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Beheaded Dragon

vakos

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Just watched a Chinese movie about Confucius. At some point in the movie, he mentions a favorable divination that he calls "beheaded dragon".

What divination tool is he referring to?
 

pocossin

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When all the lines are nines, it means:
There appears a flight of dragons without heads.
Good fortune.

The dragon is beheaded when all line of hexagram 1 are changing. I suspect this refers to the sacrifice in which the top of the head was cut off to release the spirit inside. With all lines changing hexagram 1 changes to hexagram 2. The dragon force is at maximum power. Heaven is brought to Earth.
 

heylise

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In the course of the year the dragon constellation turns around the polestar. The great dipper does the same, like a huge clockhand. In winter it points north at sunset, in summer south, in spring east.

The dragon is the rain-bringer. It is below the horizon in winter at sunset, it appears "in the field" in spring, flies high in summer, but end of autumn it goes down, first the head disappears. That is the last line of hexagram 1, the hexagram of time and timing.

The dipper is the clock, the dragon is its messenger.
 

bradford

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Not buying it.
The word Shou3 is polysemous - it has two distinct meanings in the Zhouyi - head and leader. Yong Jiu - See a group of dragons without a leader
I think that the headless dragon, at least with regard to the Yi, comes from a misunderstanding of the text, but it should be noted that it's been misunderstood by the Chinese as well.
BTW, it isn't mentioned anywhere in the Yijing that this text is what you get for rolling the all-nine Yahtzee.
 
S

sooo

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Just watched a Chinese movie about Confucius. At some point in the movie, he mentions a favorable divination that he calls "beheaded dragon".

What divination tool is he referring to?

Some interesting views from different points of interest.

For modern use, as I can imagine it may have been traditionally, a headless dragon is a force with no direction, vision or mind.

Confucius, being a moralist gentleman, may have seen beheading the dragon as having more in common with the European Medieval dragon, which was representative of evil.

The Devil is likened to a dragon because he is the worst of all serpents. As the dragon makes the air shine, so the Devil makes himself appear as the angel of light to deceive the foolish. The crest of the dragon represents the Devil crowned with pride. As the dragon's strength is not in its teeth but in its tail, the Devil, deprived of his strength, deceives with lies. The way in which the dragon attacks elephants represents the way the Devil attacks people, lying in wait along their path to heaven, wrapping them in his coils, and suffocating them with sin. Said of Draco, the greatest of all serpents on earth.

But I'd see it more as what today we might call "a loose canon", a streak of immense concentrated energy, with no vision, direction or thought process. To defeat that dragon could also be seen as good for the safety of the town's citizens.

I think there's a point where all energy in motion becomes headless, such as with lightening. The force and power is in its release.
 

vakos

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Speaking of changing lines

The dragon is beheaded when all line of hexagram 1 are changing. I suspect this refers to the sacrifice in which the top of the head was cut off to release the spirit inside. With all lines changing hexagram 1 changes to hexagram 2. The dragon force is at maximum power. Heaven is brought to Earth.

Thanks for the insight. By the way, one thing always puzzled me - is there a reason that Yi gives only the changing lines in its original text, i.e., only 6's and 9's? Why are there no 7's and 8's?
 

pocossin

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For modern use, as I can imagine it may have been traditionally, a headless dragon is a force with no direction, vision or mind.

I was thinking in terms of opening the crown chakra.
 

willowfox

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Just watched a Chinese movie about Confucius. At some point in the movie, he mentions a favorable divination that he calls "beheaded dragon".

What divination tool is he referring to?

I have this movie but haven't watched it yet, I was wondering if he were referring to an eclipse? Therefore it doesn't suggest an actual oracle system but rather an event in the sky.
 

vakos

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The botttomline

Thanks to all! If figure, there is no reference in Yi to any beheaded dragons.
 

billyy2288

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Not buying it.
The word Shou3 is polysemous - it has two distinct meanings in the Zhouyi - head and leader. Yong Jiu - See a group of dragons without a leader
I think that the headless dragon, at least with regard to the Yi, comes from a misunderstanding of the text, but it should be noted that it's been misunderstood by the Chinese as well.
BTW, it isn't mentioned anywhere in the Yijing that this text is what you get for rolling the all-nine Yahtzee.


I also think so.
 
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Sparhawk

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Geeze, that was swift, LiSe... :rofl:
 

heylise

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Not me swift - someone who reported it. I just happened to sit here, heard the ring of a report. So...
 

heylise

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Not buying it.
The word Shou3 is polysemous - it has two distinct meanings in the Zhouyi - head and leader. Yong Jiu - See a group of dragons without a leader
I think that the headless dragon, at least with regard to the Yi, comes from a misunderstanding of the text, but it should be noted that it's been misunderstood by the Chinese as well.
BTW, it isn't mentioned anywhere in the Yijing that this text is what you get for rolling the all-nine Yahtzee.
I think it is both right. The dragon without a head being a metaphor for a leader missing.

No 7 or 8 in the text is because those lines are not changing. No need to read them. Only the 6 and 9 are relevant for the answer.
 

Sparhawk

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Not me swift - someone who reported it. I just happened to sit here, heard the ring of a report. So...

You are a ninja!!! :rofl:
 

bradford

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I probably should mention a third set of Zhouyi meanings for Shou3, an extension of the leader gloss but also implying head: something that leads us or something we follow, lke a guiding principle, a priority.

The word occurs seven times in the Yi, at 01.7, 08.6, 30.6, 36.3. 63.6, 64.6, 01.T.
Only at 30.6, 63.6 and 64.6 does it refer to the physical head.

From my glossary:
shou3 5839 1102a185+0 01.7 (a, the) head, leader, chief, superior, first, first principle, face, lead, foremost, model, priority, leadership (s); (to be) face, lead, foremost, head, chief, prior, beginning; (to) come forward, (take the) lead, take responsibility
(s ed, ing)
 

heylise

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It is like the crouching tiger and hidden dragon. They are images of animals but speak about a certain kind of men. The strong one who conceals his power until he can mow down his enemies with one single blow. Or the sage who conceals his wisdom. The dragon without head is for me a similar image.
 
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tuckchang

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Qian is a founder and a leader. The line texts tell how he should perform at each stage.

A flock of dragons appear without the leader, signifying all the six masculine lines start changing to the feminine; Qian now possesses the norm of Kun (submissiveness, the earth) and becomes submissive; there will be no fighting among the dragons for leadership and they, i.e. all the leaders, can live together peacefully. Therefore it is auspicious (or good fortune).

Regards
Tuck :bows:
www.iching123.com
 

Sparhawk

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He didn't have any obligation to.

Except in my Wilhelm/Baynes, which has the text for 1.7 and 2.7 right after 1.6 and 2.6.

Just saying.

It is a good thing I get notifications from all the threads I have participated. I really look forward to his reply to you as confirmation there's an afterlife. I miss the big guy.
 

dobro p

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No need for a response on his part. I work with what dead people leave behind all the time.
 

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