A Casual Talk on the Zhouyi Cantong Qi (19): The Words Are Solemnly Spoken—People of the World Do Not Ponder Them Deeply
As for the utmost sage, none surpasses Fuxi, who first drew the eight trigrams, modeling heaven and earth. King Wen, ancestor of emperors, shaped their forms and developed the line statements. The Master, that outstanding sage, composed the Ten Wings to assist them. These three worthies were heaven-endowed, rising in turn to govern their times. Their ranks differ in steps, yet their merit and virtue are not unlike. Their creations build upon one another; they calculated and examined down to fen and zhu. The formed is easy to estimate; without signs it is hard to plan. They made their works models for the world, settling the Odes and Documents. Having no prior foreknowledge, they awakened through teachers. Bright as frost in the curtain; glaring-eyed they climbed the high terrace. The Fire Records number six hundred scrolls; their aims are all the same. The words are solemnly spoken—people of the world do not ponder them deeply. Tracing their source and stream, the hidden and the manifest originally dwelt together. I dare only discuss this with the worthy—how could I lightly write it into a book? Yet if I were to seal my lips and fall silent, the Dao would be cut off and I would incur blame and punishment. If I write my feelings on bamboo and silk, I fear leaking the tally of heaven. Hesitant, I add my sighs; looking up and down, I weave together this foolishness. The smelting and refining have their standards and measures—I cannot fully unfold them all. I can only briefly relate their guiding principles; the branches and twigs are already seen in luxuriant disarray.
If we speak of the highest of sages, we must begin with Fuxi. Fuxi first drew the eight trigrams, modeling heaven and earth. King Wen, based on the hexagrams, further developed the line statements. By the time of Confucius, the Ten Wings were composed to explain the Changes.
"Wing" here means "assistance." The Yiwei, Qiankun Zuodu records that Confucius "at fifty exhausted the Changes, and made the Ten Wings." The Ten Wings refer to the ten essays explaining the Changes: the Tuan (upper and lower), Xiang (upper and lower), Wenyan, Xici (upper and lower), Shuogua, Xugua, and Zagua.
These three sages all arose in response to the timing of heaven, and expounded the Changes in ever greater detail. Though the depths of their expositions differ, they are equally great.
Because of the Changes, the creations of the Dao of the elixir had a basis; one could continuously infer and examine, calculating also with extreme fineness—down even to fen and zhu.
Because formed things are easy to measure, while formless things are hard to understand, so that people might comprehend and have methods to follow, the Odes and Documents were settled for the world.
Before ordinary people knew of these things, they had no understanding of them, and so needed to awaken through a teacher's transmission. The Fire Records comprise more than six hundred scrolls, their contents each different; when writing down the words, it was done with utmost solemnity—yet people of the world do not deeply contemplate their contents.
If one traces the source and stream, the hidden and the manifest originally dwelt together.
These contents can ordinarily only be discussed with the worthy—how could one lightly write them into a book?
If one says nothing at all, one fears cutting off the Dao. But writing them on bamboo and silk, one fears leaking the tally of heaven. So one can only sigh and hesitate, turning over and over in endless entanglement.
The smelting and refining of the Dao of the elixir has its standards and measures and cannot be fully expounded here. I have set down the guiding principles; from these branches and twigs the students can comb through the rest.
Daoism and Confucianism sometimes confuse people: why do the two schools sometimes look so alike, and sometimes so unlike?
In Daoism, besides its own system of spirits and luminaries, there are also the sages of Confucianism. And though Confucianism lacks the later spirits and luminaries of Daoism, it also has sacrificial rites, and contains Daoist elements within them.
To explain this, we must trace back to high antiquity. According to the ancients, there was once a very brilliant culture; then this culture declined, and later was transmitted to form the unbroken line of Xia, Shang, and Zhou, until it reached Zhou.
The wars at the end of Zhou were the Spring and Autumn period. Later, according to the Basic Annals of Zhou: "Eastern and Western Zhou both entered into Qin; Zhou had already ceased its sacrifices."
Why mention this? Because ancient Zhou was a patriarchal clan system; the cream of their knowledge and culture circulated only within the royal clan, and outsiders could hardly obtain its essence.
One of the three sages mentioned in this text, King Wen, is King Wen of Zhou, Ji Chang. He developed the Zhouyi into sixty-four hexagrams and composed the line statements, and Ji Chang's studies of the Changes circulated within the Zhou royal house.
