Ta Chuan / The Great Treatise

[rosada]

pg.352

2. The Way has changes and movements.

Therefore the lines are called changing lines.

The lines have gradations, therefore they represent things.

Things are diverse, this gives rise to characteristics.

The line characteristics do not always correspond.

From this arise good fortune and misfortune.
--

Here the places are divided according to the three primal powers.

The first and the second line are the place of the earth, the third and the fourth are the place of man, and the fifth and the top line those of heaven; this division comes into consideration with the very first hexagram, THE CREATIVE.

According to whether the lines of the different gradations are appropriate to the places, conclusions are drawn as to whether they mean good fortune or misfortune.

The Chinese character for "line," hsiao, when written differently may also mean "to imitate."

This is why the lines are here called "changing lines" - that is, lines oriented to the pattern of tao.

The written character for hsiao consists of two sets of crossing lines, suggesting the crossing of yang and yin.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

CHAPTER XI. The Value of Caution as a Teaching of the Book of Changes

The time at which the Changes came to the fore was that in which the house of Yin came to an end and the way of the house of Chou was rising, that is, the time when King Wen and the tyrant Chou Hsin were pitted against each other.

This is why the judgments of the book so frequently warn against danger.

He who is conscious of danger creates peace for himself; he who takes things lightly creates his own downfall.

The tao of this book is great.

It omits none of the hundred things.

It is concerned about beginning and end, and it is encompassed in the words "without blame."

This is the tao of the Changes.

--

King Wen, the founder of the Chou Dynesty, was held captive by the last ruler of the Yin dynasty, the tyrant Chou Hsin.

He is said to have composed the judgments on the different hexagrams during his captivity.

Because of the danger of his situation, all these judgments emanate from a caution that is intent on remaining without blame and thus attains success.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

CHAPTER XII. Summary

1. The Creative is the strongest of all things in the world.

The expressions of its nature is invariably the easy, in order thus to master the dangerous.

The Receptive is the most devoted of all things in the world.

The expression of its nature is invariably simple, in order thus to master the obstructive.
--

The two cardinal principles of the Book of Changes, the Creative and the Receptive, are here once more presented in their essential features.

The Creative is represented as strength, to which everything is easy, but which remains conscious of the danger involved in working from above downward, and thus masters the danger.

The Receptive is represented as devotion, which therefore acts simply, bur which is conscious of the obstructions inherent in working from below upward, and hence masters these obstructions.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.353

2. To be able to preserve joyousness of heart and yet to be concerned in thought: in this way we can determine good fortune and misfortune on earth, and bring to perfection everything on earth.
--

In the text there appear next to the expression, "to be concerned with thought," two other characters that Chu Hui has quite correctly eliminated as later additions.

Joyousness of heart is the way of the Creative.

To be concerned in thought is the way of the Receptive.

Through joyousness one gains an over-all view of good fortune and misfortune, through concern one attains the possibility of perfection.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg. 354

3. Therefore: The changes and transformations refer to action.

Beneficent deeds have good auguries.

Hence the images help us to know the things, and the oracle helps us to know the future.
--

The changes refer to action.

Hence the images of the Book of Changes are of such sort that one can act in accordance with the changes and now reality (cf. also chap. II above, where inventions are traced to the images).

Events tend toward good fortune or misfortune, which are expressed in omens, the future becomes clear.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.354

4. Heaven and earth determine the places.

The holy sages fulfill the possibilities of the places.

Through the thoughts of men and the thoughts of spirits, the people are enabled to participate in these possibilities.
--

Heaven and earth determine the places and thereby the possibilities.

The sages make these possibilities into reality, and through the collaboration of the thoughts of spirits and of men in the Book of Changes, it becomes possible to extend the blessings of culture to the people as well.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg. 354

5. The eight trigrams point the way by means of their images; the words accompanying the lines, and the decisions, speak according to the circumstances.

In that the firm and the yielding are interspersed, good fortune and misfortune can be discerned.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg. 354

6. Changes and movements are judged according to the furtherance (that they bring).

Good fortune and misfortune change according to the conditions.

Therefore: Love and hate combat each other, and good fortune and misfortune result therefrom.

The far and the near injure each other, and remorse and humiliation result therefrom.

The true and the false influence each other, and advantage and injury result therefrom.

