The Illustrated Book of Changes by Li Yan (1997), I-Ching
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The Illustrated Book of
Changes
F OREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS
BEIJING 1997
First Edition 1997
CONTENTS
Preface to
The Illustrated Book of Changes
Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate
I
VI
Hardback ISBN 7-119-01990-2
Paperback ISBN 7-119-01991-0
© Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, China, 1997
Published by Foreign Languages Press
24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037, China
Distributed by China International Book Trading Corporation
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P.O. Box 399, Beijing, China
Printed in the People's Republic of China
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Catalogue
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Part One
Qian (1)
Kun (2)
Zhun (3)
Meng (4)
Xu (5)
Song (6)
Shi (7)
Bi (8)
Xiao Xu (9)
E0 (10)
Tai (11)
Pi (12)
Tong Ren (13)
Da You (14)
Qian (15)
Yu (16)
Sui (17)
Gu (18)
Lin (19)
Guan (20)
Shi He (21)
Bi (22)
Bo (23)
Fu (24)
Wu Wang (25)
Da Xu (26)
Yi (27)
Da Guo (28)
Kan (29)
Li (30)
Part Two
Xian (31)
Heng (32)
Dun (33)
211
218
225
Da Zhuang (34)
Jin (35)
Ming Yi (36)
Jia
Ren (37)
Kui (38)
Jian
(39)
Xic (40)
Sun (41)
Yi (42)
Guai (43)
Gou (44)
Cui (45)
Sheng (46)
Kun (47)
Jing (48)
Ge (49)
Ding (50)
Zhen (51)
Gen (52)
Jian (53)
Gui Mei (54)
Feng (55)
Lŭ (56)
Xun (57)
Dui (58)
Huan (59)
Jie (60)
Zhong Fu (61)
Xiao Guo (62)
Ji Ji (63)
Wei Ji (64)
Notes to
The Illustrated Book of Changes
Preface to
The Illustrated Book of Changes
Li Yan (Zhuangbei
Beginning in the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century B.C.), or even
further back, China's
Book of Changes,
or
Yi
Jing
(often
I
Ching),
began
a process of gradual evolution. Contributors included the legendary Fuxi,
King Wen of Zhou (11th century B.C.) and Confucius (551-479 B.C.), as
well as many great unknown minds and hands. It took over one thousand
years for this unique classic to come into being. And, in the almost two
thousand years that followed, in-depth research on the book by many
scholars has helped the book to further develop.
Originally titled
Zhouyi,
or
Zhou Changes,
the book, recommended by
Confucius, was listed as the principal classic of the Confucian school and
was renamed
Yi
Jing,
or the
Book of Changes.
In Chinese, the word
jing
means the vertical threads (warp) when weaving cloth. There have to be
vertical threads before horizontal ones (woof) can be weaved onto them.
Later, people respectfully called any philosophical work that can guide
people
jing.
In the five thousand years of Chinese civilization, the philo-
sophy in the
Book of Changes
has gradually been woven into people's lives,
and the book came to be known as
a
jing,
or book of guiding principles.
Graphically, Zhouyi means "knowledge of scheming of universal
significance." The
Zhouyi is
the record of the Chinese outlook on the
universe and a classic of divination based on this outlook. It should be
pointed out that the study of divination in ancient China was a major
branch of knowledge that was strictly tested by practice. The
Zhou Li,
or
the
Ritual of
Zhou,
a book recording rituals in ancient China, points out
that "a diviner would write his prediction on a piece of silk fabric so that
he could compare what would really have happened with his divination;
and by year's end, the trueness of his divination would be examined." Wei
Boyang, a
Yi
Jing
scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220), said
more clearly that "instead of being fabricated, the words and viewpoints
of the
Zhouyi
came into being through observing the results and examin-
ing the subtlety of divination."
Because of the seriousness and effectiveness of the ancient divination
represented by the
Zhouyi,
it became an important factor in the decision
making of rulers. Let's see what Ji Zi, a wise man, told King Wu of Zhou
(11th century B.C.) about the impact the diviners had on the decisions
made by ancient emperors. He said that in those days whenever there was
a
major decision to be made, a five-vote system was adopted: one vote was
from the emperor, one from the administrative representative, one from
the civilian representative and the remaining two were from the diviners.
