What is Chinese traditional culture? What is the core? What are the best and the worst? Why is dross produced? I believe that after reading this article, you will have a true understanding of "traditional culture" and correct your original misconceptions.
What is the real traditional Chinese culture? Is traditional culture as bad as some people criticize? Why should the country vigorously promote excellent traditional culture? I believe many people have these questions, so how should we define "traditional culture"?
What is traditional culture?
Maybe some people think that "traditional culture" is not simple? Doesn’t it mean wearing Hanfu, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Peking Opera, tea and wine culture, etc., to represent traditional culture? These are traditional cultures. What impresses the most among ordinary people is Confucian etiquette, the hierarchical clan system, and various religious cultures. Most people would consider these to be the core of traditional culture.
If this is how you view "traditional culture", then to be honest, these are dispensable. These are far from representing the real "traditional culture", but are some interpretations and applications produced under this culture. In other words: the foundation of culture is not in these.
Where is the foundation of traditional culture?
The foundation of traditional culture lies in: Yi Xue. This is a kind of knowledge that is suitable for human survival and development and the laws that must be followed when studying all things on the earth.
When many people mention "Yixue", they immediately conditioned themselves to the "Book of Changes" and think that the so-called "Book of Changes" refers to the knowledge of the "Book of Changes", plus fortune telling and other extensions. In fact, this is a misinterpretation of the "Book of Changes" . Yixue contains four main elements, which are "images, numbers, principles, and accounting." The four elements are a close combination. Without any one of them, it is difficult to fully understand the overall picture of Yixue. If you don’t have a thorough understanding of Yi Xue, you will have wrong ways and behaviors. China has always used Yi Xue as the main culture, forming the overall ideology of society. Once the understanding is not in place, the "Yi Xue" that guides human survival and production will be lost. Biased cognition of "reason" will cause bad effects and consequences.
What is Yi Xue?
In the academic system of Yi Xue, "images, numbers, principles, and accounting" each have their own content and definitions.
"Yixiang": The biggest one is the celestial phenomenon, and it is mainly the movement laws of celestial bodies in the solar system. Because people live on the earth and the earth is in the solar system, "people" follow the earth all the time. form of movement. Although humans can use tools to fly into space, it is undeniable that it is currently almost impossible to leave an environment like Earth. "There is no greater hanging image than the sun and the moon." The movement of the sun, earth, and moon creates time and formulates the calendar system. The calendar is a summary of the laws of motion of celestial bodies. Under the laws of celestial phenomena, there are also the formulation of "object images". The so-called "object images" include geographical creatures, four seasons and phenology, etc. Therefore, the symbols in traditional culture, such as stems and branches, any stem or branch can represent the movement node of the celestial body. It can also represent all things and laws on earth.
"Yisu": Yishu is a number summarized from the laws of celestial phenomena. Yishu also includes two things, one is regular numbers and the other is natural numbers. Regular numbers focus on the regular nodes that conform to the movement of celestial bodies. These include the three talents, four seasons, five elements, eight trigrams, nine palaces, ten stems, twelve branches, river diagrams, numbers in Luo Shu, etc. The premise for their formulation is that the motion of celestial bodies has a cyclical pattern. Under this premise, many usable pattern numbers can be generated. As for natural numbers, we are already very familiar with them. Natural numbers are the basis of mathematics, and mathematics is the basis of most subjects. Ancient China naturally had arithmetic very early, including arithmetic. It was natural for natural numbers to produce mathematics. It was only later that Due to the emphasis on "Yili", material aspects have been neglected. Easy numbers include natural numbers and regular numbers. It itself is a combination of matter and spirit, and both are indispensable. Without the help of natural numbers, the model produced by regular numbers will be unrealistic; and without the assistance of regular numbers, natural numbers will produce mathematics. A paradox that never has a solution.
"Yi Li": civilization ends.
