The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches cooperate
A cycle of 60 years
Usually called a period of time
Nowadays, the solar calendar is used, but is it good or not? ?
Let’s look at the following:
"Our sixty-year-old armor is based on the stems and branches, such as Jiazi, Yichou, Bingyin, Dingmao... In this way, the heavenly stems and the earthly stems When controlled, it can represent all the changes in the celestial body of the solar system and the earth; among them, the changes in weather are the largest and most significant, and it is easy to see that all changes are different, so they are combined with the control. The yang of the heavenly stems matches the yang of the earthly branches, and the yin of the heavenly stems matches the yin of the earthly branches. The yang matches the yang, and the yin matches the yin. They take turns to match each other in order, and they completely match each other. There are exactly sixty matches, forming a cycle, starting from Jiazi, so It’s called Sixty Flower Armor.
People don’t use this combination of Sixty Flower Armor anymore, but is it good? In the future, we can see that it is very good at remembering celestial bodies. The movement of the sun is a major revolution in sixty years, regardless of the precession (that is, the so-called astronomical degree, which is the ancient saying that the distance between the sun and the earth travels one degree a day. After completing 365 degrees, one quarter is one Year; take 360 ??days as a year, and if there are any remaining degrees, the remaining degrees are accumulated into the hole month. This is the calculation of the lunar calendar, while the solar calendar has seven months and thirty-one days each year. Because the methods are different, the numbers are the same), but after counting sixty sixties, the numbers of the universe for hundreds of millions of years are not the same. This is a great rule. If you look at the history of China, every dynasty has changed, the emperor has changed, and so on. The era name has changed, but the number of years in the sixtieth year is fixed and must change every sixty years. "
Reference: Excerpts from the Book of Changes
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Part Three Heavenly Stems and Five Elements
Author: Nan Huaijin
In addition to the five elements, there are also the stems and branches. There is no secret to learning the divination of the "Book of Changes". It is just a five-element divination. The focus is on the five elements, not the eight trigrams. Really using hexagrams to judge things is another system, so strictly speaking, the two systems of Five Elements and Bagua are separate. But for thousands of years, everyone has been mixing it up.
What we are introducing now is the Tiangian culture, which is also very ancient. We study the history of the development of the "Book of Changes" and the development of Chinese culture, and know that the Tianqian culture is much older than the "Book of Changes". We can now find out the heavenly stems and earthly branches from oracle bone inscriptions, which shows that the origin of this culture is very early. The earliest development of the Chinese was astronomy. When it reached its most advanced level, it was summarized and represented by ten symbols. These ten symbols were named Tiangan, also known as "Tianwei", but "Tiangan" was a noun used after the Han Dynasty. , in fact, we should use "天桡" instead of "天干". Tianqian is the law of the five elements, which means: "In this solar system, the earth and the outer planets interfere with each other." In terms of current geophysics, it is said that the radiation functions of the earth and each planet absorb each other. take effect. For example, the radiation of solar energy has a great impact on humans on earth. People who study communications, electronics, and astronomy know this very well. And we in China have long understood that the movement of this kind of celestial body and the movement of the physical world is very important. Wood, fire, earth, metal, and water are represented, explaining the principle of mutual generation and mutual restraint. However, with the advancement of human culture, this law of creation and destruction of the five elements is not enough. Therefore, our ancestors discovered the dual role of the five elements. In the physical world, celestial bodies used ten-character symbols, namely A, B, C, and D. , Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui, and the pattern is compiled as follows:
Heavenly Stems and Five Elements Match
See the pattern on the previous page, and match it with the direction pattern of the previous five elements. When you get up, you can know that there is wood in the east, Bing and Ding in the south, gold in the west, water in the north, and earth in the center.
The question here is that the east or the wood are both a direction or a kinetic energy. Why are they represented by the two symbols A and B? There is another rule in between, which is very useful in Chinese fortune telling. If you learn fortune telling just for the sake of fortune telling, I don't agree with it.