If the emperor and the civilian voted against it, the motion could still he
passed and it would still be considered to turn out good results; if the
emperor and the administrator voted against it, the draft could be passed
as well. From this we can see the important role played by diviners in
decision making.
The
Book of Rituals
also records that if anyone tried to cheat when
doing divination, he would face execution. In this sense, the
Yi Jing
should
be seen as a book with unique and effective divinatory powers developed
by the Chinese ancestors through their serious, or rather, cruel life and
practice.
When Confucius -who held that things can he done only through
divination and without it they would be abandoned halfway—found out
about
Zhouyi
in his later years, he regretted that "if only heaven could
give me a few more years and let me find out about
Zhouyi
when I was
fifty, I would not have made all those mistakes." My father Li Kuchan
once told me that the
Zhouyi,
in a sense, was a great book on mathematical
philosophy in this world."
The
Zhouyi
is a form of analysis unique in terms of its understanding
of society and the divination based on this understanding. It sets itself
apart from other forms of logic first of all, because it uses images rather
than logical thinking as its main way of thinking and expression in its
arguments. Secondly, symbols are used to demonstrate the process of
understanding. For example, when we say (in the language generally used
in logical thinking) that "when something is far away from you, you can
not really understand it. You may even misunderstand it. As you get closer
to it, however, you will have a better idea. But when you think you have
understood it, you will have doubts about it now that you are near it.
Nevertheless, as time goes by, your doubt will be solved." When the same
thing is said in the
Zhouyi
using images, it is expressed in this way:
"Horses have galloped and turned to this way. People are riding on the
horses coming nearer. Who are they? Oh, they are not bandits. They have
conic to propose. The woman is a decent person, but she could not get
pregnant. It was only after ten years that she became pregnant.
"
(Sec the
tun
hexagram). The qian (universe) hexagram, , symbolizes heaven.
The dragon, the totem of the Chinese people created by the ancient
Chinese is the symbol of the formless heaven(qian). The six lines in this
qian
hexagram have six meanings. For instance, the bottom line is a
"hidden and rolled up dragon whose opportunity to show his talent has
yet to come_" The fifth line indicates that "the dragon is now flying in the
vast sky, which is a time where great man will appear." The
Zhouyi
vividly
puts the understanding of a thing past, present and future onto a coordi-
nate of time and space to predict and get a better understanding of this
particular thing. This is indeed a special wisdom the Chinese have contri-
buted to the world.
The symbols in the
Zhouyi
came into being over many years of life
and practice by the Chinese ancients. People in the ancient world tried to
understand the world by watching the sun and the shadows. If you put up
a pole at noontime, the shadow of the pole will be in the middle and short,
just like the shape of "—." As the sun goes down, the shadow will he tilted
and long, and the pole and shadow will form an angle like "
/." In long
past ages, Chinese wise men carved "—" and "/\ " on bones or tortoise
shells to represent
yang
and
yin,
respectively. These symbols, however,
were later changed into "—" and "/ \" which were gained changed to
"
and "- -" for the convenience of carving. In the opinion of the Chinese
ancestors, everything is connected to
yin
or
yang
no matter how compli-
cated things in the world change. The apparent difference and change of
things result from the changes of ratio of the inner
yin
and
yang,
which
is also the principle of the
Book of Changes.
The "—" and "- -," the basic
symbols in the
Book of Changes,
are used to express the knowledge of
changes in the universe. The ancients also held that the world was formed
by the three cosmic powers, i.e., heaven, earth and people. Therefore, they
invented another basic triagram, which has three lines, each of which is
known as
a yao.
Their full combination is 2
;
=8, or the eight triagrams in
eight formations, representing eight natural phenomena:
Symbols:
Natural
Phenomena: heaven earth thunder mountain wind lake fire water
Name of
Triagram:
qian kun zhen gen xun dui li kan
The ancients also held that the understanding of the relations among
heaven, earth and people should include two aspects: inborn instinct and
acquired knowledge. In this sense, when two groups of three-lines are put
together, they become six lines, thus the symbol of a "compound tri-
agram,
"
appearing as 2`'
=
64, or 64 hexagrams, representing 64 things or
situations. Take the
jinn
hexagram
=
for example: the upper three
yao
symbolize water while the lower three
yao
represent mountain, meaning
water on the mountain. It can be understood in this way: water from the
mountain does not flow directly and freely (it winds about and hurdles
many obstacles). We can be certain that the water will flow downward.
