Why did the Monkey King change seventy-two?

The Monkey King is a concrete image in The Journey to the West, which means "there is gold in the water" or "innate qi" (see the article "Why is the Monkey King a monkey" in the column of Cultural Miscellanies on the website for details). The innate qi is the spiritual root of everything, and everything is popular by this qi. This popular saying is "If you don't stop, you don't know your discipline" and it's "running on Sunday", so Lao Tzu said, "You can't see his head until you see his head, and then you can't see his body."

Although it is "endless, I don't know its rules", the law of its operation is quite obvious. An hour is a week, a day and night is a week, a moon is a week and a year is a week. Year, month, day and hour are called four columns, and each column in the trunk calendar has the words Jiazi Year, Ugly Month, Bingyin Month and Ding Maoshi. These eight characters, namely Jia Zi, Yi Chou, Bing Yin and Ding Mao, are the eight words of "batch of eight characters" in fortune telling and divination.

Before liberation, there was a very popular book in Buddhism called Four Commandments, which was also translated into Self-criticism, which was a reflection and summary of Yuan Lefan's life in the Ming Dynasty.

When I was young, I met a Mr. Kong, and made good use of the calculation in Ji Huang Ji to make clear Yuan Lefan's past and future. He was childless and 53 years old. Because Mr. Kong's calculation of Yuan Lefan's major events and small feelings is not bad at all, and he is convinced that everything in life has a destiny, so he stays on standby with peace of mind, does not have delusions, and just sits still in his spare time. Twenty years later, he met Zen master Yungu again and said to him, "People can't reach the state of carelessness, but they will be bound by fate." Will there be no numbers there? But there are also a few ordinary people. A good man cannot be arrested by numbers; The number of evildoers is also uncertain. You have been counted by him for twenty years; If you haven't changed a dime, aren't you an ordinary person? "And encourage him to do more good deeds, recite Buddhist scriptures, and try his best to change his destiny. Since then, Mr. Kong's calculation has no effect. Not only did he get a son, but he was still healthy at the age of 69. Because his life has been decided by Mr. Kong, everything has a destiny, so he has no distractions in his heart. It can be said that to achieve "no thoughts, no desires, no thoughts, nourishing the spirit and nourishing the true bones", not only there is no "heart" that "the wind is fluttering", but even "Taishan collapses in front without changing color and the heart does not jump". In this way, under the guidance of Zen master Yungu, he worked hard to cultivate, constantly turned evil into good, and accumulated merits, and finally entered the realm of "my life is up to me."

When it comes to fortune telling, we should also take Tao as the foundation. Yuan Shoucheng in The Journey to the West is a "six-year-old family" who is proficient in gossip. Can know heaven and justice, be good at knowing ghosts and gods. Arrange a plate at noon, full of stars. " This is in line with the book of changes, which says "harmony with heaven and earth, harmony with the sun and the moon, harmony with the four seasons, and harmony with ghosts and gods." Have the same effect.

In the Romance of the Gods, Jiang Ziya once read fortune telling. There are several couplets in his life museum: "It's just mysterious, not ordinary." "An iron mouth, see through the ill fortune in the world; Two strange eyes are good at seeing the decline and glory of the world. " "The sleeves are big, and the sun and the moon grow in the pot."

"Just a mystery" is clear about the "mystery" in Tao Te Ching. "Seeing through the good and evil in the world" is obviously "combining good and bad with ghosts and gods"; "The dry Kun in the sleeve is big, and the sun and the moon are long in the kettle", which is explained in the original work: "The dry Kun in the sleeve means knowing the past and the future and covering everything; The sun and the moon grow in a pot and have a long life in Immortal Technique. "

Yuan Shoucheng and Jiang Ziya are both enlightened people, so they can tell fortune and divination. People nowadays don't even know what Tao is. How can we calculate by the way?

Year, month, day and hour are different sundays, and they run in unison. Besides, there are some Sundays. Sixty years is Jiazi Sunday, and this Sunday is something special. For example, Jiazi Year 1984 means "Jiazi Qi Chao Yuan Wan Lun".

There are so many Sundays in Journey to the West, summed up by 72 days a year, and the quasi-ratio is 72 changes in the Monkey King. There are four seasons in a year, which are divided into twelve months, twenty-four solar terms and one solar term. Each issue lasts about five days, and there are 72 issues a year. For example, in early spring, there are three periods: the east wind thaws, the stinging insects begin to vibrate, and the fish are frozen. Followed by rain: Rex sacrificed fish, red rocks came, and plants sprouted; Surprise: peach blossom, Cang Geng Ming, eagle becomes pigeon; Vernal equinox: the mysterious bird arrived, Lei Nai spoke, and electricity began; Qingming: children's stone flowers, voles turn into owls, and rainbows begin to see; Grain Rain: In my life, pigeons fluttered their wings, and Dai Sheng sang; Long summer: cricket, earthworm, melon; Xiaoman: bitter vegetables show, weeds die, and the heat is coming; Miscanthus: mantis was born, it began to sing, and its tongue was silent; Solstice of summer: antlers dissolve, cicadas begin to sing, and Pinellia ternata is born; Slight heat: warm wind, cricket living in the monarch, eagle learning; Summer: when the grass is rotten, the soil is hot and humid, and the rain is heavy; Beginning of autumn: Cool wind, white dew, chilly; Summer: the eagle is a bird, the world begins to calm, and the grain climbs high; Bailu: Hongyan comes, the mysterious birds return, and the birds are ashamed; Autumnal equinox: thunder began to ring, insects plowed households, and water began to dry up; Cold dew: Hongyan guest, birds attack the water as clams, chrysanthemums have yellow flowers; The first frost: the jackal is a sacrificial animal, with yellow vegetation and salty stinging insects; Beginning of winter: The water began to freeze, the ground began to freeze, and the pheasant entered the flood, which was a stork; Light snow: the rainbow disappears, the weather rises, and it is blocked into winter; Heavy snow: the bird doesn't sing, the tiger begins to make love, and licking is very healthy; Winter solstice: earthworm knot, elk horn solution, water spring movement; Xiaohan: In Yanbei, magpies began to build nests, and pheasants began to pheasant; Severe cold: Seventy-two symptoms, including chicken's first breast, bird's disease and Shui Ze's abdomen firmness. The most suitable area for the seventy-two seasons is mainly in the Central Plains, and other areas are different.

Seventy-two climaxes respectively represent the climate change in a year, and all kinds of things are born in one breath, that is, Wukong breeds all kinds of things, so it is reasonable for Wukong to change into any image of all kinds of things, which is summarized by the fate of 72 climaxes in a year. This is the origin of the Monkey King's seventy-two changes.