Although there are not many answers to celestial phenomena. For example, for a concept in Yi Xue, if it is Hetu and Luoshu, there will be more than one celestial phenomenon, but it can be explored and verified, and it will not be too confusing. There are many, so from a certain perspective, celestial phenomena are standard. And if you use "physical phenomena and easy principles" to explain, then there will be too many answers. You can correspond to geography, temperature, humidity...all kinds of answers.
Yisu is just like celestial phenomena. Different research subjects and different forms of movement between celestial bodies will produce different Yishu. Using Yishu to model is operable and replicable. It is practical and not a very "virtual" concept. Therefore, Yi Shu is as standard as celestial phenomena.
The understanding of "Yi Li" must be based on the correct "celestial phenomena" and "Yi Shu", and cannot be fabricated out of thin air or blindly attached to it. If we cannot correctly understand the law of "images and numbers", the theory of changes discussed will be boundless. Especially in the contemporary society dominated by material technology, the academic learning of the ancients seems to have become a kind of self-justifying nonsense. No matter how hard "traditional culture enthusiasts" argue, without the understanding of "Xiangshu", you still can't truly explain traditional culture.
This is the essential reason why traditional culture brings a pedantic impression to modern people. At its root, it is still impossible to truly understand the foundation of traditional culture: Yi Xue.
What can the correct understanding of Yi Xue bring to civilization?
Throughout the development history of human beings, they are all left or right, and the same is true for people. The so-called "left and right" refer to "material" and "spiritual". Western society was first dominated by religion and was more spiritual. Later, the Renaissance and the rise of science brought about a certain period of coordination between matter and spirit, and civilization developed in great strides. Whether it is material or spiritual, it will have a great impact on civilization and human life and death. The development of material civilization to the present day is heavy on material and light on spiritual, which will also cause disasters.
Therefore, it is extremely correct for China to advocate the simultaneous development of material and spiritual development. Only advancing both ends in a coordinated manner is the correct development route. The original Confucian "gold mean" also meant this, that is, "doing everything in the middle way", but later it was understood to mean "mediocrity", inaction, and mud...
China now advocates promoting Excellent traditional culture helps build a culturally powerful country, and traditional culture is bound to receive more attention again. But what is the "essence" of traditional culture? What is the "dross" in traditional culture? We must start from the perspective of Yi Xue and follow the three-level perspectives of "Xiang, Number, and Theory" of Yi Xue to truly distinguish the essence from the dross. Because for thousands of years, the development of Yi Xue has gradually deviated from the correct track, due to the unclear "images and numbers". Therefore, a lot of "dross" has been produced. These "dross" take different forms, mixed with various academics, mixed with certain misunderstandings of religion, making it extremely complex and numerous, like a pile of " It is difficult to sort out the "messy threads". Only by going to the root cause and "clearing the source" can we completely "set things right".
Culture is the soul of a country and nation and the profound power in human nature. The prosperity of a country or nation is supported by cultural prosperity. Only by the return of "Xiangshu" and the correct return of "Yili" can the ideology of the entire society become more reasonable. Yi Xue culture studies the way of nature and man, which can enable the continuous virtuous cycle and development of civilization. It makes an individual's life clearer, has correct knowledge and correct views, and his behavior tends to be neutral. If the individual does well, the group will do well, the society will be better, and the world will be better.
Yixue and material technology
Yixue does not exclude material technology. On the contrary, Yixue requires the integration of spirit and material, and requires a scientific spirit. The scope of Yi Xue is to study all the laws in the solar system using the earth as the reference coordinate. It is people-oriented and studies how heaven, earth and people can develop sustainably and harmoniously.
For example, the use of Yi Shu is not just for fortune telling as we see it. It is not necessarily used in fortune telling. Yi Shu can be used in any field, regular numbers and natural numbers. Closely integrated, one cannot exist without the other.
From sociological laws, economic laws, the study of the universe and space, to the biological laws of the human body, the growth laws of animals and plants, the laws of object movement, etc., everything is inseparable from the application and exploration of regular numbers. Then going deep into the material level, it is inseparable from the use of natural numbers and the calculation of "observation of subtleties". Only the final combination of the two can make the academic world complete.
