Introduction

rosada · Apr 24, 2010

The text forming the nucleus of the Book of Change has been presented in the first part of this work (bk. 1). In that portion the chief concern has been to bring to light the spiritual aspect of the book, the wisdom concealed under its frequently odd forms.

What our commentary offers is a summary of what has been said and thought in connection with the hexagrams and the lines in the course of many centuries by China's most distinguished philosophers. However, the reader will often be assailed by the thought: Why is it all like this? Why are these images, frequently so startling, coupled with the hexagrams and the lines? From what depths of consciousness do they come? Are they purely arbitrary creations or do they follow definite laws? Moreover, how does it happen that in a given case, the image used is connected with the particular thought? Is it not mere caprice to seek a profound philosophy where, according to all appearances, only a grotesque fantasy at play?

The second part (bks. II, III) is meant to answer these questions, as far as possible. It is intended to disclose the material out of which that world of ideas arose - to present the body corresponding with that spirit. We see that a hidden connection actually exists, that even apparently arbitrary images have, in one way or another, a basis in the structure of the hexagrams, when our understanding of it goes deep enough.
-Wilhelm

rosada · Apr 24, 2010

I don't know why I thought it was okay to postpone reading the Introduction to the Discussion of the Trigrams, but I realize now that putting it off with the intention of coming back to it later is just stupid.
So here it is and please forgive the confusion. I was born with Mercury retrograde.

Rosada

neegula · Apr 24, 2010

rosada said:
I was born with Mercury retrograde.

you're lovely! :hug:

pocossin · Apr 24, 2010

rosada said:
. . . retrograde.

Retrograde -- the backward movement of divination.

pocossin · Apr 24, 2010

Why are these images . . . coupled with the hexagrams and the lines?

That is a fundamental question. Is the appended text rational or random? Is it by design or a "purely arbitrary creation"?

. . . even apparently arbitrary images have, in one way or another, a basis in the structure of the hexagrams, when our understanding of it goes deep enough.

I agree with Wilhelm's program but do not think he went deep enough.

rosada · Apr 24, 2010

Hang in here, folks, we've got about a week of Introduction to go through. It's kinda dry but there's some good stuff too.
-rosada

rosada · Apr 24, 2010

The oldest commentaries, which as a rule combine structural interpretation of the hexagrams with philosophical explanations, go back to Confucius himself or at least to his circle. Their philosophical content has already been utilized in the first portion of the work (bk.1).

Here they are used again, in conjunction with the text material, apart from which they are unintelligible, and explained in their technical aspect. This technical side is indispensable for a complete understanding of the book, and no Chinese commentary omits it. Nonetheless, it has seemed advisable to separate it at the beginning from the philosophical aspect, in order that the Western reader should not be two much bewildered by unaccustomed matter.

I do not regret the unavoidable repetitions. The Book of Changes is a work that represents thousands of years of slow organic growth, and that can be assimilated only through prolonged repetition and meditation. And in the course of this, the apparent repetition serves constantly to open up new perspectives. The material presented in the second portion of our translation consists chiefly of what has come to be known as the Ten Wings. These ten wings, or expositions, contain in substance the oldest commentary literature relating to the Book of Changes.
-Wilhelm

pocossin · Apr 24, 2010

rosada said:
The oldest commentaries, which as a rule combine structural interpretation of the hexagrams with philosophical explanations, go back to Confucius himself or at least to his circle.

By "structural interpretation of the hexagrams" I think Wilhelm means primary and nuclear trigrams, ruling lines, and line harmony. I have never found ruling lines and line harmony useful. Has anyone?

rosada · Apr 25, 2010

The first of the commentaries {FIRST and SECOND WING} is called T'UAN CHUAN.

Actually, t'uan means the boar's head offered at sacrifices; by reason of similarity of sound, the word on the additional meaning of "decision."

The judgments pertaining to the individual hexagrams were called t'uan, "decisions," or tz'u, "judgments," or hsi tz'u, "appended judgments. " These judgments or decisions are attributed to King Wen (circa 1150 B.C.), and this premise regarding their origin has on the whole not been questioned. The T'uan Chuan, or Commentary on the Decision, gives the exact interpretations of King Wen's decisions [judgments], on the basis of the structure and the other elements of the hexagrams.

This commentary is an extremely thorough and valuable piece of work and throws much light upon the inner organization of the hexagrams of the I Ching.

The Chinese ascribe it to Confucius. I see no reason for doubting this ascription, inasmuch as it is well known that Confucius devoted much thought to the Book of Changes, and since the views expressed in this commentary nowhere conflict with his views.

The commentary is made up of two parts, corresponding with parts I and II of the text of the I Ching, and forms the first two wings or expositions. In this translation the commentary has been divided and each comment has been placed with the hexagram to which it pertains.
-Wilhelm

pocossin · Apr 26, 2010

rosada said:
Actually, t'uan means the boar's head offered at sacrifices; by reason of similarity of sound, the word on the additional meaning of "decision."