But I found that this set of Chinese fortune-telling and divination rules contains a lot of scientific and philosophical principles. Unfortunately, because of ancient political thoughts, they were unwilling to develop science, so this set of good rules had to be turned to fortune-telling and divination. Gua develops in this aspect. Fortunately, there are fortune tellers in the world who are able to preserve this set of rules. From another perspective, they are indeed great. So some people say that fortune-telling and divination are superstitious, and I ask them if they understand, but they don’t understand. They just add a charge to something they don’t understand, calling it “superstitious” and “deceptive.” , this is such a terrible arbitrary. This set of rules has been around for thousands of years, and those who really study it are all first-class smart people. Just imagine that for four thousand years, the first-class smart people have been studying it. Even if it can deceive people, it still has its advantages. Deceptive truth. If we want to criticize it, we might as well study its deceptive methods first. After studying it, we can then say that it is superstitious. Only then can we make a conclusion. If you haven't studied it and don't understand it, you just call it a deceptive superstition. This is the real superstition - the arrogance of believing in yourself. It's a pity that no one pays attention to it now, there is no large investment, and there are no sufficient experimental equipment and places. Otherwise, if you conduct experiments, you can find that this law has a lot of scientific truth. For example, airplanes existed as early as the Warring States Period, but they were unmanned aircraft that did not seat people and were made of wood. During the Jin Dynasty, someone also made a bird. After it was released, it would fly in the air without human control, and after a certain time, it would land on the same place. There is evidence in history. Even the Chinese musical instruments and some utensils that are still preserved today, such as copper kettles, drippers, etc., were invented and manufactured based on this set of rules. There were no modern scientific formulas at that time, but this set of rules was not used to develop science. Why didn’t ancient China use this set of rules for scientific development? This also makes sense, because the more developed material civilization is, the higher people's desires will be. The higher people's desires will be, the more chaotic society will be. This is Chinese humanistic thought.
Yin and Yang of Heavenly Stems
But this set of laws comes from science, such as Oriental Wood. Why are they represented by the words A and B? And what about becoming Jiamu and Yimu? A wood represents the element of growth, and Yi wood represents the formed form. In other words, A wood represents the physical matter of growth, and Yi wood represents the formed substance. The same is true for C and D. C represents the element of fire, and D represents the formed fire. This is true for Wuji, Gengxin, and Rengui. And the middle is divided into yin and yang, such as Jia wood is yang wood, Yi wood is yin wood, Bing is yang fire, Ding is yin fire, Geng is yang metal, Xin is yin metal, Ren is yang water, Gui is yin water, Wu It is Yang soil, and Ji is Yin soil. For example, in Chinese medicine, according to the "Nei Jing", when a woman has her first menstrual period, ancient my country thought it was impolite to tell a woman's secrets directly, so it was said that "when a woman is fourteen, the day will come." Why not say "Tianren" arrives? Because menstruation is formed water, and women belong to Yin, it is called "Tiangui". If you integrate this set of things, you can find that it is not superstition, but science, at least ancient Chinese science, and this science has been maintained in human culture for many years.
Speaking of Tiangui, it involves traditional Chinese medicine. For the human body, the most popular acupuncture now has a book titled "Jia Yi Jing". Many people have not understood that traditional Chinese medicine has a lot of knowledge about various aspects of the human body. Representative parts are wood belonging to the liver, fire belonging to the heart, metal belonging to the lungs, water belonging to the kidneys, and earth belonging to the spleen. Now I understand the relationship between the five elements and the internal organs, so metal generates water. When there is a problem with the lungs, the kidneys will definitely be deficient. Therefore, people with lung diseases will have red faces because the kidney water is insufficient and the fire energy rises. When the lung disease is quite severe, the renal pelvis becomes particularly enlarged, which is kidney deficiency. Therefore, the difficulty of learning traditional Chinese medicine is that in addition to the individual functions of the internal organs, it also pays attention to the physiological functions and pathological factors that interact with each other, which is the principle of life and death. Western medicine, on the other hand, treats the head for headaches and the feet for foot pain. Headache is only a symptom of the disease, not the root cause of the disease.
