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Crossing the Great River

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Freedda

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Here is a video from Harmen Mesker, where he looks ino the phrase found in the Yi about 'crossing the great river'. It is over an hour long; in his usual way, Harmen looks very deeply at how these different words and characters have been used, but also - as per his way - he offers us a brief conclusion about what this phrase from the Yi might mean.


For me, it prompted a few ideas: one, that in ancient times, the emperor 'crossed the great river' with a specific purpose in mind - to fight other clans, to hunt, to capture slaves - who were often brought back and used as human sacrifices or offerings. Two, that here is the crossing of 'great' or 'large' rivers - not streams, not tributarties or puddles, and what does this imply? - perhaps that while this crossing may be good (or even at times, ill-advised) that it is not meant to be easy?

... And three, when crossing these great rivers, the emperor used a boat - he didn't wade, or swim. It made me think about this idea of a 'vehicle' or a 'vessel' that we make use of to assist us in our crossings, and just who or what these vessels might be - e.g. a boat, car, bus, a spiritual belief or practice, a friend's shoulder or the Yi's advice?

Responding to this last point, Harmen said 'Anything or anyone that can help you get across, I think. What or who that might be depends on the situation. But if you 'know' you are going to cross a river, I'd say, build a boat according to your needs.' This reminds me of Lewis and Clark's 4000-plus mile journey, up the Missouri River, down the Clearwater and Snake Rivers to the Columbia, and then to the the Pacific Ocean. They used canoes and boats that they thought were built for and would withstand that particular journey!

If you are interested, I did an earlier post in I Ching News about Harmen's upcoming class: The Mystery of the Text of the Yi.

all the best ...
 
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hilary

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Excellent video, thanks for embedding.

I don’t think we can know for certain whether or not a boat's involved. Certainly in those oracle bone crossings, when the king's going hunting and hopes to come back laden with boar and so on, a raft might indeed help, or at least a heavy cart. But if you look through the uses of she in the Book of Songs, some quite definitely mean wading: there are women girding up their clothes to she the river, and a herd of swine she-ing the river as an omen of rain.

(Song 34 speaks of using stepping stones, or girding up your skirts to cross - and then of people who cross with the boatman, while the woman waits for her betrothed, hoping he will come before the ice melts. Same verb for 'crossing' in both verses.)

When the Zhou and their allies mustered in the wilds of Mu and crossed the great river, I can well imagine that Wu might have had a boat, but I expect most of the tens of thousands of troops had to get their feet wet.

One thing we can be sure of: whether you had to stop to build a boat, or gird up your loins and wade in, you don't cross rivers without a good reason - be it military, or quasi-military (hunting), or romantic.
 
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Freedda

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One thing we can be sure of: whether you had to stop to build a boat, or gird up your loins and wade in, you don't cross rivers without a good reason - be it military, or quasi-military (hunting), or romantic.
And perhaps we don't cross the river without a bit of help or at least preparation - be it a boat or 'griding your loins' - def. to get ready for hard work or battle.
 

hilary

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Yes, very likely. It's not something you would do casually, just nipping across to see if the grass is greener over there.

It's definitely a good idea to pause and think about actual, real-life river-crossings. All too easy to do a mental find-and-replace operation, substituting 'make a commitment' for 'cross the river' and losing the sense of risk.
 

Trojina

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There's loads of really good Blog posts on river crossing and as I recall you've always been very clear this is a big deal, can't locate them all in one place though
 

hilary

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I didn't know it was a topic of oracle bone divinations, though. That really reinforces the sense that it's worth a pause for thought.
 

Trojina

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I'd much rather read Yi information than watch Yi videos, I don't watch Yi videos I find I get impatient. Watching videos is very slow compared to reading. That's anyone's Yi videos BTW. I'd rather read your blog than watch your videos too.
 

hilary

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I feel the same way about videos. In the bottom right-hand corner of YouTube videos, there's a little 'settings' cog. Click that to change the playback speed. If you haven't done this before, increase in gradual increments, and you'll find you adapt very fast to listening at double speed. (Clarity's course videos have this control built in, too, and you can get a browser add-on that will allow you to increase to 3x and beyond.)
 

Trojina

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Good tip, thought it wouldn't work but it did I tested it and got to speed of 1.75 with no loss of meaning by 2 couldn't hear much although I'd still avoid the Yi video when I can read. Very useful tip though for videos I have to watch where someone's explaining how to do something.
 

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