Although the waterway may be tortuous, in the end, the prospects are
promising. Another example is the
dui
hexagram both the upper and
lower three
yao
represent lake, meaning kindness and smoothness, auspi-
cious future.
The
Book of Changes
uses a series of 64 writings to explain the
meaning of every hexagram, with the first section, or hexagram readings,
of each series telling the basic meaning of the hexagram; the second to the
in
seventh sections, known as
yaoci,
or line readings, of each series basically
explaining the specific line (the
qian
and
kun
hexagrams each has one
more section of
yaoci
than other hexagrams). Here, the hexagram readings
explain the whole meaning of that particular hexagram and its divination.
The
yaoci
explains the situation in the stage of that particular hexagram
divined by that
i•ao.
Understanding and conforming to nature and society in their changes,
the philosophy in the
Book
of
Changes
does not define absolute favorable-
ness or unfavorableness. Good or ill luck, smoothness or adversity are all
relative and transformable. As long as you can grasp the proper time,
position and direction, you can obtain relative freedom even under abso-
lutely restricted circumstances. On the other hand, if you proceed from a
stiff and one-sided view, you may end up in a situation which is unfavor-
able and dangerous to you even if the other circumstances are favorable.
Considering the above as the principles of heaven and earth, the
Book
of
Changes
puts the two hexagrams of heaven
(titan)
and earth
(kun)
as the
first and second hexagrams. This shows how Chinese worship the "way of
heaven" or the law and virtue of heaven.
The
Book
of
Changes
held that proper changes can transform the
unfavorable to the favorable. The fourth
yaoci
in the
ge
(reform) hexa-
gram goes like this: "Worries and regretfulness are gone and captives have
been taken. This is because the destiny of reform is auspicious."
It is easy to misread the
Book
of
Changes
and conclude that it
advocates fatalism. This is not the case. Instead, it propagates the theory
of "understanding the decree of heaven." Confucius pointed out in the last
chapter of his
Lunyu,
or
The Analects,
that "those who don't know the
decree of heaven will not be considered as intellectuals. Therefore, the
Book
of
Changes,
strongly recommended by the Confucianists, was natur-
ally considered as the "head of all classics" and the "source of great
philosophy."
No matter from which angle we look at it, all viewpoints and thoughts
in the long history of Chinese civilization find their root in the
Book
of
Changes.
We can find the living influence of its philosophy in every aspect
of Chinese life, such as their outlook on the universe, life, values, the
environment,
managing finance as well as rituals, ways of thinking,
expression, aesthetics, and military thinking.
Every science and civilization in this world came into being and
developed in certain cultural environment. This is the same with both
Western and Chinese science and civilizations. While they share common
characteristics, they are also unique in their own way. Only by working
hard to develop their uniqueness, can they benefit each other. If we
measure and comment the uniqueness of one thing only by using that of
another, we may result in distorting, or even concealing its uniqueness,
thus bringing harm to this world where all civilizations tend to mix
together. With the intention of doing my' bit towards furthering Western
and Eastern cultural exchange, I have tried for the first time in the history
of the research of the
Book
of
Changes
and that of fine art to illustrate
this hook.
On the basis of China's standard
Book
of
Changes
and the
Book
of
Changes
written on the silk of the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D.
8) unearthed in 1973, I have adjusted the original content and translated
it into colloquial Chinese. Now with 450 illustrations, I hope I have
presented my readers with a more vivid and easier explanation of this
ancient classic. At the request of many foreign readers, this book is now
published by the Foreign Languages Press in English, French, German
and Spanish. This will no doubt benefit the cultural exchange between
China and the West. It should noted that the content in this book mainly
contains the hexagram and
yaoci,
or line readings, in the
Book
of
Changes,
and the explanation of the diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, the core of
the
Book
of
Changes.
For ease of reading, l did not list all the sources.
It is my hope that my foreign readers will like the
Book
of
Changes
and thus, this illustrated one. I would like to take this opportunity to
express my heartfelt thanks to Mr. Kang Yin, Mr. Liu Dajun and Mr.
Zhang Yansheng, who have given me great assistance in my research of
the
Book of Changes.
My
thanks also go to the Foreign Languages Press
for its support in translating and publishing this book.
At the Beijing Studio, 1995.
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