As for the definition of each word of the heavenly stems and earthly branches, there are many interpretations. It is difficult to draw a conclusion as to which interpretation is completely correct. For example, Zi is the phenomenon of all things, five is the meaning of the hub, etc., each has its own interpretation. Let’s not discuss it for now. In addition, based on the history of Chinese cultural development and from the perspective of military philosophy, some people interpret the Ten Heavenly Stems such as A, B, C, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui as representatives of the ten ancient weapons, such as "A" is a sharp weapon mounted on a wooden pole, "B" is a knife, etc. There is no consensus, and there is no conclusion as to which one is correct.
Earthly Branches and the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac
There are twelve earthly branches, representing the twelve months. What are the earthly branches actually? It is the name of the twelve constellations of the zodiac in astronomy. The so-called "palace" refers to the location; the so-called "ecliptic" refers to the circle the sun makes when it rises from the east and sets in the west, which is called the ecliptic plane. This zodiac plane is different every month. For example, when we look at the sky at night, each constellation has twenty-eight constellations coming out of the east (the knowledge of astronomy was the most developed in China in ancient times), and these twenty-eight constellations, on the ecliptic plane, are located in each month. They are all different; so based on this phenomenon, they were abstractly summarized into twelve parts and represented by twelve words. In fact, this is an astronomical phenomenon that became abstract knowledge and constituted the role of fortune-telling in later generations. This set of knowledge seems very simple now, but if you really study it carefully, there is a lot of knowledge in it. It can also be seen that the cultural wisdom and scientific philosophy of our ancestors in ancient times have developed to the highest point; because the scientific numbers are too large, it is very difficult to learn. It's so complicated that ordinary people's wisdom cannot accommodate such a genius. So we simplified it and used the five elements, heavenly stems, and earthly branches to represent it so that everyone can understand it. Only when culture reaches the highest level can it become the most simplified. But its shortcoming is that later generations only know how to use it, but they don't know why.
This abstract noun actually has something in it, and it includes a lot of knowledge. Unfortunately, our later generations only use it in fortune-telling, fortune-telling, and divination.
Sixty-year-old and historical verification
Our sixty-year-old is based on the stems and branches, such as Jiazi, Yichou, Bingyin, Dingmao... In this way, the heavenly stems and the earthly stems When controlled, it can produce all kinds of changes on behalf of the celestial body of the solar system and the earth; among them, the changes in weather are the largest, most significant, and easy to see. Everything changes in different ways, so the stems are used to control and combine, and the yang of the heavenly stems is matched with the yang of the earthly branches, and the yin of the heavenly stems is matched with the yin of the earthly branches. After sixty matches, a cycle starts from Jiazi, so it is called Sixty Flowers.
This kind of sixty-year-old combination is rarely used by people nowadays, but is it any good? We can see in the future that it will be very good. It records the movement of celestial bodies, a major revolution in sixty years, regardless of the precession (that is, the so-called astronomical degree, which is the ancient saying that the distance between the sun and the earth travels one degree a day, and it has completed 365 degrees and a quarter. One is a year; three hundred and sixty days are used as a year. If there are any remaining degrees, the remaining degrees are accumulated into cave moons. This is the calculation of the lunar calendar, while the solar calendar has seven months per year, which is thirty. One day, because the method is different, the number is the same), but after sixty sixty, the number of the universe for hundreds of millions of years is not the same. This is a very great rule. If you look at the history of China, every dynasty, emperor, and reign has changed, but the number of years in your sixtieth year is fixed and must change every sixty years.
If this law is expanded, it will have many uses.
