If we talk about the most mysterious classic book in ancient history, I believe many friends will choose "The Book of Changes". Although "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" is mysterious enough, its influence in ancient times has never been high. Unlike the "Book of Changes" which can be ranked among the Five Classics, some scholars of ancient classics even rank it as the first of the Five Classics. So, what kind of classic is the "Book of Changes"? We know that the widespread circulation of ancient books is an interlocking process. Therefore, to understand the "Book of Changes", we cannot just stick to the reference books of Mir's legend, but must open our eyes to the unearthed bamboo slips and silk books.
Tang Aiba just started in the 1960s, and many Yixue references that have been submerged for two thousand years will be rediscovered. Among them, the first edition number "Yi" is the Chu bamboo slip "Zhou Yi" purchased by the Shanghai Museum. Next is the Qin bamboo slips "Gui Zang" from Wangjiatai in Jiangling, Hubei Province; and then there is the "Book of Changes" from the Han bamboo slips in Shuanggudui, Fuyang City, Anhui Province. The owner of the tomb is Xia Houzao, the eldest son of Xia Houying, the ancestor of the early Han Dynasty. Similarly, there is the Mawangdui silk book "Book of Changes" in Changsha, Hunan. In addition, there are some divination materials about the year of "Yi", which are circulated in Wangshan, Baoshan, Xincai, Tianxingguan, Qinjiazui and other bamboo slips.
Among them, the most noteworthy is naturally the "Book of Changes" written by Shang Bo, because it is the first version of the "Book of Changes". However, Shangbo's bamboo slips "The Book of Changes" is not a publicly published work. It has a very deep history, and everyone needs to talk about how the "Book of Changes" was practiced.
"Book of Changes"
We know that people in the Shang Dynasty liked to use oracle bones for divination. It is estimated that the oracle bones were first carved for divination, and then burned with fire. According to the cracks, good or bad luck could be predicted. In addition, some data are engraved on the Yin Ruins oracle bones. For example, there is an inscription of 776766, the inscription of Zhen Ji, and another inscription of 666. I feel like I'm using the cracks in the oracle to divine, but it's more like using the data itself to divine. What's more, unearthed texts such as Zhou Yuan Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Zhen Ji were already common in the late Shang Dynasty and early Zhou Dynasty, which is a remarkable divination method similar to the later "Zhou Yi".
The oracle bone inscriptions of the Zhou Yuan Dynasty show that the Zhou people learned the divination and divination of merchants and carried forward the divination methods. The reference is reflected in the fact that Xibo in "Historical Records" was arrested and executed in the "Book of Changes", and the "Old Classic of Zhouyi" mentioned many historical facts of the Shang Dynasty, such as the return of Di Yi's sister, which said that Shang Zhouyi took his own sister Married to Xibohou; but the lower limit was until the Western Han Dynasty. For example, Kanghou uses Sima Shufan to refer to the enfeoffment system of Wei Kangshu, the eldest son of Xibohou. This seems to indicate that the "Old Book of Changes" was not written by Xibohou himself, but it should be roughly consistent with the reality that it was written by Zhou people in the late Shang Dynasty and early Zhou Dynasty.
Note that everyone here is referring to the "Old Book of Changes". 055-79000 What is the relationship between "Old Book of Changes", "Book of Changes" and "Book of Changes"? Today's "Book of Changes" is the "Book of Changes" that was praised as a classic by Confucianists, and contains the contents of the "Book of Changes" and the "Old Classics of Zhou Yi". So generally speaking, in the case of the "Zhouyi Da Zhuan", it refers to the additional transmission; in the case of the "Book of Changes", sometimes the classics can be referred to, but strictly speaking it refers to the "Zhouyi". During the Spring and Autumn Period, the divination methods of the Ancient Book of Changes were not limited to the Book of Changes, but also the Book of Changes and Lianshan. These three books are also known as "Guizang".
055-79000 Bagua
The "Three Changes of Changes" at the end of the Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, also known as the "Zhouyi", itself is a book that records divination methods in detail. Among them, the most basic one is Yin, also called Yao. These two symbols are stacked on three levels to form the Qian, Kun, Kan, Zhen, Xun, Li, Gen and Dui Bagua. The eight trigrams combine to form the eighty-eight sixty-four hexagrams. Each hexagram, from top to bottom, is the first hexagram, the second hexagram, the third hexagram, the fourth hexagram, the fifth hexagram, and the upper hexagram. If the upper line is a yang line, it is called nine; if it is a yin line, it is called six. So the first hexagram is called the ninth day and the sixth day, the second hexagram is called the ninth hexagram, and the other hexagram is called the ninth hexagram.