According to records, from more than a thousand years before the common era until more than five hundred years before it, no one ever saw what a true book of the Changes looked like. Later, when the Zhou royal house had declined, in 504 BCE the ruler of the state of Jin sent an envoy who, on the pretext of state affairs, obtained permission to read the book Images of the Changes.
At that time the Changes were divided into two works: the Images of the Changes and the Zhouyi. And the book Zhouyi was even within the Zhou royal house itself transmitted only in secret.
One of the three sages, Confucius, was originally a man of Lu. By chance he came to know Laozi, the keeper of the Zhou royal library—also the patriarch of Daoism. To avoid tediousness, I will not here address him as patriarch; reverence in the heart is enough.
Since Laozi was in charge of the Zhou royal books, he must have read them, and must have attained a certain degree of deep accomplishment—otherwise he would not have held this post.
So although the entire Daodejing does not discuss the Changes, the entire history of Daoism has always attended to and studied the Zhouyi—for this very reason.
In Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, Laozi is recorded as saying: "Laozi lived to more than a hundred and sixty years; some say more than two hundred." The meaning is that when Laozi was alive, if not more than a hundred and sixty years old, then more than two hundred.
This is because Laozi was born in the Spring and Autumn period, yet was still alive in the Warring States period—so he must have been at least a hundred years of age. Modern people are limited in their thinking, so most find this hard to understand.
Therefore most modern people doubt the descriptions of Laozi from that time, starting from his age, holding it impossible. In fact, even today, as long as the environment and air are good, counting around the country there are still quite a few elderly people living past a hundred and thirty—nothing strange about it.
And if one also cultivates, which can itself extend life, reckoning on the low side living past a hundred and sixty is hardly inconceivable either. In ancient and modern histories there are quite a few records of people exceeding two hundred years; it is merely that the materials are too sparse for thorough verification.
Moreover, the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon contains the question of "people of high antiquity who all lived past a hundred yet whose movements did not decline"—this is also not baseless talk.
Returning to the main topic: Confucius eventually obtained the Zhouyi. As for how he obtained it, history does not seem to record the details. If inferred from history, he likely collected it while traveling among the states. According to Sima Qian, Confucius originally collected more than three thousand pieces; after careful selection by him, the 305 pieces of the Book of Odes that have been handed down survived.
In any case, after he obtained it—he was already over fifty at the time—in his later years he repeatedly read the Changes, and taught his understanding and insights to his disciples. There is also a saying that the Ten Wings were not written by Confucius himself, but were later compiled by his disciples from his teachings. Whichever the case, Confucius's greatest contribution was not in whether he explained the Changes, but in spreading the Zhouyi to all under heaven.
In the Han Shu, Bibliographic Treatise, Summary of the Masters there is a relatively systematic summary:
The school of the Ru presumably originated in the office of the Minister of Education. They assisted the lord of men,顺应 yin and yang, and illumined transformation. They wandered amid the Six Classics and attended to benevolence and righteousness. They traced and narrated Yao and Shun, took Wen and Wu as their standards, and made Confucius their grandmaster to weight their words; in the Dao they were most lofty. Confucius said: "If there is something I praise, it has been tested." The flourishing of Tang and Yu, the grandeur of Yin and Zhou—the achievements of Zhongni were already tested and proven. Yet the bewildered have lost the essence and subtlety, and the biased oscillate with the times, departing from the root of the Dao. If they merely seek to dazzle the crowd and curry favor, later followers follow them—thereby the Five Classics are torn asunder and Ru learning gradually declines. This is the trouble of biased Ru.
The school of the Dao presumably originated in the office of the historiographer. They recorded through the ages the rise and fall, survival and peril, disaster and fortune—the Dao of past and present. Thereby they knew to grasp the essentials and hold the root, to guard themselves with pure emptiness and maintain themselves in humble weakness—the art of ruling others while facing south. This accords with Yao's yielding, and the Changes' "modest and modest": one humility yields four benefits—this is their strength. But when the dissolute practice it, they wish to cut off ritual learning and abandon benevolence and righteousness, saying that relying solely on pure emptiness can bring order.
The school of the Yin-Yang presumably originated in the offices of Xi and He. Reverently following the great heaven, they modeled the calendrical numbers of sun, moon, and stars, and reverently bestowed on the people their seasons—this is their strength. But when the rigid practice it, they are bound by taboos, stuck in minor calculations, abandon human affairs, and entrust themselves to ghosts and spirits.