Add the Bagua from the previous circle picture, and use the position of the innate Fuxi Bagua diagram to form Najia, which is Ganajia, Kunnayi, Gennabing, Duinading and Wuji in the middle, Zhenna Geng, Xunnasin, Linaren, Kannergui.
Now look at the twelve months of the year, the six yin and six yang tables - the twelve hexagrams, represent the great role of the weather changes in the year. Applying Najia to this aspect is another different formula, so you need to remember several different formulas when learning Xiangshu in the "Book of Changes". Before understanding these formulas, we must first understand the yin and yang of numbers. Numbers are divided into yin numbers and yang numbers, which also mean double and single, such as the odd character for Qi Men Dun Jia. All numbers one, three, five, seven, and nine are yang numbers; even numbers such as two, four, six, eight, and ten are yin numbers, also known as even numbers. The highest yang number is nine. We read Wen Tianxiang's "Song of Righteousness" "嗟yu阘阳九", which means that we have reached a dead end, our luck has been exhausted, and it has reached its peak. Because nine is the pole of yang, the yang pole has reached a dead end. And "Ten" has reached another element of "One". According to the mathematical theory of "The Book of Changes", it will always be "One". One plus one equals two, and the odd number reaches "nine" as the extreme number. Therefore, the Yang Yao in the "Book of Changes" is represented by nine. For example, the six Yao of Qian Gua are all Yang Yao, so they are called Chujiu, Jiuer, and Jiu. Three, ninety-four, ninety-five, nine and so on; the yin numbers are counted backwards and are ten, eight, six, four, two, which means that yin and yang are reversed. Among the five even numbers of Yin numbers, "six" is in the middle, and Yin is chosen among them. Because the Yin numbers are even and relative, and the number in the middle is the key point, the Yin Yao is represented by "six"; such as the six in Kun hexagram Yao is called Chu Liu, Liu 2, Liu 3, Liu 4, Liu 5 and Shang Liu. As mentioned before, the Eight Diagrams are drawn from bottom to top. If someone uses the method of "six" and "nine" to represent yin and yang, he can randomly report the number of the six lines, such as the ninth day, the sixth day, the sixth day, the ninth day, the sixth day, and the sixth day. , on the ninth level, we can draw the mouth, this hexagram of eating and eating.
You can see from this principle that if you really understand the "Book of Changes", you only need to count it with your fingers. Once you understand the mathematics of the Book of Changes, it will be easier to learn computers. This is correct, and it also proves that the mathematical theory of the "Book of Changes" invented by our ancestors in ancient times is even more advanced than the current computer mathematical theory. The principle of the universe is one increase and one decrease, very simple; just like a scale, one is high and the other is low. If one end is high, the other end must be low, so there is only addition and subtraction, including multiplication and division, as well as all mathematics; this It’s nothing. When human wisdom is developed to the highest level, it is also the most simplified. Using only these ten numbers, the laws of the universe can be summarized. Just add and subtract one to calculate and you will understand. Therefore, the mathematical philosophy of the "Book of Changes" is not the foundation or the beginning, but the most brilliant summary to such simplification. Therefore, after truly understanding the "Book of Changes", all the most profound mathematical principles will become simplified. When we look at the numbers, there are only one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. If we speculate, the affairs and physics between heaven and earth can be grasped in the palm of our hands. People who have studied the "Book of Changes" are just like the Taoist boast: "The universe is in the hand, and everything changes from the heart." So this is the crystallization of our culture.
It is unlucky to see fish in the ocean
I once talked about the role of divination, because I must understand all strange things. After understanding them, I never play with them. Feel free to play with these things, but you must have a principle and not be superstitious. The so-called non-superstition means not to pin all your wisdom on this. It will not work if you pin all your wisdom on this. It is not okay to use it for reference occasionally, but don't affect your own psychology. Sometimes it works very well. The same goes for religious ideas. Secondly, what needs to be clarified is: "He who is good at changing cannot predict." After a person really understands the "Book of Changes", he will no longer care about fortune-telling. Once a thing moves, he will know its laws, and there will be nothing to calculate, gains and losses. Success or failure should be known in your mind. Another concept is that even if you can "foresee the unknown", it is not good. "It is unlucky to see fish in the abyss." This is also the principle of life. Don't be too shrewd, especially as a leader. Sometimes you should be careless about the following small things, turn a blind eye, and just let yourself get offended. If someone scolds me, scold me.