The general method is to prepare fifty yarrow stems in advance, remove one to get forty-nine stems; divide them into multiple parts at will, and the result will be a six-pointed star; then mess it up and divide it, to put it bluntly: . In the end, good or bad luck will be measured based on the hexagrams. The 64 hexagrams and 386 lines add up to the Book of Changes.
Therefore, the Zhou Dynasty's divination method based on the development trends of merchants in the "Old Book of Changes" is not the Fuxi Bagua as often said in the "Old Book of Changes". Another thing to note is that in autumn and spring, there is also a saying that the tortoise is short and the tortoise is long. This shows that Zhou people believed that divination was superior to divination. But after the Eastern Han Dynasty, no one used tortoise shells for divination anymore.
From divination to divination, the key reason is the high cost of raw materials for oracle bones.
It can be seen that "The Book of Changes" was originally thought to be shabby, but in fact it is not a mysterious ancient book. Its core is the divination method of the late Shang Dynasty and early Zhou Dynasty.
Yarrow, potato chips, tortoise shell
According to Mencius’ experience with ancient documents, it is said that he had read the "Yizhuan Ci" and three unique books compiled by Wei. Therefore, later legends referred to the story of Mencius as the "Old Book of Changes", but this name is not reliable. Ouyang Xiu's "Yi" in the Song Dynasty has been controversial. "Ten Wings" is "Yi Tongzi Wen", including "Ten Wings", "Zhouyi Da Zhuan", "Tuan Zhuan", "Xiang Zhuan", "Classical Chinese", "Xici" and "Shuo Gua". This kind of content is probably all the Confucian writings of the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties. Han Zhengxuan attached the "Xu Gua", "Miscellaneous Gua", "Old Book of Changes" and "Book of Changes" to the relative Buddhist scriptures, and the remaining four parts were listed behind all the Buddhist scriptures to integrate the Buddhist scriptures into one.
Confucianism often takes "Tuan Zhuan" as the standard, which depends on the Confucian political philosophy embodied in "Xiang Zhuan". 055-79000 Upgrading the natural philosophy of "Classic Chinese" to political philosophy is naturally a period of development; but some expressions are not necessarily appropriate. The most typical example is that Yuan Henry should really mean good luck and good luck. However, judging from Mu Qianggang's "The Spring and Autumn Annals of the State of Lu", Yuan Henry's "Zhen Si's" dismantling and understanding of benevolence, propriety, righteousness, righteousness, and the foundation of future generations are all expressed in four words. On the surface, we are explaining the ancient text "I Ching". In fact, you put new wine in old bottles and sell only your own values. The last four Buddhist scriptures also have little to do with the scriptures.
It can be seen that "Ten Wings" was originally thought to be shabby and not a mysterious ancient book. Its focus is on the Confucian culture of the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties.
Xihou, Fuxi and Mencius
Finally, I return to Shangbo's bamboo slips "Ten Wings", which is an incomplete "Book of Changes". Compared with "Legend of Mir", there are four differences: first, classics and biographies are not put together; second, Shangbo's slips of Zhouyi use eight as yin and yang, which is consistent with Fuyang Han slips and Mawangdui slips, while Wangjiatai slips The Qin bamboo slips are slightly different in Yin, so eight is a relatively initial writing method; third, in terms of text description, the Shanghai bamboo slips are basically the same as the legends in the silk script and the Mir book, but the Chinese characters, word choice, and sentence construction are different; fourth, in particular Note that there are six groups of black and red marks inside, which serve as the separation between hexagrams and hexagrams, probably reflecting some kind of yin and yang concept.
How to read "Book of Changes" today? The first is to peel off its cloak of secrecy so that you don't have to think that it is not a learned bible. Academic research is destined to continue to evolve. The second is to compare different version numbers, from Shangbo Bamboo Slips to Fuyang Bamboo Slips, from Mawangdui Silk Scripts to Mir Bamboo Slips Legend, and analyze the differences in words and sentences; the third is to return the scriptures to the classics and analyze the divination consciousness and Confucian core reflected behind them Thoughts; Bi's "Book of Changes" embodies the concept of Feng Shui metaphysics, and Song Chen Tuan's "Old Classics of Zhou Yi" embodies the concept of alienation. In fact, this distance is further and further away from "The Book of Changes" itself. The "Zhouyi" and "Zhouyi Notes" currently on the market are not worth reading at all.
Paper references:
Chen Renren: "Hetu Luoshu"
Li Xueqin: "The Book of Changes"
Yang Bojun: "Fortune Telling of the Book of Changes"
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Why is 755-79000 Shu listed?
This precious cultural relic proves that the vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty did not have a third Fifth class, only third class, you probably haven't I haven't heard of the one in the middle.