Physics, chemistry, natural subjects, etc., although they have been given new symbols in science, it does not affect our use of Yi Xue to verify and go deeper. Various mathematical conjectures and the development of basic theoretical mathematics are also inseparable from Yi Xue. Science is a way of exploration and a rigorous academic attitude. This kind of thinking is certainly what Yi Xue needs to possess. All black and white, wanton smearing, are either for profit, or are caused by wrong perceptions or wrong social behaviors. Most of the behaviors that deceive or engage in illegal affairs in the name of "traditional culture" are not only destroying culture, but also stem from the entire society's misunderstanding of "Yixue". It is precisely because they do not understand and are curious about it that they are "taken advantage of".
The correct understanding of "the unity of nature and man"
In the past, we often regarded "the unity of nature and man" as a philosophy and the survival philosophy of the ancients. In fact, these are not the correct understanding of "the unity of nature and man". And many traditional academics are based on the "unity of nature and man" as the basis of their arguments, such as traditional Chinese medicine. Once the "unity of nature" itself becomes a philosophy, the so-called philosophy is to justify and explain things that are unclear. It goes against the original intention of modern science. In this case, even the basic arguments cannot be established and cannot be explained. How can these academics develop? Not to mention revival.
"The unity of nature and man" is not a philosophy, but the use of celestial phenomena for regular statistics and the use of Yi Shu for model building. Therefore, within the Yi system, the essence of "the unity of nature and man" is a kind of philosophy. The product of modeling. It is something that is verifiable, has a model framework, and can be demonstrated with simple numbers, rather than talking about "big principles" without boundaries as the "old masters" say. The "number of images" is unknown, and these "old masters" are everywhere in ancient and modern times, all over the world.
Since the "unity of man and nature" can be proven, all concepts in traditional scholarship will have reasonable explanations and can also be verified by scientific means. It will no longer be the same "cloudy and foggy" talk about yin and yang and the five elements in the past. To be able to prove it, mastering the "xiangshu" method is the key.
How to explain any symbolic concept in traditional scholarship
In traditional culture, how to explain the basic symbols and concepts in different academics?
We must start from three perspectives: Yixiang, Yishu, Yili
Any concept, such as "Five Elements", what exactly are the Five Elements? The way of explanation should start from the movement of celestial bodies in the solar system. This is the biggest "changing image", because "there is no greater hanging image than the sun and the moon." The relative motion of the sun, earth and moon produces our time calendar system. Mutual movement produces all environments suitable for human habitation.
The largest one is "celestial phenomena". The movement of celestial bodies will have an impact on other celestial bodies. There are four basic forces attributed to the universe scientifically, but it is currently impossible to unify them all. The essence of their research is that we The influence caused by movement is called "Tao" and "Law" in Confucianism and Taoism.
For a certain symbol, sometimes there is not only one interpretation of celestial phenomena, but it depends on the celestial object you choose. But there are not many, basically within the scope of the solar system. The explanation of astronomical phenomena focuses on being able to be simulated and reproduced. A large number of conceptual explanations are not as practical as a screenshot of astronomical software.
After the explanation of the "celestial phenomenon" movement is given, there is the correspondence of various "object phenomena". The "object phenomena" are all things on the earth, which can be phenology, solar terms, animal and plant patterns, geography , temperature, humidity, ethics, etc., the list is endless.
An explanation of "Xiang" is given, followed by "Yisu". Yishu can be used and modeled. All kinds of traditional academic applications basically require the establishment of models first, as The Four Pillars itself is a model. The model must be able to give numerical nodes to demonstrate its rationality. It must have a corresponding relationship with the "celestial phenomenon". For example, if we want to explain the eight trigrams of Naganzhi, that is, the model steps in the Six Yao, then how to give Exporting nodes on transaction numbers and telling how to use these numbers for modeling is the key and requires empirical steps.