The school of the Fa presumably originated in the office of the judge. Trusting in rewards and certain in punishments, they assist the system of rites. The Changes says: "The former king clarified punishments and regulated the laws"—this is their strength. But when the harsh practice it, there is no transformation; they remove benevolence and love, rely solely on punishments and laws, and yet wish thereby to achieve order. They even harm their closest kin, injuring kindness and thinning affection.
The school of the Ming (Names) presumably originated in the office of rites. In antiquity, names and ranks differed, and rites likewise had different measures. Confucius said: "What is necessary is to rectify names! If names are not correct, speech is not appropriate; if speech is not appropriate, affairs cannot succeed"—this is their strength. But when the calumniating (those who like to attack others' secrets) practice it, they merely hook and split into confusion (twisting, fragmenting, dispersing, and entangling).
The school of the Mo presumably originated in the keepers of the Clear Temple. Thatched roofs and wooden rafters—thereby valuing frugality; nourishing the three elders and five evening-fives—thereby embracing love; selecting scholars through the great archery—thereby honoring the worthy; solemn sacrifices to the father—thereby reverencing ghosts; following the four seasons in action—thereby denying fate; showing filial piety to all under heaven—thereby identifying with all. This is their strength. But when the one-sided practice it, seeing only the benefit of frugality, they thereby deny rites; and pushing the meaning of embracing love, they fail to distinguish close and distant.
The school of the Zong-Heng (Diplomacy) presumably originated in the office of emissaries. Confucius said: "Recite the three hundred Odes, yet sent on missions to the four quarters unable to respond independently—though many, what use are they?" And also: "An emissary! An emissary!" Meaning they should weigh the situation and adapt to the occasion, receiving commands but not rigid wording—this is their strength. But when the crafty practice it, they exalt deception and abandon trustworthiness.
The Changes says: "All under heaven return to the same destination by different paths; a single intention in a hundred considerations." Now the various schools each promote their strengths, exhausting knowledge and thought to clarify their aims; though they have blind spots and shortcomings, taking their essentials together, they are also branches and descendants of the Six Classics. If their people encountered an enlightened king and sagely ruler, and obtained what could mediate them, all would be materials of arms and thighs. Zhongni had a saying: "When rites are lost, seek them in the wild." Now we are far from the sages, the Dao and arts are incomplete and discarded, with nowhere further to seek—these various schools, are they not still better than the wild? If one can cultivate the arts of the Six Rituals and examine the sayings of these various schools, setting aside shortcomings and taking strengths, one can observe the strategies of the ten thousand directions.
From this summary one knows that the teachings of the Hundred Schools all have lineages; and what can unify them is the Changes. And each school has its unique face—if one can fully integrate and penetrate them all, one can truly give rise to a great learning.
The Changes further says: "One yin and one yang are called the Dao"—and yin and yang can deduce all things, so the Dao can contain all things.
Because later ages exclusively honored Ru teachings, in fact the Hundred Schools gradually merged into Confucianism and Daoism. Those closer to Ru learning joined the Ru; the remainder mostly entered Daoism.
So Daoist teachings are in fact a confluence of the Hundred Schools. Though conceptually they can contain all things—as in the Daoist text Taiping Jing, which broadly absorbed and integrated the thoughts of Ru, Fa, Mo, recipes and techniques, yin-yang, and other schools, forming a doctrine that organically combined cultivating the spirit with cultivating the form, ordering the body with ordering the state, entering the world with transcending the world.
Then turning back to what the Bibliographic Treatise says of the Daoists: "Thereafter they knew to grasp the essentials and hold the root, to guard themselves with pure emptiness and maintain themselves in humble weakness—the art of ruling others while facing south."
This is obviously a completely different concept from the Daoism known to true cultivators of the Dao—for this Dao is not that Dao. This summary's Dao can at most be called the Dao of officials.
Because the softness and weakness in the Daodejing is "softness and weakness overcome hardness and strength," not "maintaining themselves in humble weakness"—and this misunderstanding affected later ages.
It is not the Dao that people truly understand as Daoism, still less the Dao cultivated by those who practice the Dao. So this seemingly systematic account actually mixes in the author's own ideas.
This influence, when Buddhism entered China in the Han dynasty, initially entered and received attention under the name of a branch of the teaching of Laozi, established in principle and method by "its Dao values emptiness and nothingness."