You must be very clear, "It is unlucky to see the fish in the abyss." You can even see clearly the fish at the bottom of the abyss, how many fish there are in the muddy water of the river, and how they are moving. Don't think you are very smart, it is actually very unsightly. Geely, you may die early because your energy is overused. The above principles must be grasped, so that people will feel comfortable.
Master Jiao Jing and Guo Pu
Now let’s talk about the method of divination. In China’s Yi Jing tradition, divination is its main method. The "Book of Changes" was used for divination in ancient times. It was only after Confucius that the "Book of Changes" was used in humanities and culture. The Bagua drawn in the "Book of Changes" was of course originally used for divination. Why do humans need divination? Divination is not only practiced in China, but also in various ethnic groups around the world. Of course, the methods used by various ethnic groups are different, but none of them are as sophisticated as ours in China. This involves a philosophical issue, that is, human wisdom. There are many things that people in the past, present and future cannot know. For example, what about tomorrow? How will I do tomorrow? No one is sure of the answers to these questions, and they can't even predict what will happen one second later. But people want to know, so things like divination came into being. After China had the divination in the Book of Changes, several sects emerged over the thousands of years, which I can point out and tell you. When the ancients studied the "Book of Changes", most of them were trapped by the study of the Book of Changes. They did not know that the "Book of Changes" did not have certain rules. After some people understood the "Yi", they created additional rules on their own, such as the famous Jingjiao Yi in the Han Dynasty. Jing Jiao Yi is the name of two people. Jing refers to Jingfang, and Jiao refers to Jiao Yanshou, that is, Jiao Gan. Jingfang was his student, and Jiao Gan wrote "Yi Lin", also known as "Jiao's Yi". Among them, the eighty-eight sixty-four hexagrams and the evolved hexagrams are explained. The hexagrams used do not use the "Book of Changes" at all. He created another one by himself. He has studied the "Book of Changes" thoroughly. According to the original thing, it is equivalent to the signature poems of each temple, including the emperor's signature, Guanyin's signature, Jidian's monk's signature...each has its own signature poem, and they are all different. Therefore, the interpretation method of divination in Jiao Gan's "Yi" is different from that of "The Book of Changes", which can be said to be a revolution. Because he understood and was wise enough, he was able to produce his own set of divination methods. Jiao Gan passed the Yi to Jingfang. When Jingfang was in the Eastern Han Dynasty, he was right in his words. The emperor would ask him everything. But Jiao Gan said that Jingfang had mastered my Yi Xue, but he would also die in the Yi Xue in the future. As expected, Jingfang was beheaded and died.
After the Eastern Han Dynasty, those who looked at geography and Feng Shui and talked about the so-called art of Kanyu began with Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty. He was also familiar with the "Book of Changes" and knew everything in advance. When the Jin Dynasty general Wang Dun wanted to rebel and usurp the throne, he was afraid that Guo Pu would not agree, so he called Guo Pu and gave him hints. Guo Pu insisted on not agreeing, and Wang Dun immediately turned his face and asked Guo Pu if he could foresee his own destiny. Guo Pu said that I knew you were going to kill me at this time today, but of course he was killed as he expected. He knew full well that he could not escape from this difficulty. Of course, he could also make the cunning one escape. Here we see that people who study the Book of Changes will not necessarily escape after knowing the evil events. It is said that "numbers cannot escape". In fact, numbers are not inevitable. Chinese scholars have developed a sense of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism. If you do something rebellious, I would rather die than escape.
