Ta Chuan / The Great Treatise

[rosada]

Cafe doors! Thank you! I'm so glad I asked.

rosada

 

[rosada]

pg.333

9. They split wood and made a pestle of it. They made a hollow in the ground for a mortar. The use of the mortar and pestle was of benefit to all mankind. The probably took this from PREPONDERANCE OF THE SMALL.

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The hexagram Hsiao Kuo, PREPONDERANCE OF THE SMALL (62), is composed of Chen, movement, wood, above and Ken, Keeping Still, stone, below.

Kuo also means transition.

The mortar was the primitive form of the mill, and signifies the transition from eating whole grains to baking.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.334

10. They strung a piece of wood for a bow and hardened pieces of wood in the fire for arrows.
The use of bow and arrow is to keep the world in fear.
They probably took this from the hexagram of OPPOSITION.

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The hexagram K'uei, OPPOSITION (38), consists of Li, the Clinging, above and Tui, the Joyous, below.
The nuclear trigrams are K'an, danger, and, again, Li. The whole hexagram indicates strife. Li is the sun, which sends arrows from afar.
Li means weapons, therefore one is not afraid.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

11. In primitive times people dwelt in caves and lived in forests.
the holy men of a later time made the change to buildings.
At the top was a ridgepole, and sloping down from it there was a roof, to keep off wind and rain.

They probably took this from the hexagram of THE POWER OF THE GREAT.

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The hexagram Ta chuang, THE POWER OF THE GREAT (34), has

Chen, thunder, above;

Tui, lake, the upper nuclear trigram, is at the top of

Ch'ien, heaven, which is the lower nuclear trigram.

Ch'ien, heaven, is also the lower primary trigram.

Thus the hexagram as a whole means heaven, a strong, protected space with thunder and rain above it.

The trigram Chen also means wood, and as the eldest son it means the ridgepole at the top.

The two yielding lines at the top are then thought of as the sloping roof.
-Wilhelm

 

[pocossin]

The trigram Chen also means wood, and as the eldest son it means the ridgepole at the top.

The two yielding lines at the top are then thought of as the sloping roof.
-Wilhelm

I think the visual here is a sawbuck roof.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawbuck

X-------------X

The dashes represent the ridgepole. Such roof support is preserved in Shinto shrines.

http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=687&catid=20&subcatid=129

Scroll half way down the page to the picture titled "Main Hondin Styles."

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▄▄  ▄▄ projecting end beams
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▄▄▄▄▄▄  roof
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[rosada]

Interesting article, Tom!
We are so fortunate there were all these dedicated souls who took the time to figure these things out!

r

 

[rosada]

pg. 335

13. In primitive times the dead were buried by covering them thickly with brushwood and placing them in the open country, without burial mound or grove of trees.
The period of mourning had no definite duration.
The holy men of a later time introduced inner and outer coffins instead.
They probably took this from the hexagram of PREPONDERANCE OF THE GREAT.

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The hexagram Ta Kuo, PREPONDERANCE OF THE GREAT (28), consists of the trigram Tui, the lake, above and Sun, wood, penetration, below.

Forming the nuclear trigrams in the middle is Ch'ien, heaven, doubled.

The hexagram must be taken as a whole; the two yin lines above and below mean the earth, within which is a double coffin, represented by the double heaven, is inclosed.

Entering (Sun) their last resting place in this way, the dead are made glad (Tui).

Here we have a link with ancestor worship.
-Wilhelm

- - ground

----
---- coffin
----

----
---- coffin
----

- - ground

 

[rosada]

pg. 335

13. In primitive times people knotted cords in order to govern.
The holy men of a later age introduced written documents instead, as a means of governing the various officials and supervising the people.
They probably took this from the hexagram of BREAKTHROUGH.

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The hexagram Kuai, BREAK-THROUGH (43), has Tui, words, above and Chien, strength, below.

It means giving permanence to words.

The notch at the top also indicates the form of the oldest documents: cut in-wood, they consisted of two haves that fitted into each other when held together.

As a rule the ancient writings were scratched on tablets of smoothed bamboo.

Here the significance of writing in the organizations of a large community is emphasized.
-Wilhellm

 

[pocossin]

The hexagram Kuai, BREAK-THROUGH (43), has Tui, words, above and Chien, strength, below.