Of course, there is also a saying that Buddhist monks came to China during the Qin dynasty. Actually that comes from the forged history Zhou Shu Shuyi, fabricated by Buddhist clergy in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The fabrication skill of that book is quite high, but the chronological records still have contradictions. Moreover, because of the gap in periods, people of the Northern and Southern Dynasties did not actually know what the Qin dynasty was like—so all the descriptions of China in it are of Northern and Southern Dynasties conditions. Thanks to modern archaeology, the forgery of the book was discovered.
In the early debates between Daoism and Buddhism, Buddhism basically relied on this book; and in the many later Buddhist scriptures, this book is often cited to add a halo for themselves.
But since it is a forged book, naturally it cannot be trusted.
If these were only mixed within the religions themselves, it would not be a problem. But if one seeks the great Dao, one must still trace back to the ancient culture of China and seek China's orthodox learning.
After all, ancient Chinese culture and ancient Indian culture are still very different. Chinese culture explores how to rule the myriad peoples; the main thrust of Indian teachings is how, as a person, one is ruled.
And at the level of the Dao, Chinese culture is about how to govern heaven, earth, and the ten thousand things so as to achieve the unity of heaven and human; while Indian culture is about how to face reality by avoiding it.
Only after understanding this main thrust can one understand: though Chinese culture has developed to the present, Chinese Buddhist culture is an important component—but culture is culture after all. Learning, borrowing, and referencing are fine, but the main body must still be grasped, and distinctions must be made.
This distinction is not narrow-mindedness, but a kind of refinement. As is said: gold is not pure until refined; only true gold fears no fire. On the path of cultivating the Dao, how could it be otherwise?
Although there was a process of Daoist thought's development in later history, this does not mean the Dao was only formed in later ages. As early as high antiquity, people had already recognized the concept of the Dao—and this is also why the Hundred Schools all spoke of the Dao.
It can be said that the Hundred Schools were all expounding their own understanding and realization of the Dao—whether the Ru, the Fa, or the Yin-Yang school of the Spring and Autumn period.
But taking only one side, all may be one-sided Daos. So one must learn and draw from all sides to know the Dao that exists before heaven and earth.
The Zhouyi itself is not the Dao, but it is an understanding of the Dao. In history it was secretly transmitted, and preserved as a system—but it is not the only system.
From the Guodian Chu slips (mid-fourth to early third century BCE, mid-Warring States) one can see this trace:
Ta Yi engendered water; water in turn assisted Ta Yi, thereby completing heaven. Heaven in turn assisted Ta Yi, thereby completing earth. Heaven and earth in turn assisted each other, thereby completing the spirits and luminaries. The spirits and luminaries in turn assisted each other, thereby completing yin and yang. Yin and yang in turn assisted each other, thereby completing the four seasons. The four seasons in turn assisted each other, thereby completing cold and heat. Cold and heat in turn assisted each other, thereby completing wetness and dryness. Wetness and dryness in turn assisted each other, completing the year and coming to rest. Thus the year is that from which wetness and dryness are engendered; wetness and dryness is that from which cold and heat are engendered; cold and heat is that from which the four seasons are engendered; the four seasons are that from which yin and yang are engendered; yin and yang is that from which the spirits and luminaries are engendered; the spirits and luminaries are that from which heaven and earth are engendered; heaven and earth is that from which Ta Yi is engendered. Therefore Ta Yi is stored in water, moves through the seasons, wheeling and beginning again, taking itself as the mother of the ten thousand things. One wanes and one waxes, taking itself as the cord of the ten thousand things. This that heaven cannot kill, earth cannot bury, yin and yang cannot complete. The gentleman knows this to be... (missing slips) The Dao of heaven values weakness: cutting down what is complete to increase what is engendered; attacking the strong, demanding from... (missing slips) Below, it is earth, and is called "earth." Above, it is qi, and is called "heaven." The Dao by its character is clear-dim in its name. Those who act by the Dao must entrust themselves to its name—thereby affairs succeed and the body endures. The sage's acting also entrusts itself to its name—thereby merit is accomplished and the body is not harmed. Heaven and earth's names and characters stand together; therefore when one passes their directions, one does not think them equivalent. Heaven is insufficient to the northwest; below it is high and strong. Earth is insufficient to the southeast; above it is... (missing slips) Those insufficient above have surplus below; those insufficient below have surplus above.
In this the very clear concept of "Ta Yi" appears, and it is said "Ta Yi engendered water"—this is in fact the earliest detailed description of "Heaven One engenders water."