After the answer to "Xiangshu" is given, because Xiangshu has a certain standard, then the next step is the explanation of "Yili". In fact, such explanations have been filled with questions from ancient times to the present. There are a lot of them, and anyone who engages in cultural studies can probably tell a lot. So what we see most are all kinds of "big principles". These "principles" all belong to the interpretations of Yili. Whether these "Yili" explanations are reasonable depends on whether they are based on the correct understanding of "celestial phenomena" and "Yisu".
To sum up, most of the symbols and concepts in traditional culture need to be started from these three perspectives. If a symbol or concept does not have any "image-number" basis, then we have to Consider its authenticity and effectiveness.
What are the expressions of traditional culture?
The traditional culture we see is rich and colorful in form, including all kinds of things. These are the rich cultural forms that extend under the "Xianma Li" of Yi Xue. As long as the root causes are grasped in place, various new academics will emerge in the future. This is the basis of "a hundred schools of thought contending", or "cultural renaissance". If we don’t understand it from the source, it can be said that it will never be possible to revive the current outdated cultural forms alone.
Why do you say that? Let’s look at traditional Chinese medicine alone. Although the state supports the development of traditional Chinese medicine, if the origin and meaning of various concepts within the academic field of traditional Chinese medicine are still unclear, how can we talk about revival? By discovering more Chinese herbal medicines or verifying more ancient prescriptions? That's wasted effort. Because the efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine will also change with the environment of the times and human nature. "Carving a boat for a sword" will not work.
How did ancient times formulate a series of social systems through the Book of Changes?
In the opening chapter of "Han Shu·Lü Li Zhi": "Yu Shu" says "It is the same law of weights and measures." The so-called "law of weights and measures" is the "image number" rule we mentioned above. "Yu Shu" is said to record the dynasty before the Xia Dynasty: the Yu Dynasty, and the "same laws of weights and measures", that is, the modeling of "images and numbers" and the modeling of "the unity of heaven and man". This sentence is a summary. Under this rule, the rules and regulations of the entire society are formulated, which means "carefully measure the power, review the laws, repair and abolish officials, promote the people, and conduct government in all directions." After experiencing the chaos of the Warring States Period, and later in the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Mang was in power and "wanted to shine", so he "conquered the world and notified more than a hundred Zhonglu practitioners, and asked Xi, Liu Xin and others to lead the memorial", and carried out A series of activities were carried out, the main body of which is "preparing numbers, harmonizing, reviewing, appraising, and weighing", "reflecting on ancient and modern times, applying effects on Qi and things, harmonizing on the heart and ears, examining scriptures", and formulating arithmetic standards , laws and regulations on vocal music, correcting the calendar, formulating measurement units, length units, weight and depth units... thus forming a series of social rules and regulations, which are in line with the nature of heaven and earth.
Under these laws, many academic, literature, art, folk customs, musical instruments, etc. were produced. This kind of culture generally includes: etiquette, music, archery, imperialism, calligraphy, and mathematics; Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, ink, law, agriculture; calligraphy, music, martial arts, folk art, chess, ancient poetry, words, music, rhymes, music, drama, folk art, Chinese painting, couplets, lantern riddles, drinking orders, idioms, food, novels, architecture, clothing , tea and wine culture, etc...
According to different regions, the forms of culture are slightly different. For example, for the same drama, there will be Peking Opera, Yue Opera, Qin Opera, Chao Opera, Kun Opera, Hunan Opera, Henan Opera, Qu Opera, Hui Opera, Hebei Bangzi, Shadow Play, Sichuan Opera, Huangmei Opera, Cantonese Opera, Flower Drum Opera, Baling Opera, Puppet Show, Liyuan Opera, and Gezi Opera. , Lu opera, etc. This is the cultural difference brought by region. As long as it is established within a certain cultural framework, it will show the characteristics of a hundred schools of thought contending.
And if we want to trace the soil from which civilization emerged, we cannot reverse the order from effect to cause. The root and core of traditional culture are based on the "unity of nature and man" and the synergy of "images and numbers", which is why so many brilliant literary and artistic forms have evolved.
Is Yi Xue just an academic discipline?