The Money Gua
In the Shaokang Festival of the Song Dynasty, another set of rules was produced based on the "Book of Changes", with different explanations. The number of Taiyi after the Ming Dynasty is different. Most people talk about the development history of the "Book of Changes" as if it has not changed for thousands of years. In fact, there are many changes. The method of divination using three copper coins comes from Jiao Jingyi's system. However, the method has been changed and expanded in the past dynasties because of the evolution of society and the increasing complexity of personnel. The original five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water are not enough to represent more complex human affairs. For example, if I hold a gold ring in my hand, I can use the five elements to deduce that it is gold. If I hold a modern lighter, this is more complicated and cannot be represented by the simple five elements. So it was expanded and changed to include the stems and branches, five ghosts, six relatives, etc., which made the content of divination more substantial. However, in terms of method, this was a simplified method passed down from generation to generation.
However, it is not easy to find copper coins with a circle outside and a square inside. You can also borrow modern coins. They have two sides, one positive and one negative. Use one side as the yang side and the other side as the yin side. Shake the three coins randomly for a while and then drop them. If It is said that two of the coins have a yin side and one coin has a yang side, so the yang side is the main one, and a "," mark is recorded, indicating that it is a yang line, because according to the principle of "Yi Jing", "yang hexagrams have more yin". Generally speaking, The saying is also "things are more valuable when they are scarce". For example, the hexagram of Tianfeng Nuhou - the mouth is dominated by Yin Yao. Judging from the common phenomenon, there are five boys and one girl among six people. This girl will become the king, and everyone will listen to her. This is the world between heaven and earth. There is a certain truth to things. If the money drawn out has two yang sides and one yin side, it is a yin line, and a "" mark is recorded. If the three coins are all yang, the mark is a circle "○", which is called moving Yao. If it wants to become yin, the yang will be yin. If the three coins are all yin, the mark is "×", which is a moving line that changes from yin to yang. Do this six times in a row to complete the six lines. The order of hexagrams is from bottom to top. The first line is the first line, the second line is the second line, and the last line is the upper line. This is the current method of divination, and its origin is It started after the Qin and Han Dynasties. Some people who make a living by selling divination pretend to be mysterious in order to show their effectiveness. In fact, when they use it themselves, it can be simpler and more effective. As for whether it can be a flawless efficacious effect, it again involves the aspect of spirituality. If you use a simple method and report any number, you can predict the divination, such as "one, two, three,". One is Qian, and the second is Dui. Dui means Ze is at the bottom, Qian means Heaven above, and the heavy hexagram is " In the hexagram "Tianze Lu", the third number is three, which means that the third line of the hexagram is the moving line; if it is "one, two, four", it is the moving line of the fourth line of the hexagram, and divination mainly depends on the moving line. , a thing is static, if it does not move, there is no need to ask, because there is nothing in itself, and if it moves, it will have the consequences of good, bad, regret, and stinginess, so you must look at the good and bad in the moving lines.
Prophets, supernatural powers and modern psychology
Everyone plays divination and the question of whether the spirit works or not is another spiritual problem. If we study it from the direction of this problem, There will be a lot of knowledge as it develops. In Buddhism, supernatural powers can be divided into five types: one is called "Report". The second type is called "Xiutong", which is achieved through meditation, kung fu, hypnosis, yoga, etc. A big country pays great attention to the training of this kind of people and lists it as the highest national defense secret. It spends a lot of time. A lot of money is spent on cultivating people with superpowers and stealing intelligence from other countries, just to cultivate things like that. At first, this country got a wrong intelligence, thinking that another big country had successfully researched this kind of "psychology". The so-called spiritual science is actually the so-called cultivation, with a scientific term added. Everyone just follows this routine, just like Zhuangzi’s fable of “Three in the morning and four in the evening”. If you change the name, it will become popular. ——Later this country discovered that another country knew many of their secrets, so they spent a lot of money