Abstract
The thinking of “Yidao” started by Zhouyi is, under the mysterious mask of witchcraft, one of the early-mature, profound, broad and powerful cultural deposits of the Chinese nation. That Zhouyi conceives such cultural deposits is due to its thinking trait of “adopting xiang” and “xiangyijinyi”. Once this sort of “Xiang thinking” originating from the remote ages and becoming mature in the age of Zhouyi is properly expressed at a theoretical level, for example, via the system of 64 gua, it will exert great and far-reaching influences on the advancement of the “primordially creative” thought and culture. Albeit the mask of witchcraft is often employed to take advantage of the superstitious, great thinkers through all the ages are capable of penetrating the mask and, by virtue of the enlightenment from the primordially creative thinking of Zhouyi, promoting the progress of Chinese thought and culture.
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Notes
- 1.
As to the “theory of construction” and “theory of generation” of the universe, cf. Dong Guangbi, Modern Neo-Daoists, Beijjing: Huaxia Publishing House, 1991.
- 2.
Of the 64 gua in Zhouyi, only Qian gua and Kun 坤 gua differ from others, having one more piece of xici with regard to their yao respectively, and as to the former, it is called using nine, the latter using six. The two extra yao function as the principles, in dialectic fashion, for the coming phenomena of the life-world.—the translator.
- 3.
The reading of the number of yao in each gua starts from the bottom; the same holds of the order of yao.—the translator.
- 4.
The four are all keys of Confucian doctrines—the translator.
- 5.
A sort of folk dance for celebration with dragon as the signal—the translator.
- 6.
Here, the former, i.e., xiaoxu, represents the name of the gua, and the latter the number and position of its yao (nine stands for yangyao, i.e.—; six for yinyao, i.e., - -). As to the “three” here, it is the position of the yao, that is, this “three” is the third line of yao read from the bottom of the gua.—the translator.
- 7.
To understand this part better, it is advised to take into consideration the parlance of Laozi, namely “Dao generates one, one two, two three, and three things in the life-world”. By saying so, I mean the Almighty One is nothing other than Dao, and when it generates water, we may naturally associate the “One generates two (here it refers to water and the element of Almighty One in water)” of Laozi; similarly, when heaven is generated, we may liken it to “two generates three (here it refers to heaven, water and the ever-being Almighty One in them)”.—the translator.
- 8.
This reform is the dividing line between ancient and modern Chinese characters, which results in more ease insofar as Chinese characters are recognized. Before the reform, calligraphies were primarily about xiaozhuan小篆, a sort of character very hard to recognize and now mainly seen in seals. —the translator.
- 9.
A few words must be added here: I employ “primordial” through the work in lieu of the more acceptable and seemingly more reasonable “primary” or “primal” partly due to the “fa” in “yuanfa chuangsheng”. For one thing, yuan and fa in Chinese are better understood when associated together which, nevertheless, will surely hinder the rendering into English. To be sure, I may use “primarily triggered” or something, but when again associated with the following chuangsheng, this version would appear absurd and out of place. To adopt “primordial” is not the best way notwithstanding, it can embrace, to a certain extent at least, the “primal” and the “triggering” as well. Alas, translation is really sometimes too far behind to catch up with the original words. I beg, sincerely, the readers’ understanding here.—the translator.
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Wang, S. (2018). The Primordially Creative Thinking of Zhouyi and “Xiang Thinking”. In: Returning to Primordially Creative Thinking. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-9048-6_2
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