I imagine I lived in the ancient time, and was a hunter of deers and a forager of berries. I saw the direction of streams, the movements of stars, the shape of clouds in summers and winters, and the colours of trees in springs and autumns. The lawfulness of nature was apparent to me, although I could not decipher the details of its laws. What language must I invent to describe a generalization of nature? What system must I devise to bring together a list of abstract principles derived from observation and experience?

Reading I-Ching, the sweeping vision of nature and humanity in ancient times spreads before me. I-Ching, also known as the Book of Change, is a system said to be originated by Fu Hsi (~2800BC). Using a binary notation to denote an extraordinary set of symbols, it is a system to interpret the processes of nature, and thereby the affairs of man.

The name of I-Ching implies three ideas: Simplicity, Change, and Invariability. Each entry in the book starts with a hexagram, which is a stack of six lines either solid (yang, masculine, creative) or broken (yin, feminine, receptive). Each 3-lines is a trigram, which represents an element of nature (heaven, earth, water, thunder, etc); each hexagram is a combination of 2 trigrams, representing a humanistic concept (family, youth, progress, conflict, revolution, perseverance, completion, etc). The hexagram is then explained, its metaphor discussed, and the meanings on each of the six lines defined.

It is a delight to read and ponder these poetic metaphors and ambiguous wisdoms. For example, the water under a mountain is the image of youth:

“It is not I who seek the young fool; The young fool seeks me.”

Or, water above wood, the image of the well:

“The town may be changed, but the well cannot be changed. It neither decreases nor increases. They come and go and draw from the well.”

Or, mountain and thunder (hexagram shaped like a mouth), the image of nourishment:

“Pay heed to the providing of nourishment and to what a man seeks to fill his own mouth with.”

Evidently, I-Ching was a system of divination in ancient China. Feng-Shiu, among many other superstitious practices, are its degenerated forms. As we manipulate atoms, unravel the genetic code, and know the specifics of nature’s laws, these hexagrams are now but intellectual nostalgia or silly poems to many of us. On the other hand, many of us who live in mega cities now hardly have time to appreciate nature as our ancestors did, let alone contemplate upon its lawfulness and its relationships to humanity.

Posted on November 7th, 2005  | RSS 2.0 |