The I Ching or Book of Changes (66 page)

In this section the parallel between the processes in the macrocosm and the works of the holy sages is elaborated. The divine things created by heaven and earth are presumably the natural phenomena that the holy men reproduced in the eight trigrams. According to another view, tortoises and yarrow stalks are meant. The changes and transformations manifesting themselves in day and night, and in the seasons of the year, are reproduced in the character of the changes in the lines. The signs in the heavens meaning good fortune and misfortune are the sun, moon, and stars, together with comets, eclipses, and the like. They are reproduced in the appended judgments on good fortune and misfortune.

The last sentence of the section, referring to two legendary events occurring in the time of Fu Hsi and Yü
¹
respectively,
is a later addition and has had a disastrous effect on the exegesis of the Book of Changes. Reproductions of the two diagrams are given in the explanation of
chapter IX
, section 1. That this is a later addition is proven by the fact that sections 7, 8, 9 of the present chapter all deal with the threefold parallelism between nature and the world of man broached in section 1, and this addendum creates a break in the continuity of thought.

9. In the Changes there are images, in order to reveal; there are judgments appended, in order to interpret; good fortune and misfortune are determined, in order to decide.

The text says “four” images; this is carried over by error from section 5. Here “images” means the eight trigrams, which show situations in their interrelation. This corresponds with the archetypal images of heaven. The judgments appended to the lines indicate the changes corresponding with the changes in the seasons. Finally, the decisions about good fortune and misfortune correspond with the signs in the heavens.

CHAPTER XII. Summary

1. In the Book of Changes it is said: “He is blessed by heaven. Good fortune. Nothing that does not further.”

The Master said: To bless means to help. Heaven helps the man who is devoted; men help the man who is true. He who walks in truth and is devoted in his thinking, and furthermore reveres the worthy, is blessed by heaven. He has good fortune, and there is nothing that would not further.

This is a passage from the body of the commentary on the individual lines, fragments of which appear in
chapter VIII
,
sections 5-11. It serves to amplify the close of section 6 of
chapter II
, but it does not fit the context here.

2. The Master said: Writing cannot express words completely. Words cannot express thoughts completely.

Are we then unable to see the thoughts of the holy sages?

The Master said: The holy sages set up the images in order to express their thoughts completely; they devised the hexagrams in order to express the true and the false completely. Then they appended judgments and so could express their words completely.

(They created change and continuity, to show the advantage completely; they urged on, they set in motion, to set forth the spirit completely.)

This section gives in dialogue form, after the manner of the
Lun Yü
[Analects], a judgment on the mode of expression of the Book of Changes. The Master has said that writing never expresses words completely and that words never express thoughts completely. A pupil asks whether one can never gain a clear view of what the sages thought and the Master uses the Book of Changes to show how it may be done. The sages set up the images and hexagrams in order to show the situations, and then appended the words: these, in conjunction with the images, may actually be taken as the complete expression of their thoughts.

The two final statements [in parentheses] have been transposed to this section from some other context, probably because of the similar rhetorical construction (cf. sec. 4, second half, and sec. 7).

3. The Creative and the Receptive are the real secret of the Changes. Inasmuch as the Creative and the Receptive present themselves as complete, the changes between them are also posited. If the Creative
and the Receptive were destroyed, there would be nothing by which the changes could be perceived. If there were no more changes to be seen, the effects of the Creative and the Receptive would also gradually cease.

The changes are thought of here as natural processes, practically identical with life. Life depends on the polarity between activity and receptivity. This maintains tension, every adjustment of which manifests itself as a change, a process in life. If this state of tension, this potential, were to cease, there would no longer be a criterion for life—life could no longer express itself. On the other hand, these polar oppositions, these tensions, are constantly being generated anew by the changes inherent of life. If life should cease to express itself, these oppositions would be obliterated by progressive entropy, and the death of the world would ensue.

4. Therefore: What is above form is called tao; what is within form is called tool.

We are shown here that the forces constituting the visible world are transcendent ones. Tao is taken here in the sense of an all-embracing entelechy. It transcends the spatial world, but it acts upon the visible world—by means of the images, i.e., ideas inherent in it, as is set forth more exactly in other passages—and what hereby comes into being are the objects. An object is spatial, that is, defined by its corporeal limits; but it cannot be understood without knowledge of the tao underlying it.

This section, like section 2, has an addition that reappears in large part, with a slight textual variation, in the closing section:

(That which transforms things and fits them together is called change; that which stimulates them and sets them in motion is called continuity. That which raises them up and sets them forth before all people on earth is called the field of action.)

5. Therefore, with respect to the Images: The holy sages were able to survey all the confused diversities under heaven. They observed forms and phenomena, and made representations of things and their attributes. These were called the Images. The holy sages were able to survey all the movements under heaven. They contemplated the way in which these movements met and became interrelated, to take their course according to eternal laws. Then they appended judgments, to distinguish between the good fortune and misfortune indicated. These were called the Judgments.

This section is a literal repetition of sections 1 and 2 of
chapter VIII
.

6. The exhaustive presentation of the confused diversities under heaven depends upon the hexagrams. The stimulation of all movements under heaven depends upon the Judgments.

