211

218

225

Da Zhuang (34)

Jin (35)

Ming Yi (36)

Jia Ren (37)

Kui (38)

Jian (39)

Xic (40)

Sun (41)

Yi (42)

Guai (43)

Gou (44)

Cui (45)

Sheng (46)

Kun (47)

Jing (48)

Ge (49)

Ding (50)

Zhen (51)

Gen (52)

Jian (53)

Gui Mei (54)

Feng (55)

Lŭ (56)

Xun (57)

Dui (58)

Huan (59)

Jie (60)

Zhong Fu (61)

Xiao Guo (62)

Ji Ji (63)

Wei Ji (64)

Notes to The Illustrated Book of Changes

Preface to The Illustrated Book of Changes

Li Yan (Zhuangbei

Beginning in the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century B.C.), or even

further back, China's Book of Changes, or Yi Jing (often I Ching), began

a process of gradual evolution. Contributors included the legendary Fuxi,

King Wen of Zhou (11th century B.C.) and Confucius (551-479 B.C.), as

well as many great unknown minds and hands. It took over one thousand

years for this unique classic to come into being. And, in the almost two

thousand years that followed, in-depth research on the book by many

scholars has helped the book to further develop.

Originally titled Zhouyi, or Zhou Changes, the book, recommended by

Confucius, was listed as the principal classic of the Confucian school and

was renamed Yi Jing, or the Book of Changes. In Chinese, the word jing

means the vertical threads (warp) when weaving cloth. There have to be

vertical threads before horizontal ones (woof) can be weaved onto them.

Later, people respectfully called any philosophical work that can guide

people jing. In the five thousand years of Chinese civilization, the philo-

sophy in the Book of Changes has gradually been woven into people's lives,

and the book came to be known as a jing, or book of guiding principles.

Graphically, Zhouyi means "knowledge of scheming of universal

significance." The Zhouyi is the record of the Chinese outlook on the

universe and a classic of divination based on this outlook. It should be

pointed out that the study of divination in ancient China was a major

branch of knowledge that was strictly tested by practice. The Zhou Li, or

the Ritual of Zhou, a book recording rituals in ancient China, points out

that "a diviner would write his prediction on a piece of silk fabric so that

he could compare what would really have happened with his divination;

and by year's end, the trueness of his divination would be examined." Wei

Boyang, a Yi Jing scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220), said

more clearly that "instead of being fabricated, the words and viewpoints

of the Zhouyi came into being through observing the results and examin-

ing the subtlety of divination."

Because of the seriousness and effectiveness of the ancient divination

represented by the Zhouyi, it became an important factor in the decision

making of rulers. Let's see what Ji Zi, a wise man, told King Wu of Zhou

(11th century B.C.) about the impact the diviners had on the decisions

made by ancient emperors. He said that in those days whenever there was

a major decision to be made, a five-vote system was adopted: one vote was

from the emperor, one from the administrative representative, one from

the civilian representative and the remaining two were from the diviners.

If the emperor and the civilian voted against it, the motion could still he

passed and it would still be considered to turn out good results; if the

emperor and the administrator voted against it, the draft could be passed

as well. From this we can see the important role played by diviners in

decision making.

The Book of Rituals also records that if anyone tried to cheat when

doing divination, he would face execution. In this sense, the Yi Jing should

be seen as a book with unique and effective divinatory powers developed

by the Chinese ancestors through their serious, or rather, cruel life and

practice. When Confucius -who held that things can he done only through

divination and without it they would be abandoned halfway—found out

about Zhouyi in his later years, he regretted that "if only heaven could

give me a few more years and let me find out about Zhouyi when I was

fifty, I would not have made all those mistakes." My father Li Kuchan

once told me that the Zhouyi, in a sense, was a great book on mathematical

philosophy in this world."

The Zhouyi is a form of analysis unique in terms of its understanding

of society and the divination based on this understanding. It sets itself

apart from other forms of logic first of all, because it uses images rather

than logical thinking as its main way of thinking and expression in its

arguments. Secondly, symbols are used to demonstrate the process of

understanding. For example, when we say (in the language generally used

in logical thinking) that "when something is far away from you, you can

not really understand it. You may even misunderstand it. As you get closer

to it, however, you will have a better idea. But when you think you have

understood it, you will have doubts about it now that you are near it.

Nevertheless, as time goes by, your doubt will be solved." When the same

thing is said in the Zhouyi using images, it is expressed in this way:

"Horses have galloped and turned to this way. People are riding on the

horses coming nearer. Who are they? Oh, they are not bandits. They have

conic to propose. The woman is a decent person, but she could not get

pregnant. It was only after ten years that she became pregnant. " (Sec the

tun hexagram). The qian (universe) hexagram, , symbolizes heaven.

The dragon, the totem of the Chinese people created by the ancient

Chinese is the symbol of the formless heaven(qian). The six lines in this

qian hexagram have six meanings. For instance, the bottom line is a

"hidden and rolled up dragon whose opportunity to show his talent has

yet to come_" The fifth line indicates that "the dragon is now flying in the

vast sky, which is a time where great man will appear." The Zhouyi vividly

puts the understanding of a thing past, present and future onto a coordi-

nate of time and space to predict and get a better understanding of this

particular thing. This is indeed a special wisdom the Chinese have contri-

buted to the world.

