Lecture 2: The Book of Changes

Original works, ripping, transcribing without signing my name, plagiarizing my work, legal responsibility!

Before we start talking about eight-character numerology, we must first talk about the eight-character ancestor "I Ching".

"I Ching" refers to the three books of "Lianshan", "Returning to Tibet" and "Zhou Yi". Among them, "Lianshan" and "Returning to Tibet" have been lost, and only one copy of "Zhou Yi" has been handed down. The earliest "Lianshan" can be traced back to the beginning of the Chinese nation's human civilization, and is the most ancient traditional culture in China before the production of writing, so it makes sense that "I Ching" is revered as the source of ancient Chinese civilization thought, and is known as "the head of the group of classics, the source of the avenue".

"Book of Changes" passed down to the Zhou Dynasty, legend has it that King Wen of Zhou compiled a book according to the "River Map" and "Luo Shu", which was called "Zhou Yi" in later generations, and was deleted many times after Zhou Yi was written, and finally determined in the hands of Confucius. The "Zhou Yi" we see now is the "Book of Changes" after Confucius "deleted the Six Classics and laid down the constitution for eternity".

After being deleted by Confucius, the Book of Changes is divided into two parts, one part is to sort out the legend of the compilation of the "Sutra" for King Wen of Zhou, the "Sutra" is mainly 64 hexagrams and 384 hexagrams, and the hexagrams and hexagrams have their own explanations (hexagrams, hexagrams) for divination. Part of it is the "Biography" compiled and edited by Confucius, which contains a total of ten articles explaining seven kinds of hexagrams and epigrams, collectively known as the "Ten Wings".

In the hundreds of years after the compilation of the Book of Changes by King Wen of Zhou, the Jing did not put forward the concepts of Yin and Yang and Tai Chi, but was formed after the Yi Chuan was produced, and its theories mainly came from Lao Tzu and Confucius.

Lao Tzu put forward the idea of "one life two: two give birth to three, and three give birth to all things" in the "Tao Te Ching", and Confucius put forward the idea of "two rituals give birth to four elephants, and four elephants give birth to gossip" in the "Ten Wings" series of words.

Before learning traditional Chinese culture, don't underestimate these two seemingly simple sentences, whether it is Eastern civilization or Western civilization, the "political, humanistic, and religious" civilization practiced by human beings comes from these two sentences.

These two sentences constitute the most traditional and orthodox ideological concept and civilization consciousness of the Chinese nation, and also include Western philosophical thoughts.

World civilization is the same, whether you live in Europe, Asia or South Africa, human civilization is the same as the human body texture, not only the color of the skin.

These two sentences also represent the two major cultural sects in China, namely Taoism and Confucianism.

These two sentences also represent the two different cultural ideas of "Hetu" and "Luoshu" in the Book of Changes.

Looking at it now, these two sentences also represent the roots of two different cultural ideas in the East and the West in the world today, that is, Western philosophy and Eastern rational thought.

Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that the I Ching is the secret code to unlock the mysteries of the universe. The reason is that the "Hetu" and "Luoshu" in the Book of Changes represent the two mathematical principles of human culture, which are the foundation of Western philosophy and Eastern science.

In Western philosophy, it has long been believed that human civilization is derived from mathematical principles, and now all genes in the universe are mathematical codes.

Now that we know that the universe does not have a concept of time, and there is no mathematical principle of nature, so where does the concept of time come from? The answer is from the human world, from the earth where we live.

Outside the earth, it is certainly not the concept of time that we know now, the universe does not have the theory of time, because the universe is boundless, and there is no reference object that can determine time to calculate time, but the earth where human beings live has the concept of time, which gives rise to the concept of numbers. So where does the human concept of time come from?

Coming from the sun and the moon, we are fortunate that we not only have the sun to illuminate the day, but also the moon to accompany the night.

Fortunately, the earth where human beings live has the sun and moon as a reference to calculate time, when human beings have the concept of calculating time, all human civilization has begun, and natural human culture must also start from data, there is no doubt about this!

If you were to be put in outer space, where there was no day or night, how could you come to the concept of time?

When human beings have the concept of time, human beings have the ability to remember, can record the past, civilization can be regarded as the beginning, animals live today, forget how to be civilized today?

Therefore, all civilizations come from recording, judging, reasoning, summarizing, synthesizing, storing and promoting, and this is especially true of human civilization.

The two sentences "two in one life: two in three and three in all things" and "two yi give birth to four elephants, and four elephants give birth to gossip" are the origin of mathematics that the ancient Chinese based on numbers recorded, judged, reasoned, summarized, synthesized and stored and promoted. It can be said that no matter how developed modern civilization is, you must also walk under these two sentences, whether you are Eastern civilization or Western civilization, whether you are Eastern science or Western philosophy, no matter how lofty your theoretical tower is, these two sentences will always be your starting point.

Just like Western philosophers, no matter how great you are and how profound your thoughts are, you can never get out of the philosophical path set up by Socrates, and you can only move forward along Socratic thought. Such as Hegel and Kant.

In the same way, no matter how great and profound your thoughts are among the Chinese physicists, you can never get out of the path of science set up by Lao Tzu and Confucius, and you can only follow their thoughts. Such as Zhu Xi and Wang Shouren.

It should also be added here that no matter how brilliant Western philosophy is, it is also a study that cannot surpass the study of the Book of Changes, and no matter how extensive your theory is, you must also return to the origin of these two sentences. It's just that Westerners don't recognize it, but it doesn't mean that their philosophy goes beyond the scope of the two cultural ideas of "Hetu" and "Luoshu" in the Book of Changes.