It means giving permanence to words.

I think Dui (Lake) represents ink, and Qian the strong bamboo writing surface.

The notch at the top also indicates the form of the oldest documents: cut in wood, they consisted of two haves that fitted into each other when held together.

Never heard of these wooden books.

As a rule the ancient writings were scratched on tablets of smoothed bamboo.

The writing was on strips of bamboo. Hexagram 43 is apparently the visual of such a book. The broken line at the top represents two strips.

 

[rosada]

pg. 336

NOTE: In its main features the sketch of the development of civilization given in this chapter corresponds to an extraordinary degree with our own ideas.

The fundamental thought, that all institutions are based on the development of definite ideas, is likewise undoubtedly correct,

It is not always easy to recognize such ideas in the complexes of ideas presented by hexagrams, nor is it improbable that there were once certain connections that are now obliterated.

There are indications that in the period preceding that of the Chou dynasty the hexagrams had meanings different from those which are traditional today.

Possibly this chapter affords insight into these earliest meanings.

That still another change in meaning took place later becomes evident when we compare the Judgments with the Images.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.336

CHAPTER III. On the structure of the Hexagrams

1. Thus the Book of Changes consists of images.

These images are reproductions.
--

The hexagrams are reproductions of conditions in the heavens and on earth.

Therefore they are to be applied productively; THEY HAVE CREATIVE POWER, so to speak, in the realm of ideas, as explained above.

-Wilhelm

 

[pocossin]

There are indications that in the period preceding that of the Chou dynasty the hexagrams had meanings different from those which are traditional today.

Possibly this chapter affords insight into these earliest meanings.

That still another change in meaning took place later becomes evident when we compare the Judgments with the Images.
-Wilhelm

This is an insightful observation by Wilhelm. The hexagrams have had various meanings over time, and the set of multiple meanings in the current appended text is only one possibility. Flexibility in meaning aids application.

 

[rosada]

pg. 336

2. The decisions provide the material.

The commentary on the Decision [i.e., on the JUDGMENT], which is probably what is meant here, presents the material out of which each hexagram, taken as a while, is constructed.

Thus it describes the situation as such before it undergoes change.

Naturally this also applies to the JUDGMENT itself.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.336

3. The lines are imitations of movements on earth.

Here the lines are equivalent to the judgments appended to them; the judgments apply in the case of lines that move, that is, when they are nines or sixes.

They reflect the changes within the individual situations.

4. Thus do good fortune and misfortune arise, and remorse and humiliation appear.

This movement reveals the directions that events are taking, and warnings or confirmations are added.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

CHAPTER IV. On The Nature of The Trigrams

1. The light trigrams have more dark lines, the dark trigrams have more light lines.

The "light" trigrams are the three sons,

Chen, thunder,
K'an, water,
and Ken, Mountain,

each of which consists of two dark lines and one light line.

The "dark" trigrams are the three daughters,

Sun, wood and wind,
Li, fire,
and Tui, lake,

each of which consists of two light lines and one dark line.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.337

2. What is the reason for this? The light trigrams are uneven, the dark trigrams are even.

The light trigrams are made up of lines 7+8+8. or 7+6+8, or 7+6+6, or 9 +8 +8, of 9+6+6, or 9+6+8.

Using relevant numbers, the numerical values of the lines in the dark trigrams can be found in the same way.

Hence the sum of the values of the lines in light trigrams is always an uneven number, and the lines representing the uneven number [an undivided line} is therefore the determinant of the light trigram.

In the case of dark trigrams, the reverse is true.

3. What is their nature and how do they act?

The light trigrams have one ruler and two subjects.

They show the way of the superior man.

The dark trigrams have two rulers and one subject.

This is the way of the inferior man.

Where one alone rules, unity is present, whereas when one person must serve two masters, nothing good can come of it.

This truth is here more or less accidentally linked with the structure of the trigrams.
-Wilhellm

 

[pocossin]

In the trigram family, the light trigrams are yang and the dark yin. The author of the Great Treatise did not think highly of female leadership and interprets the trigrams that way. Queen Elizabeth would have had him beheaded.

