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The diviner Lao Dan

lienshan

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The diviner Lao Dan is better known as Laozi, the author of Dao De Jing.
I've translated the 1th chapter of his famous book:


Say, speakable unindependent, Dao.
The term 'can be a title' is not an independent clause.
The first, the worldly heaven, entitled the nonexistent.
The mother, the material tenthousand, named the existent.
The former dead bachelor desired by means of looking at her beauty.
A selfish desire arises from the observation of its manifestation.
Both sides of now are the same appearance and different words.
Identical means to arrive at dusk as the darkening exits.
The gate, the mystic multitude, darkens the twilights.



Laozi rejects Mozi's (and the mohists at the Ji Gate in Jixia) "Heaven's Intention"
as equivalent to the Zhou rulers "Mandate of Heaven" illusion.
He discusses the first "Son of Heaven", who was entitled posthumously,
and compares the son of heaven to the sun in the sky.
His pointe is, that the two twilights (dusk and dawn) prove,
that it's the same one and only sun rising every morning.
The sun is the natural "Son of Heaven" to Laozi.

Laozi points at Dao as being utmost important instead:

He compares Dao to the blank spaces ( _ ) of an independent clause: subject_verb_object.
Dao serves to make the independent clause (the existent) work, but only when Dao is unspoken.

He does too compare Dao to the character zhi:

zhi means spoken: its (genetive), to go to, to arrive at, to exit (when last in a line)
and zhi spoken are used when reading a line from left to right.
zhi unspoken cancells the independence of a clause changing the following noun to an adjective.
and zhi unspoken are used when reading a line from right to left.

zhi spoken is used in line 8 and zhi unspoken is used in the lines 3 - 4 - 9

Existence and Dao are the only headlines in Laozi's simple philosophy.

Nonexistence is an illusion and the term wu wei means bluffing!

..........................................................................................
My commentaries to the divinatory elements of the text:

The Zhouyi hexagram 32 name 'heng' occurs in line 1 and 2.
'heng' meant independent/independence to the diviner Lao Dan.
His reading is based on the second line of the Image-text:

Thunder and Wind are independent.
The rulers son stands on his own feet.
The unchanging way.


The Guicang hexagram 32 name 'heng wo' occurs line 5 and 6.
'heng wo' means independent I/we = selfish
Lao Dan made two variations of the Guicang hexagram name:
'heng you' = independent existing (I/we) = selfish
'heng wu' = independent notexisting = a dead bachelor

The last one is paradoxal and a part of his arguement.

Lao Dan's extraordinary use of the character zhi in the lines 3 - 4 - 9
might relate to how the hexagram lines were spoken at that time:
Zhouyi (written): heng zhi guan (zhi spoken): hex 32 its hex 20 (32.2,3,4,5,6)
Guicang (written): heng wo zhi guan (zhi spoken): hex 20 hex 32 (20.1)

The Zhouyi is read from left to right, and Guicang from right to left.
Guicang means return to the hidden, so it's indicated in the name.
 

lienshan

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the code

The text was coded, because the content was extremely dangerous to a Zhou state employe.
The key to the code is hidden in line 7: "same appearence and different words".
This means, that all characters occuring twice or more must be read as different characters.
This means too, that ci-liang-zhe (both sides of now) must be counted as one character.
This means too, that the two Guicang "hexagram names" must be counted as one character.

The number of characters in each line correspond to hexagram lines:
6 is changing and 7 unchanging when viewed as Zhouyi numbers.
7 is changing and 6 unchanging when viewed as Guicang numbers.

6 characters: dao4 ke3 dao4 fei1 heng2 dao4
6 characters: ming2 ke3 ming2 fei1 heng2 ming2
6 characters: wu2 ming2 tian1 di4 zhi1 shi3
6 characters: you3 ming2 wan4 wu4 zhi1 mu3
7 characters: gu4 heng2-wu2 yu4 yi3 guan1 qi2 miao4
6 characters: heng2-you3 yu4 yi3 guan1 qi2 jiao3
6 characters: ci3-liang3-zhe3 tong2 chu1 er2 yi4 ming2
6 characters: tong2 wei4 zhi1 xuan2 xuan2 zhi1
6 characters: you4 xuan2 zhong4 miao4 zhi1 men2

The first and the last character of each line make two vertical sentences of 9 characters.

say-term-nonexistence-existing-
former-selfish-dead bachelor-now both sides-twilights


dao-clause-first-mother-
beauty-manifestation-words-exits-gate
 

lienshan

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the Grand Images

Lao Dan was Grand Historican and Astrologer during the reign of Duke Xian (384-362 BC)
The Ji Gate academy in Linzi was founded by Duke Huan (375-357 BC)

That'll say: Lao Dan read the hexagram 32 Grand Image text between 375 and 362 BC,
because it's the only text, where 'heng' means 'independent' (standing on one's own feet).

But according to biroco http://www.biroco.com/yijing/ruttzhouyi.htm

"Many people who have been using Wilhelm for a good number of years
still seem uncertain what exactly they are consulting, not realising, for instance,
that the text termed 'The Image' in Wilhelm is not a part of the original Chou I at all
but was written seven or eight centuries later."

My thought is, that the 64 Grand Image texts must have been the official 'commentaries'.
Not written by King Wen or the Duke of Zhou, but confirmed by a later Zhou King.
Meant to be used by the professional diviners, ministers, etc. (the socalled jun zi).
Every text contains in the middle a character yi (use)!
The term 'jun zi' occurs in 53 of the 64 Grand Image texts.
The King himself isn't mentioned at all.
And all the professional diviners mentioned in the Zouzhuan use the Images!

