Speaking of the "Book of Changes", not only foreigners but also most of us Chinese may find it quite mysterious. What is so mysterious about it?
Strictly speaking, the I Ching is not mysterious. Why isn’t it mysterious?
Because it has very complete rules to follow. People mistake it for mystery. It should be said that there are two factors. First, Yi's application expression is relatively abstract and difficult to understand. Second, the people who are easy to apply have different qualities. Some people are making things up, deliberately making it mystifying, and creating some deception.
When you think of Yi as a natural movement law, and what this law discusses is the unity and harmony of heaven, earth and man, you will feel that it is not so mysterious. Yi said that its theme or central idea is heaven, earth and man. In fact, "heaven" refers to the laws of movement of nature; "earth" refers to our geography and geology; "man" also refers to human society. Activity.
When we talk about the application of Yixue, we mainly focus on prediction and decision-making. Basically, these two aspects, one aspect is to predict the nature of the possible development of this thing, or what may happen at a certain node. changes, this is what we call forecasting. On the other hand, decision-making is a major decision at a certain time. Decision-making is the premise of prediction, and prediction is the basis of decision-making.
It can be said that Yi Xue, in a sense, has been the basis for helping people predict the future and make decisions now from ancient times until today.
Since ancient times, its true meaning has been this. Because the ancient times belonged to the primitive agricultural period, it was used for divination of the weather. This was its original application. As this society continues to develop, it transitions to a slave society and a feudal society, which forms a kind of centralization. In order to better rule the country, the rulers mostly use national governance.
In fact, the real meaning of Yi Xue’s prediction is that it is first a suggestion, and then a suggestion is made through deduction. After the suggestion is made, if the decision-maker follows the predicted suggestion, according to this theory Complete implementation is in line with the laws of nature and can improve accuracy.
The early civilization of mankind was full of the culture of ghosts and gods. People wanted to communicate with ghosts and gods in heaven through sacrifices, divination and other means. The oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin and Shang Dynasties were records of shamans' divination at that time. From these records, it can be seen that in ancient times, people often used hexagrams in the Book of Changes for divination to determine good or bad luck. At that time, the innate Bagua created by Fuxi became the main basis for people's divination.
So the "Book of Changes" that people often preach about reveals secrets of heaven is not so mysterious and unpredictable. In fact, the predictions of the "Book of Changes" are in line with the development and changes of natural laws, and provide people with suggestions. Then follow the right path in line with the reality of life. The purpose of prediction is to reduce the risks caused by incorrect decisions in all aspects of human life due to uncertainty. So it's not like any events said by those pretending to be diviners can be 100% accurate. Those fortune tellers who know everything about heaven and earth, and who know ghosts and gods, are just making fools of themselves, so don’t be fooled.
——Works Studio Editor of "Zhouyi Self-Assessment Card"