 

[rosada]

pg.338

CHAPTER V. Explanation of Certain Lines

1. In the Changes it is said: "If a man is agitated in mind, and his thoughts go hither and thither, only those friends on whom he fixes his conscious thoughts will follow."
[31.4]

The Master said: What need has nature of thought and care?

In nature all things return to their common source and are distributed along different paths; through one action, the fruits of a hundred thoughts are realized.

What need has nature of thought, of care?

2. When the sun goes, the moon comes, when the moon goes, the sun comes.

Sun and moon alternate; thus light comes into existance.

When cold goes, heat comes; when het goes, cold comes.

Cold and heat alternate, and thus the year completse itself.

The past contracts.

The future expands.

Contraction and expansion act upon each other, hereby arises that which furthers.

3. The measuring worm draws itself together when it wants to stretch out.

Dragons and snakes hibernate in order to preserve life.

thus the penetration of a germinal thought into the mind promotes the working of the mind.

When the working furthers and brings peace to life, it elevates man's nature.

4. Whatever goes beyond this indeed transcends all knowledge.

When man comprehends the divine and understands the transformations, he lifts his own nature to the level of the miraculous.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

CHAPTER V. Explanation of Certain Lines

1. In the Changes it is said: "If a man is agitated in mind, and his thoughts go hither and thither, only those friends on whom he fixes his conscious thoughts will follow."
[31.4]

The Master said: What need has nature of thought and care?

In nature all things return to their common source and are distributed along different paths; through one action, the fruits of a hundred thoughts are realized.

What need has nature of thought, of care?

2. When the sun goes, the moon comes, when the moon goes, the sun comes.

Sun and moon alternate; thus light comes into existance.

When cold goes, heat comes; when heat goes, cold comes.

Cold and heat alternate, and thus the year completse itself.

The past contracts.

The future expands.

Contraction and expansion act upon each other, hereby arises that which furthers.

3. The measuring worm draws itself together when it wants to stretch out.

Dragons and snakes hibernate in order to preserve life.

Thus the penetration of a germinal thought into the mind promotes the working of the mind.

When the working furthers and brings peace to life, it elevates man's nature.

4. Whatever goes beyond this indeed transcends all knowledge.

When man comprehends the divine and understands the transformations, he lifts his own nature to the level of the miraculous.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

In this explanation of the nine in the fourth place in hexagram 31, Hsien, INFLUENCE (bk. III), a theory of the power of the unconscious is given.

Conscious influences are always merely limited ones, because they are brought about by intention.

Nature knows no intentions; this is why everything in nature is so great.

It is owing to the underlying unity of nature that all its thousand ways lead to a goal so perfect that it seems to have been planned beforehand down to the last detail.

Then, in connection with the course of the day and the year, we are shown how past and future flow into each other, how contraction and expansion are the two movements through which the past prepares the future and the future unfolds the past.

In the two succeeding sections the same thought is applied to the man who, through supreme concentration, so intensifies and strengthens his inner being that mysterious autonomous currents of power emanate from him: thus the effect he creates proceed from his unconscious in others, attaining such breath and depth of influence that they transcend the individual sphere and enter the realm of cosmic phenomena.
-Wilhelm

 

[pocossin]

. . . who, through supreme concentration, so intensifies and strengthens his inner being that mysterious autonomous currents of power emanate from him: thus the effect he creates proceed from his unconscious in others, attaining such breath and depth of influence that they transcend the individual sphere and enter the realm of cosmic phenomena.
-Wilhelm

This is an impressive description of the human potential.

 

[pocossin]

Thanks for your ever so brief appearance, Trojan, though your post still lingers in my inbox. Cake and coffee coming up. What about the sentence don't you understand?

 

[Trojina]

Then, in connection with the course of the day and the year, we are shown how past and future flow into each other, how contraction and expansion are the two movements through which the past prepares the future and the future unfolds the past.