The symbols in the Zhouyi came into being over many years of life

and practice by the Chinese ancients. People in the ancient world tried to

understand the world by watching the sun and the shadows. If you put up

a pole at noontime, the shadow of the pole will be in the middle and short,

just like the shape of "—." As the sun goes down, the shadow will he tilted

and long, and the pole and shadow will form an angle like " /." In long

past ages, Chinese wise men carved "—" and "/\ " on bones or tortoise

shells to represent yang and yin, respectively. These symbols, however,

were later changed into "—" and "/ \" which were gained changed to

" and "- -" for the convenience of carving. In the opinion of the Chinese

ancestors, everything is connected to yin or yang no matter how compli-

cated things in the world change. The apparent difference and change of

things result from the changes of ratio of the inner yin and yang, which

is also the principle of the Book of Changes. The "—" and "- -," the basic

symbols in the Book of Changes, are used to express the knowledge of

changes in the universe. The ancients also held that the world was formed

by the three cosmic powers, i.e., heaven, earth and people. Therefore, they

invented another basic triagram, which has three lines, each of which is

known as a yao. Their full combination is 2 ; =8, or the eight triagrams in

eight formations, representing eight natural phenomena:

Symbols:

Natural

Phenomena: heaven earth thunder mountain wind lake fire water

Name of

Triagram: qian kun zhen gen xun dui li kan

The ancients also held that the understanding of the relations among

heaven, earth and people should include two aspects: inborn instinct and

acquired knowledge. In this sense, when two groups of three-lines are put

together, they become six lines, thus the symbol of a "compound tri-

agram, " appearing as 2`' = 64, or 64 hexagrams, representing 64 things or

situations. Take the jinn hexagram = for example: the upper three yao

symbolize water while the lower three yao represent mountain, meaning

water on the mountain. It can be understood in this way: water from the

mountain does not flow directly and freely (it winds about and hurdles

many obstacles). We can be certain that the water will flow downward.

Although the waterway may be tortuous, in the end, the prospects are

promising. Another example is the dui hexagram both the upper and

lower three yao represent lake, meaning kindness and smoothness, auspi-

cious future.

The Book of Changes uses a series of 64 writings to explain the

meaning of every hexagram, with the first section, or hexagram readings,

of each series telling the basic meaning of the hexagram; the second to the

seventh sections, known as yaoci, or line readings, of each series basically

explaining the specific line (the qian and kun hexagrams each has one

more section of yaoci than other hexagrams). Here, the hexagram readings

explain the whole meaning of that particular hexagram and its divination.

The yaoci explains the situation in the stage of that particular hexagram

divined by that i•ao.

Understanding and conforming to nature and society in their changes,

the philosophy in the Book of Changes does not define absolute favorable-

ness or unfavorableness. Good or ill luck, smoothness or adversity are all

relative and transformable. As long as you can grasp the proper time,

position and direction, you can obtain relative freedom even under abso-

lutely restricted circumstances. On the other hand, if you proceed from a

stiff and one-sided view, you may end up in a situation which is unfavor-

able and dangerous to you even if the other circumstances are favorable.

Considering the above as the principles of heaven and earth, the Book of

Changes puts the two hexagrams of heaven (titan) and earth (kun) as the

first and second hexagrams. This shows how Chinese worship the "way of

heaven" or the law and virtue of heaven.

The Book of Changes held that proper changes can transform the

unfavorable to the favorable. The fourth yaoci in the ge (reform) hexa-

gram goes like this: "Worries and regretfulness are gone and captives have

been taken. This is because the destiny of reform is auspicious."

It is easy to misread the Book of Changes and conclude that it

advocates fatalism. This is not the case. Instead, it propagates the theory

of "understanding the decree of heaven." Confucius pointed out in the last

chapter of his Lunyu, or The Analects, that "those who don't know the

decree of heaven will not be considered as intellectuals. Therefore, the

Book of Changes, strongly recommended by the Confucianists, was natur-

ally considered as the "head of all classics" and the "source of great

philosophy."

No matter from which angle we look at it, all viewpoints and thoughts

in the long history of Chinese civilization find their root in the Book of

Changes. We can find the living influence of its philosophy in every aspect

of Chinese life, such as their outlook on the universe, life, values, the

environment, managing finance as well as rituals, ways of thinking,

expression, aesthetics, and military thinking.

Every science and civilization in this world came into being and

developed in certain cultural environment. This is the same with both

Western and Chinese science and civilizations. While they share common

characteristics, they are also unique in their own way. Only by working

hard to develop their uniqueness, can they benefit each other. If we

measure and comment the uniqueness of one thing only by using that of

another, we may result in distorting, or even concealing its uniqueness,

thus bringing harm to this world where all civilizations tend to mix

together. With the intention of doing my' bit towards furthering Western

and Eastern cultural exchange, I have tried for the first time in the history

of the research of the Book of Changes and that of fine art to illustrate

this hook.

On the basis of China's standard Book of Changes and the Book of

Changes written on the silk of the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D.

8) unearthed in 1973, I have adjusted the original content and translated

it into colloquial Chinese. Now with 450 illustrations, I hope I have

presented my readers with a more vivid and easier explanation of this

ancient classic. At the request of many foreign readers, this book is now

published by the Foreign Languages Press in English, French, German

and Spanish. This will no doubt benefit the cultural exchange between

China and the West. It should noted that the content in this book mainly

contains the hexagram and yaoci, or line readings, in the Book of Changes,

and the explanation of the diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, the core of

the Book of Changes. For ease of reading, l did not list all the sources.

It is my hope that my foreign readers will like the Book of Changes

and thus, this illustrated one. I would like to take this opportunity to

express my heartfelt thanks to Mr. Kang Yin, Mr. Liu Dajun and Mr.

Zhang Yansheng, who have given me great assistance in my research of

the Book of Changes. My thanks also go to the Foreign Languages Press

for its support in translating and publishing this book.

At the Beijing Studio, 1995.

Book of changes - I ching - illustrated.pdf

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