And "Heaven One engenders water, Earth Two engenders fire, Heaven Three engenders wood, Earth Four engenders metal. Earth Six completes water, Heaven Seven completes fire, Earth Eight completes wood, Heaven Nine completes metal, Heaven Five engenders earth" comes from the Shangshu Da Zhuan, Treatise on the Five Phases.
From this one can infer: besides "Heaven One engenders water," whether "Earth Two engenders fire" or the others also have corresponding chapter descriptions.
The Book of Documents is related to this; so let us look at the origin of the Book of Documents.
Chinese history benefits from vast documentary materials—it is not like Western history, improvised on the spot. For example, ancient Greek history: much of it digs around islands and casually fabricates figures, then ties them to history and calls it Greek history—actually containing a great deal of forced analogy.
The Book of Documents, though classed with the Ru, was mainly organized by the Ru. Because its earliest name was the Book, it is a work transmitted from Yao and Shun through Xia, Shang, and Zhou, spanning more than two thousand years, and can be verified in the Three Tombs and Five Annals—showing it truly existed.
But it was once destroyed. After Qin Shi Huang unified China, he promulgated the Order to Burn Books; the Qin book-burning dealt a devastating blow to the transmission of the Book of Documents, and almost all the original copies were burned.
But some things preserved in human memory cannot be destroyed—and this benefited from how the ancients learned: upon studying, they would memorize the entire book.
In the Han dynasty, when Ru learning was again valued, the Book of Documents—orally transmitted by the Qin Erudite Fusheng and written in the clerical script current in the Han—comprised twenty-eight chapters; people called it the Modern Script Book of Documents.
There is a legend that in the Western Han, Prince Gong of Lu, while demolishing a section of wall at Confucius's former residence, discovered another Book of Documents, written in the scripts of the six states of the pre-Qin era; people called it the Old Script Book of Documents.
That is to say, it was in fact a collection containing quite a bit of high-antiquity knowledge. However, the modern discovery of the Tsinghua bamboo slips revealed that some chapters of the Book of Documents may have been fabricated by combining orally transmitted knowledge with collated pre-Qin texts.
But the "fabrication" here is not important, because even if fabricated, it was constructed on a knowledge system far earlier than the present.
What has been discovered in the modern Tsinghua slips is even more interesting. For example, they include detailed legends of ancient kings closely integrated with yin-yang, the Five Phases, and the gods—systematic and rich. The long pieces are mostly of this content; some organize the five cycles, five calculations, five seasons, five measures, five governors, five chapters, and other content into a rigorous system, extraordinarily rich.
That is to say, the Five Phases theories of the Warring States period were not as simple as what is known today—where the succession of the Five Virtes is merely a simple system of Five Phases mutual generation—but rather involved a very rich body of theory. However, to date this system has not been published at all.
The currently published Shifa and Biegua are quite interesting. They record a set of divination methods that look systematic yet are extremely confusing to modern people. Though they also use Yi hexagrams, their divination is entirely done with numbers, and many divination examples are appended.
Among them is also a calculation table, roughly from around 305 BCE. Using this Calculation Table—its counting is decimal—it forms twenty-one rows and twenty columns through intersecting bamboo slips, divided into multiplier and multiplicand units and tens places. Using the Calculation Table, one can not only quickly calculate the multiplication and division of any two integers under one hundred, but also two-digit multiplication involving the fraction 1/2.
The Shifa contains such a record: "In general for Qian, the moon at evening is auspicious; for Kun, the moon at morning is auspicious. For Kun, on the dark day, reverse Qian to lengthen Xun; entering the month at five days, lodge Xun. Qian and Kun lengthen Gen; for the ten-day cycle, Qian and Kun each return to their places." This is actually also a description of the moon's phases. One can see that during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, observation of the moon's phases already existed, and hexagram images had already begun to be used to describe them. So the claim that Jing Fang's na method came from Jiao Yanshou, and Jiao Yanshou from pre-Qin ancient methods, is established.
Therefore, among the Yi hexagrams, judging from all manner of traces, there must have been a set of mathematical logic used in conjunction with Yi-number calculation—and this is the basis for why the Cantong Qi says "calculated and examined down to fen and zhu."
And this set of mathematical logic, through continuous later research plus some secret transmissions, can basically be determined to this day: its scope does not depart from the River and Luo, the Five Phases, plus the Taixuan numbers.
These are the parts Perfected Wei dared not lightly discuss—among them also the secrets of fire-tempo. So in the later text he deliberated and disclosed them obscurely; students must reflect carefully to truly grasp their subtlety.