Does this character occur in the Zhouyi? I'd like to see it.

charly · Apr 26, 2010

pocossin said:
Does this character occur in the Zhouyi? I'd like to see it.

Hi, Pocossin:

彖 tuan4 doesn´t appear in the Zhouyi. In Sears´Chineseetymology there aren´t bone or bronze equivalent characters. It´s said that depicts a pig with his nose and tusks.

Say, a guy that puts his dirty nose in whatever place, no matters how concealed or inconvenient.

It doesn´t appear in th Book of Odes. Its only meaning seems to be INTERPRETATION or maybe INVESTIGATION (1) on the Change´s hexagrams.

The NCIKU dictionary cites as example:

即使看过了彖辞，我对于这个卦义还不是很理解。
Having read the commentary on the meaning of diagrams in The Book of Changes, I still can't understand this divinatory symbol.

Source: http://www.nciku.cn/search/zh/detail/彖/135449

I didn´t find the meaning that Wilhelm tells.

Yours,

Charly
____________________
(1) to sniff, to scent.
Ch.

hmesker · Apr 26, 2010

彖 might be related to 㣇, which is read as 祟 on oracle bones, meaning 'to expel evil spirits'; see 古文字古林 Vol. 8, p. 409. Here it is also said that 䞼 (which has 彖 as a component) is the old form of 遯, the name of hexagram 33, and is also related to the meaning of 'to expel'. That this is more or less possible is shown by the Mawangdui text, which has 椽 (with 彖 as a component) as name for hexagram 33.

In the Baoshan divination scripts we see examples of divinations to expel malicious spirits.

pocossin · Apr 26, 2010

If Harmen will excuse my imagination, 'boar' suggests rooting, getting down to fundamentals, essence. Thus, 'decision'.

Sparhawk · Apr 26, 2010

pocossin said:
Does this character occur in the Zhouyi? I'd like to see it.

Tom, 彖(tuàn in pinyin), does not occur in the actual Zhouyi text but it appears to be used mainly in connection with divination.

Sparhawk · Apr 26, 2010

Oops, I replied before reading the contributions by Charly and Harmen... Great replies, BTW.

rosada · Apr 26, 2010

The THIRD and the FOURTH Wing are formed by the so called Hsiang Chuan, Commentary on the Images.
This commentary is also made up of two parts corresponding with the two divisions of the text. In its present form it consists of the so-called Great Images, which refer to the images associated with the two trigrams in each hexagram, from these the commentary in each case deduces the meaning of the hexagram as a whole, and from this contemplation in turn draws conclusions applicable to the life of man.

The whole range of ideas contained in this commentary places it in proximity to the Great Learning, Ta Hsueh, and hence in very close proximity to Confucius as well.
-Wilhelm

pocossin · Apr 27, 2010

The third and fourth wings, Legge's Appendix II, are large -- 81 pages in Legge's version -- because much of the text of the Zhouyi is repeated. Since Legge isn't popular, I suspect few have seen these two wings in one piece. By "This commentary is also made up of two parts corresponding with the two divisions of the text" I think Wilhelm means judgment and line text rather than the two canons.

rosada · Apr 28, 2010

Gosh, I hate to ask...
Anything in those 81 pages you think we need to include here?

-rosada

rosada · Apr 28, 2010

Besides the Great Images, this commentary contains also the Small Images. These are very brief references to the Duke of Chou's comments on the individual lines of the hexagrams. However, they do not deal in any way with images, and it must have been owing to some misapprehension, or perhaps to chance, that this commentary on the text of the individual lines found its way into the Commentary of the Images. This commentary on the lines contains only brief suggestions, mostly in rhyme. It may be that the Small Images are mnemonic phrases taken from a more detailed commentary. It is certain that they are very old and originated with the Confucian school, but I should not like to say definitely how close the connection with Confucius himself may be.

These commentaries {Great Images, Small Images} have also been divided and apportioned to the hexagrams to which they refer.
-Wilhelm

Sparhawk · Apr 28, 2010

rosada said:
Gosh, I hate to ask...
Anything in those 81 pages you think we need to include here?

-rosada

Just in case, they are here and here

(those who get email updates, never mind my previous two posts. That belonged to the Shuo Gua discussion. If anyone wants it there, I'll post it there.)

rosada · Apr 28, 2010

The FIFTH and SIXTH WING constitute a treatise that presents many difficulties. It is entitled Hsi Tz'u, or Ta Chuan, and likewise has two parts. The title Ta Chuan occurs in Ssu-ma Ch-ien and means Great Commentary, or Great Treatise. As regards the title Hsi Tz'u. Appended Judgments, Chu Hsi says:
"To be continued."