In all the situations of the Book of Changes it is thus: When closely related things do not harmonize, misfortune is the result: this gives rise to injury, remorse and humiliation.
--

The close relationships between the lines are those of correspondence and of holding together.

According to whether the lines attract or repel one another, good fortune or misfortune ensues, in all the graduations possible in each case.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.355

7. The words of a man who plans revolt are confused.

The words of a man who entertains doubt in his in most heart are ramified.

The words of men of good fortune are few.

Excited men use many words.

Slanderers of good men are round about in their words.

The words of a man who has lost his standpoint are twisted.
-

This passage summarizes the effects of states of mind on verbal expression.

It becomes plain therefrom that the authors of the Book of Changes, who are so sparing of words, belong in the category of men of good fortune.
-Wilhelm

Ta-dah!
-Rosada

 

[charly]

...
It becomes plain therefrom that the authors of the Book of Changes, who are so sparing of words, belong in the category of men of good fortune.
...

Hi, Rosada:

Did it mean that tey were FORTUNE TELLERS?

Yours,

Charly

 

[rosada]

Is there some way this thread could be tacked on to the Memorizing threads?
rosada

 

[pocossin]

Is there some way this thread could be tacked on to the Memorizing threads?
rosada

Thank you, Rosada, for all the work you have done. What do you envision when you say 'tacked onto the Memorizing threads"?

 

[rosada]

Thank you Tom and Charly and all those who have posted here and all those who have read this Great Treatise with us!

I think it would be nice if this thread didn't get lost in the archives but I also don't think it should have it's own permanent space at the head of Exploring Divination along with " Memorizing Threads" or it'll get too crowded up there! So I'm wondering if this thread could be combined/moved to the bottom of Memorizing threads?

-rosada

 

[pocossin]

I think it would be nice if this thread didn't get lost in the archives but I also don't think it should have it's own permanent space at the head of Exploring Divination along with " Memorizing Threads" or it'll get too crowded up there! So I'm wondering if this thread could be combined/moved to the bottom of Memorizing threads?

Rosada, check the Memorizing Threads and see if that's what you have in mind.

 

[rosada]

Perfect!
Exactly!
Thank you.

rosada

 

[jukkodave]

In the Book of Changes a distinction is made between three kinds of change: nonchange, cyclic change, and sequent change.
Nonchange is the background, as it were against which change is made possible.
For in regard to any change there must be some fixed point to which the change can be referred;
otherwise there can be no definite order and everything is dissolved in chaotic movement.
This point of reference must be established, and this always requires a choice and a decision.
It makes possible a system of co-ordination into which everything else can be fitted. Consequently at the beginning of the world, as at the beginning of thought, there is the decision, the fixing point of the reference.
Theoretically any point of reference is possible, but experience teaches that at the dawn of consciousness one stands already inclosed within the definite, prepotent systems of relationships.
The problem then is to choose one's point of reference for cosmic events.
For only then can the world created by one's decision escape being dashed to pieces against prepotent systems of relationships with which it would otherwise come into conflict.
Obviously the premise for such a decision is the belief that in the last analysis the world is a system of homogeneous relationships - that it is a cosmos, not a chaos.
This belief is the foundation of Chinese philosophy, as of all philosophy.
The ultimate frame of reference for all that changes is the nonchanging.

-Wilhelm

Does anyone else think that Wilhem was confused. The Tao informs us quite correctly that 2 gives rise to the 3. The only thing that is non changing is the Tai itself. That is not 3. How then can an interpreatation that one of the 3 apsects of change is non-change. Does Wilhelm not defeat his own arguments by his own logic.
Does he not understand that change never has a "fixed point" as such, only ever a moment that we as humans try to freeze in time with our concepts and our sciences. If there was cyclic change and sequent change that would be a choice between two types of change, which would distill down to Yin and Yang and be the principles of that duality and not the principles of change.
Does he not get that it is the changes, all 3 of them, that are manifest in Yin and Yang that give rise to the myriad, ten thousand things.
He may wish to have believed that the world is a system of homogenous, as many still do, but we have moved on from that limited perspective and now know that we live in a world where chaos is just as much a part of our csmos and ourselves as any patterns and order that may temorarily manifest in a coherent coalescence we call life.
Did he not realise tht in order to "choose" ones "point of reference" one must first know what the decision is. Does he not realise that the I Ching tells us nothing that we do not know already and so have already made the decisions on one point of perspective.
Any one have any views.
All the best
Dave