That's why I think,
that Richard Wilhelm is right when placing the Grand Image texts
together with the Judgements and the line texts of the Zhouyi,
because they were all three together used when divining by the Zhouyi.
The Judgements and the Lines by the royals, and the Images by their employes.

The Ten Wings are explanations and thus different.
 
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lienshan

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Say, speakable unindependent, Dao.
The term 'can be a title' is not an independent clause.
The first, the worldly heaven, is entitled the nonexistent.
The mother, the material tenthousand, is named the existent.
Death, the desire of single nonexisting, uses to observe her beauty.
A selfish desire arises from the observation of its manifestation.
Both sides of now are the same appearance and different words.
Identical means to arrive at dusk as the darkening exits.
The gate, the mystic multitude, darkens the twilights.

Dao De Jing Chapter 1 contains a reading of the hexagram 32 Heng Image text:

lei ...... feng .................... thunder ..... air
heng ... jun ..................... single ........ ruler
zi ....... yi ....................... son ........... uses
li ........ bu ...................... enthrone ... do not
yi ....... fang .................... change ...... the way

The hexagram 32 Heng Image text read horisontally:

The air of thunder, the son of a single ruler, uses to enthrone the unchanging way

The 1th vertical line: thunder single son enthrones change
The 2th vertical line: air ruler uses do not the way


The 'nonexistent' in the 3th line of Dao De Jing chapter 1 is 'thunder'.
The 'existent' in the 4th line of Dao De Jing chapter 1 is 'air'.

The horisontal line corresponds to the 5th line of Dao De Jing chapter 1,
that shows the confucian version of the horisontal Image text line,
when written the way Confucius coined the term 'jun zi'
 

lienshan

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Say 'the unspeakable sovereign' Dao.
The term 'can be a title' isn't an independent clause.
The first, the worldly heaven, is nonexistence entitled.
The mother, the material tenthousand, is existence named.
Therefore: a bachelor without desire used to study her beauty.
A selfish desire arises from the observation of its manifestation.
Both sides of now are similar appearance and different words.
Identical means to arrive at dusk as the darkening exits.
The gate, the mystic multitude, darkens the twilights.

(Confucius left his wife and lived a bachelor's life)

My translation treats the four heng characters as four 'hexagram related names':

line 1: 'sovereign' means 'standing on one's own feet' (from hex 32's Zhouyi image text)
line 2: 'independent' means 'standing on one's own feet' (from hex 32's Zhouyi image text)
line 5: 'bachelor' means 'standing on one's own feet' (from hex 32's Zhouyi image text)
line 6: 'selfish' (heng you) independence existing = Guicang hex 32 heng wo (independent I)

I read the text as t.ex. a commentary to the trigrams.
There are more hints to a timeline of three situations.

dusk - the middle of the night - dawn
past - now - future
observe - object - selfish desire
say - pause - Dao

Which one of the trigram lines represents the first?

According to Shuo Gua is the foreward movement
that which is going into the past
and the backward movement
that which is to come.

And there is a very interesting hint to the first 'son of heaven'.
The name of the first Xia king was Qi, which means 'first'.
Lao Dan seems to disagree with the official history ...
 

sergio

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..And I thought Lao Dan was an argentininan singer...
 

lienshan

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..And I thought Lao Dan was an argentininan singer...
So did I, but "sing unsingable" :lalala:

"say unspeakable" sounds better, because the first two and the last two characters of each line
corresponds to a specific hexagram and I haven't found a hexagram about argentinian singing?

19 - 20
7 - 8
4 - 3
44 - 43
15 - 16
51 - 52
59 - 60
61 - 62
36 - 35

4 - 3, 44 - 43, 36 - 35 (even - odd) are in the three lines, that must be read reversed.
 
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lienshan

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line 1: Say 'the unspeakable sovereign' Dao.
line 2: The term 'can be a title' isn't an independent clause.
line 3: The first, the worldly heaven, is nonexistence entitled.
line 4: The mother, the material tenthousand, is existence named.
line 5: Therefore: a bachelor without desire used to study her subtlety.
line 6: A selfish desire arises from the observation of its manifestation.
line 7: Both sides of now are a similar appearance and different words.
line 8: Identical means to arrive at dusk as the darkening exits.
line 9: The gate, the mystic multitude, darkens the twilights.

line 1: hex 43 Guai (the speaking staff) hex 44 Gou (the sovereign queen)
line 2: hex 7 Shi (the leader) hex 8 Bi (the alliance)
line 3: hex 4 Meng (the ignorance) hex 3 Zhun (the initial difficulties)
line 4: hex 44 Gou (the sovereign queen) hex 43 Guai (the speaking staff)
line 5: hex 15 Qian (the grey rat) hex 16 Yu (the great illusion)
line 6: hex 35 Jin (the reward) hex 36 Ming Yi (the twilights)
line 7: hex 59 Huan (the enlightening) hex 60 Jie (the formulation)
line 8: hex 61 Zhong Fu (the inner truth) hex 62 Xiao Guo (the flying bird)
line 9: hex 36 Ming Yi (the twilights) hex 35 Jin (the reward)

The lines 3, 4 and 9 (even-odd hex no.) must be read from right to left.
 
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