Ha!I am going to be away for several days without access to a computer. If anyone feels to post these paragraphs while I am away please do so.
Rosada

pocossin · May 1, 2010

If those wings that are split apart by canon are put back together, aren't the wings arranged by length, the longest first and the shortest last?

rosada · May 7, 2010

Hi pocossin,
Hopefully someone who knows the answer to your question will post a response.
Meanwhile, we continue with the Introduction...
Rosada

rosada · May 7, 2010

Chu Hsi says:

The appended judgments are the judgments originally made by King Wen and the Duke of Chou and appended by them to the hexagrams and their lines; they make up the present text of the book. The section before us is the commentary in which Confucius explains the appended judgments, at the same time giving a general introduction to the whole text of the complete work.
-Wilhellm

pocossin · May 8, 2010

rosada said:
Chu Hsi says:

The appended judgments are the judgments originally made by King Wen and the Duke of Chou and appended by them to the hexagrams and their lines; they make up the present text of the book. The section before us is the commentary in which Confucius explains the appended judgments, at the same time giving a general introduction to the whole text of the complete work.
-Wilhellm

In my opinion, Chu Hsi is mistaken about the role of King Wen. Wen gave meaning to the hexagrams and arranged them in the Zhouyi sequence, but unless he intended to keep his subtle meanings secret, another hand wrote the appended judgments.

rosada · May 8, 2010

Wilhelm may agree with you pocossin. He continues..

The lack of clarity in the definition is immediately apparent.
If the "appended judgments" are really the comments of King Wen and the Duke of Chou on the hexagrams and the lines, we should expect from a "commentary on the appended judgments" a discussion of the judgments in question and not a treatise on the work in general. But we have a commentary dealing with the decisions [judgments] on the hexagrams, that is with the text of King Wen. On the other hand, there is no detailed commentary on the Duke of Chou's judgments on the lines. What we have are only brief catch phrases that go under the obviously incorrect title of Small Images. It is true that there are also fragments of another such commentary, or rather, of a number of such commentaries. Several of these fragments - referring to the first two hexagrams - are contained in the Wen Yen (Commentary on the Words of the Text), which will be further discussed below.
Explanations of single lines do occur, scattered here and there in the Commentary on the Appended Judgments [Hsi Tz'u chuan]. Thus it is highly probable that two quite different things appear together in what is today known as Hsi Tz'u Chaun: first a collection of essays on the Book of Changes in general, probably constituting what Ssu-ma Chien called the Great Commentary, Ta Chaun; second, scattered among these, and cursorily arranged according to standpoints, fragments of a commentary on the judgments appended to the individual lines. There is much evidence to show that these fragments are derived from the same source as the collection of commentaries known as Wen Yen.
-Wilhelm

rosada · May 11, 2010

It is quite evident that the treatises known as Hsi Tz'u or Ta Chaun were not set down by Confucius, because many passages in them are cited as sayings of the Master. Of course this commentary does contain traditional material of the Confucian school, dating from various periods.
-Wilhelm

rosada · May 16, 2010

The so called SEVENTH WING, named WEN YEN (Commentary on the Words of the Text), is a very important section. It is the remnant of a commentary on the Book of Changes - or rather of a whole series of such commentaries - and contains very valuable material deriving from the Confucian school. Unfortunately it does not go beyond the second hexagram, K'un.

The WEN YEN (in the present translation divided between CH'IEN and K'UN) contains all four different commentaries on the hexagram Ch'ien, THE CREATIVE. In the translation they have been designated as a, b, c, d. Commentary a of this series belongs to the same stratum as the fragments found scattered through the HSI TZ'U CHUAN. The text is given with the appended question, "What does this mean?" This is like the form used in the Kung Yang, a commentary on the Ch'un Ch'iu. Commentaries b and c contain brief remarks on the individual lines, but in a freer manner than a.

Only one commentary on the second hexagram, K'un, survives in the Wen Yen. It is related in character to a, although it represents a different stratum (the text is placed after the explanations by the master.) The same stratum is likewise represented in the Hsi Tz'u Chuan.
-Wilhelm

pocossin · May 16, 2010

I don't think I have looked at the Seventh Wing in thirty years, so it appears new. Balkin, p.96, says that the Wen Yen (Wenyan) is "Late second century or early first century B.C." By "a whole series of such commentaries"Wilhelm seems to be implying that the Wen Yen is a compilation from lost sources, but he doesn't give evidence for this position.

rosada · May 18, 2010

The EIGHTH WING, Shuo Kua, Discussion of the Trigrams, contains material of great antiquity in explanation of the eight primary trigrams. Probably it embodies many fragments antedating Confucius and treated in commentary by him or by his school.
-Wilhelm

Introduction

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hmesker

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One of those men your mother warned you about...

One of those men your mother warned you about...

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One of those men your mother warned you about...

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