There is some connection between this passage and section 3 of
chapter VIII
, while the following section contains a parallel to the second half of section 4 above.

7. The transformation of things and the fitting together of them depend upon the changes. Stimulation of them and setting them in motion depend upon continuity. The spirituality and clarity depend upon the right man. Silent fulfillment, confidence that needs no words, depend upon virtuous conduct.

Here, in conclusion, the intermeshing of the Book of Changes and man is set forth. It is only through a living personality that the words of the book ever come fully to life and then exert their influence upon the world.
²

PART II

CHAPTER I. On the Signs and Lines, on Creating and Acting

1. The eight trigrams are arranged according to completeness: thus the images are contained in them. Thereupon they are doubled: thus the lines are contained in them.

Compare part I,
chapter II
, section 1. The sequence in the order of completeness is: (1) Ch’ien, (2) Tui, (3) Li, (4) Chên, (5) Sun, (6) K’an, (7) Kên, (8) K’un. The trigrams contain only the images (ideas) of the things they represent. It is only in the hexagrams that the individual lines come into consideration, because it is only in the hexagrams that the relationships of above and below, within and without, appear.

2. The firm and the yielding displace each other, and change is contained therein. The judgments, together with their counsels, are appended, and movement is contained therein.

Compare part I,
chapter II
, section 2. Change (as well as transformation) appears as a result of the alternation of firm and yielding lines. The judgments give their counsels through the appended oracles—”Good fortune,” “Misfortune,” and so on.

3. Good fortune and misfortune, remorse and humiliation, come about through movement.

Compare part I,
chapter II
, section 3. Good fortune and misfortune, remorse and humiliation, appear only as a result of conduct of a corresponding kind.

4. The firm and the yielding stand firm when they are in their original places. Their changes and continuities should correspond with the time.

When the firm lines are in firm places and the yielding lines in yielding places, a state of equilibrium exists. However, this abstract state of equilibrium must yield to change and reorganization when the time demands it. The time, that is, the total situation represented by a hexagram, plays an important role in regard to the positions of the individual lines.

5. Good fortune and misfortune take effect through perseverance. The tao of heaven and earth becomes visible through perseverance. The tao of sun and moon becomes bright through perseverance. All movements under heaven become uniform through perseverance.

The secret of action lies in duration. Good fortune and misfortune are slow in the making. Only when a trend is followed continuously do the results of single actions gradually accumulate in such a way that they become manifest as good fortune or misfortune. Similarly, heaven and earth are the results of lasting conditions. In that all clear, luminous forces constantly rise upward, and all that is solid and turbid constantly sinks downward, the cosmos separates itself out of chaos—heaven above and earth below. So it is also as regards the course of the sun and the moon; their states of radiance are results of continuous movements and conditions of equilibrium. Thus all movements and actions continued over a long period of time channel out definite courses, which then become laws. According to this view, natural laws are not abstractions fixed once and for all, but sustained processes in which the character of law appears the more definitely the longer they are in operation.

6. The Creative is decided and therefore shows to men the easy. The Receptive is yielding and therefore shows to men the simple.

The two fundamental principles move according to the requirements of the time, so that they are continuously undergoing change. But the nature of their movements is uniform and consistent. The Creative is always strong, decided, real, hence it meets with no difficulties. It always remains true to itself; hence its effortlessness. Difficulties always indicate vacillation and lack of clarity. In the same way it is the nature of the Receptive to be consistently yielding, to follow the line of least resistance, and therefore to be simple. Complications arise only from an inner conflict of motives.

7. The lines imitate this. The images reproduce this.

Here a definition of the lines and images is given. In Chinese the word for “line” is
hsiao
; “to imitate” is also rendered by
hsiao
(written differently). “Image” and “to reproduce” (in the sense of “to represent”) are expressed by
hsiang
(also written differently in each case). The lines imitate in their changes the way in which good fortune and misfortune arise in a movement by reason of its duration. The images reproduce the way in which all the changes and interrelations of the firm and the yielding issue in the easy and the simple.

8. The lines and images move within, and good fortune and misfortune reveal themselves without. The work and the field of action reveal themselves in the changes. The feelings of the holy sages reveal themselves in the judgments.

The movements of the lines and images, and of the infinitesimal germs of events symbolized by them, are invisible, but their results manifest themselves in the visible world as good fortune or misfortune. So also the changes pertaining to the work and the field of action are invisible, but are revealed by the words of the judgments.

9. It is the great virtue of heaven and earth to bestow life. It is the great treasure of the holy sage to stand in the right place.

How does one safeguard this place? Through men.
¹
By what are men gathered together? Through goods. Justice means restraining men from wrongdoing by regulation of goods and by rectification of judgments.

Here the connection between the three powers is shown. Heaven and earth bestow life. The holy sage is guided by the same principle; but to carry it out he must have the position of a ruler. This position is safeguarded by the men whom he gathers under him. Men are gathered together by means of goods. The means by which goods are administered, and defended against wrong, is justice.

This presents a theory of society, based on cosmic principles, that corresponds with the views of the Confucian school.

Some commentators wish to take this section as an introduction to the next chapter. This has a certain justification, inasmuch as the next chapter gives a survey of the development of civilization, with the Book of Changes as a basis.