In fact, Yi Xue cannot be said to be research, because in the end it is not learning. "Yi" is life. The understanding of "Yi" can improve people's understanding of the universe and nature. At the same time, it can also observe anything in life and discover their laws. The essence is to discover and explore for a better survival. The natural laws of the universe are the means and methods of survival. Whether it is basic mathematics, physical chemistry, or cosmic astronomy, their essence is to study the environment in which we live, study laws, and formulate tools that are beneficial to human survival.
Even if you have not deliberately studied "traditional culture" since you were a child, there is no doubt that you are absorbing "traditional culture" subtly in this soil and background. To extract the core of "traditional culture" and remove the dross is a problem that needs to be solved. Traditional culture has been impacted by material technology. In essence, as long as the balance between material and spiritual is coordinated and developed collaboratively, it will become better. And if the entire society simply leans towards any side, it will cause disaster.
"Easy is life", life does not require study. Life needs to be lived by everyone, some are good and some are bad. As long as you live in the solar system, you belong to the realm of "yi". It doesn't matter if you don't know Yi Zhan or numerology. You can experience the law of "Yi" from your life. Yi Zhan is just the terminal application of "Yi Xue". There is no doubt that material technology has been developing. In ancient times, materials were poor, human beings did not have much material enjoyment, and there were not many practical applications of Yi Xue. However, modern times are different. Modern times have been subdivided into many fields, and each field can be used. The system of "Easy to Learn" is in-depth. That is to pursue a rigorous, pragmatic and truth-seeking material attitude, and also follow the laws and phenomena shown by things. Only by grasping these two points, Yi Xue can flourish in various fields.
Is traditional culture obsolete? Can’t the Five Elements build aircraft and cannons?
Republic of China scholars criticized traditional culture. For example, Liang Qichao said: Yin, Yang and Five Elements have been the stronghold of superstition for two thousand years.
In fact, it is not difficult to imagine that after the essence of civilization became less understood in the Han Dynasty or even earlier, the celestial phenomena became difficult to understand, and the rootless Yili began to get out of control. , society became formalistic, Yili was exploited, and the invasion and integration of foreign cultures brought about a stagnant stage in subsequent cultural development. This situation became even more obvious by the end of the Qing Dynasty. Material science and technology had lagged far behind the West, so those who fell behind would be beaten. When facing the culture, the literati lamented its misfortune and were angry about its uncontested attitude. But when faced with the reality, they were helpless and unable to change it. Then they will denounce the previous culture and regard it as useless.
And if there is a culture that has become ungrounded, emphasizing spirituality over material things, emphasizing theory over practice, most of the literati in the entire society only like to "reason" all day long, and do not apply it on the ground. It's just for fortune telling and nonsense. So such a culture is indeed useless. Such a culture itself violates the purpose of "Yi Xue". One yin and one yang are called Tao, so how can we separate the two sides of things?
So in modern times, the Chairman broke the shackles of two thousand years of decadent ideas and put the deformed culture back on track. In modern times, we also advocate the simultaneous development of material and spiritual things. This is the right path. For the "traditional culture" of the past, we need to remove the essence from the root and absorb the lessons of the past. This is the correct path for civilization development.
The "Five Elements" is just a regular product, a celestial body movement node formulated by the "Xiang Number". Just because of the principle of analogy in Yi Xue, all things can be divided into the attributes of the "Five Elements", which can It is a low-level identification method.
It is true that the "Five Elements" cannot directly create aircraft and cannons, but you can explore and study the laws of things through different professional academics. Since things have laws, they must also follow the laws of the solar system. It doesn’t matter whether you call its academic symbols and concepts “Five Elements” or not. You can use scientific terms and symbols. It doesn’t matter what it is called, but the creation of things is inseparable from laws.
Yixue pays attention to "continuing life" and being virtuous. You must first have these good qualities and a pragmatic, focused and enterprising spirit of studying things to learn, and then use these qualities for inventions and creations. , used in work, career and life, this is the correct way and attitude.