In the two succeeding sections the same thought is applied to the man who, through supreme concentration, so intensifies and strengthens his inner being that mysterious autonomous currents of power emanate from him: thus the effect he creates proceed from his unconscious in others, attaining such breath and depth of influence that they transcend the individual sphere and enter the realm of cosmic phenomena.-Wilhelm

the underlined bold part makes no sense...perhaps it is mistyped "....the effects he creates proceed from his unconscious in others..." that just doesn't make sense to me. Something proceeds from his unconscious in other people....? its a bad sentence isn't it


Probably I could say that about alot of it, but don't generally read it. I only read that bit because you quoted it as an 'impressive description'

Having a bad headache I decided it was just too complex to bother my little head with and deleted it till you decided to bait me with cake and enforce resurrection


so now you know....wheres the cake ? I still have a headache so I'll also have two paracetamol to go and I'd prefer tea to coffee, thanks.

the service round here is appalling...how long do i have to wait for a pot of tea and cake ...

 

[rosada]

You right, it's a typo.
Should read,

In the two succeeding sections the same thought is applied to the man who, through supreme concentration, so intensifies and strengthend his inner being that mysterious autonomous currents of power emanate from him: thus the effects he creates proceed from his unconscious AND MYSTERIOUSLY AFFECT THE UNCONSCIOUS in others, attaining such breadth and depth of influence that they transcend the individual sphere and enter the realm of cosmic phenomena.
-Wilhelm

sorry for the confusion,
rosada

 

[pocossin]

the underlined bold part makes no sense...perhaps it is mistyped "....the effects he creates proceed from his unconscious in others..." that just doesn't make sense to me.

so now you know....wheres the cake ? I still have a headache so I'll also have two paracetamol to go and I'd prefer tea to coffee, thanks.

the service round here is appalling...how long do i have to wait for a pot of tea and cake ...

The cake and tea are now at your place on the kitchen table, metaphysically awaiting your arrival like a food offering to the spirits. (Not waiting too long, though ) The cake is strawberry cake with pecans. My niece baked it yesterday. For the headache, I try to sleep them off.

Our ever-trudging transcriber (a Peace Pilgrim of the keyboard) made a small error in transcription. The part you have in bold should read:

thus the effects he creates proceed from his unconscious and mysteriously affects the unconscious in others

 

[pocossin]

Sometimes I should look at what others post before making a reply.

 

[Trojina]

The cake and tea are now at your place on the kitchen table, metaphysically awaiting your arrival like a food offering to the spirits. (Not waiting too long, though ) The cake is strawberry cake with pecans. My niece baked it yesterday. For the headache, I try to sleep them off.

Our ever-trudging transcriber (a Peace Pilgrim of the keyboard) made a small error in transcription. The part you have in bold should read:

thus the effects he creates proceed from his unconscious and mysteriously affects the unconscious in others

Thanks, it was very tasty

as for the transcription error.....its all very mysterious

the forum is a very mysterious place

sometimes its best not to delve to deeply

into its unknowable depths

 

[pocossin]

Thanks, it was very tasty

as for the transcription error.....its all very mysterious

the forum is a very mysterious place

sometimes its best not to delve to deeply

into its unknowable depths

Mysterious, right. Xuan 玄. That's what it's all about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34tP9__YncQ&NR=1
The bright bird of 36: Morghe Sahar

I like this version with the lyrics. See if it helps the headache.

"Bird of Dawn"

O Morning bird, sadly sing and remind me
Of my pain afresh with a burning sigh
Break this cage and turn it upside down
Wing tied nightingale, leave the corner of this cage
Compose the song of freedom for the mankind
And with a breath, set fire to the battlefield
Of the mass of this earth
The cruelty of tyrants and the injustice of huntsmen
Have broken my nest to the winds
O God, O turning globe, O nature
Turn our dark night into dawn…

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[Trojina]

headache gone

 

[rosada]

pg.339

5. In the Changes it is said: "A man permits himself to be oppressed by stone, and leans on thorns and thistles. He enters his house and does not see his wife. Misfortune."

The Master said: If a man permits himself to be oppressed by something that ought not oppress him, his name will certainly be disgraced.

If he leans on things upon which one cannot lean, his life will certainly be endangered.

For him who is in disgrace and in danger, the hour of death draws near, how can he then still see his wife?
--

This is an example of an unfavorable pronouncement.

Compare the explanation to the six in the third place in hexagram 47, K'un, OPPRESSION (bk.I):

"A man permits himself to be oppressed by stone,
And leans on thorns and thistles.
He enters his house and does not see his wife.
Misfortune."

-Wilhelm