What kind of book is Zhouyi?

At present, the research and application of the Book of Changes are progressing in depth and breadth, but what kind of book is the Book of Changes? What is its main function? This is still an unsolved case. In order to facilitate the discussion of these issues and better realize the successful application in practice, the understanding of this issue is briefly described as follows. Zhouyi is one of the oldest and most authoritative books in China, and occupies an extremely important position in the cultural history of China. It is the crystallization of Chinese wisdom. Confucianism is regarded as "the first classic" and Taoism as "the crown of San Xuan". For thousands of years, from emperors to ordinary people, from scholars to charlatans, from secular businessmen to ordinary people, people have always had a strong and extensive interest in Zhouyi. Whether it is the governance of a country, the rise and fall of a country, or personal gains and losses, people always hope to find a reasonable explanation from Zhouyi. In the long history of thousands of years, it has left a vast picture scroll that has withstood all kinds of ups and downs and tests. Why does Zhouyi have such a powerful, eternal and universal charm? To understand these problems, we must first read Zhouyi and its books. The word Zhouyi was first recorded in the twenty-two years of Zhuang Gong in Zuo Zhuan, with a history of Zhou Dynasty. Zhouyi was seen by Chen Hou, and Zuozhuan served as a minister for nine years. Jiang said that "death follows Zhouyi", and Yuan Hengzhen and Kong can prove that Zhouyi existed in the Spring and Autumn Period or earlier. Why did the ancients call this book Zhouyi? As early as the Han and Tang Dynasties; There are only two interpretations of Zhou characters in Zhouyi. According to Zhou Litai, Taibu holds the law of three changes, one is Lianshan, the other is Tibet, and the third is Zhouyi. Its classics are all eight and its hexagrams are all sixty-four. Zheng Xuan in the Eastern Han Dynasty said in Yi Zan that there were mountains in summer, Tibetan in Yin and Zhouyi in Zhou. "Lianshan" is a cloud in Xiangshan, as far as the eye can see. "Back to Tibet" is the place to hide things. Yi Dao Zhou Pu, the author of Zhouyi, is ready for everything. Zheng's interpretation of the word "Zhou" in Zhouyi is all-encompassing, which is consistent with the change of copula, the six vacuities and the saying that saints in Han Feizi's Jielao view its mystery and use its Zhou Xing. Therefore, it was further confirmed in the classic interpretation of Lu Deming in the Tang Dynasty. The names of Zhou and Dai are also Zhou, Zhou and Bei. Today's masterpieces are all taken from Zhou Puzi. Let's talk about the word "Yi" in Zhouyi. The cloud in "Yi Gan Wei Kun Chisel" says that renaming has four meanings, and today is the title of the moon. Zheng Xuan said: The sun and the moon are also changeable. The secretary of Shuowen said: the sun and the moon change easily, just like yin and yang. Gan Kun wrote a chapter in the "Avatar Deed": the sun and the moon are easy, and the rigidity and softness are combined. According to the classic interpretation, the Book of Changes is also named, and the word goes to the moon. The copula says: people who change are like. Elephant, elephant also. He also said that in nature, it seems to be formed underground and hung brightly, which is nothing more than the sun and the moon. It can be seen that "Yi" is like an image, while "Yi" is like a natural image, and the sky is bigger than the sun and the moon, so the sun and the moon are easy, which is in line with the copula. It can be said that the Han people's interpretation of the word "Yi" is well-founded. Zhouyi has been mentioned many times in the historical book Chunqiu Zuozhuan, but judging from the Zhouyi used by people at that time, it includes 64 hexagrams (symbols) and hexagrams. In the Western Han Dynasty, in order to strengthen centralization of authority, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted Dong Zhongshu's suggestion of respecting Confucianism alone, calling Confucius and Confucian works classics, and The Book of Changes and The Book of Changes. Since then, Zhouyi, Yijing and Yijing have mixed functions, including Zhouyi, Yijing and Yijing. So, what is essence? Learning China's Confucian Classics and Confucian Classics will encounter the first problem. But since ancient times, there have been different opinions on the interpretation of Confucian classics. According to Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi in Han Dynasty, Confucian classics are also woven. According to the sound of the classics, Duan Yucai noted: Weaving the longitudinal lines is the classics, which shows that the original meaning of the classics is not deep. Traditionally, Zhouyi was written by three saints, that is, Zhouyi experienced three times: ancient times, middle ages and ancient times, and was completed by three saints: Fuxi, Wang Wen and Confucius. According to historical records, Taihao Fuxi was a wise emperor in ancient China. He is the first of a hundred kings, ranking first in Huang San. His inventions and outstanding achievements opened a new era of human society. "Hao" means Ming, while "Tai Hao" is a compliment to the right. It shows that he is noble and as bright as the sun and the moon. Fuxi lived more than 6,000 years ago and was born in Ji Cheng (now Tianshui, Gansu). When Fuxi was born, it was magical and abnormal. He is young, intelligent, open-minded and knowledgeable. In the struggle to conquer nature, he fully demonstrated his talents. Because of his many inventions, he became a tribal leader. Fuxi led the people to roam eastward along the roaring Yellow River, and came to the eastern part of the Central Plains, where they settled in the rich Wanqiu (now Huaiyin County, Henan Province) and established their capital. Zhou Wenwang was the leader of the Zhou Dynasty, and his name was Chang Ji. At the end of Shang Dynasty, Zhou Wang was cruel and was constantly opposed by the people. However, under the rule of King Wen, Zhou became more and more powerful, and King Wen won the hearts of the people, enough to become a threat to merchants. Under this condition, the King of Shang imprisoned King Wen in Xian (now tangyin county), and King Wen was in distress. Confucius, a native of Lu State (now Qufu, Shandong Province) in the Spring and Autumn Period, was a famous thinker, educator, founder of Confucianism and once head of Lu State. Mainly devoted to education, according to historical records, the Book of Changes was his creation in his later years. Sima Qian and Ban Gu affirmed in the history books that Confucius was late and easy to change, and Wei compiled three unique works. The phrase "the more sacred people are, the more ancient the world is" affirms that Zhouyi is not an era, but a person's work. It can be said that the origin of Zhouyi is also the origin of divination. In the pre-Qin period, Yi was a complete divination. Yi-ology has a long history and originated from the divination activities of China ancestors. The reason why a high-level torrent of academic culture can be derived depends on a classic book-Zhouyi culture. So, what does Zhouyi include? Ancient Scriptures and Eleven Wings are two organic parts of Zhouyi. The ancient classic scriptures (including hexagram paintings, hexagram names and their corresponding characters) are the main body of Zhouyi, and the ten wings are the upper and lower parts of seal, image seal, cohesive seal and classical Chinese seal respectively. Traditional Yi-ology holds that the "Classics" and "Biography" of Zhouyi are written by saints, masterpieces of several saints who care about the world and sympathize with others, and also the crystallization or concentrated display of exquisite wisdom. Among them, Fuxi, an ancient sage, painted eight diagrams, followed by Zhou Wenwang. His eight diagrams are sixty-four hexagrams, under which all departments belong to the corresponding hexagrams. Duke Zhou respected his father's wishes and analyzed the hexagrams, each of which was accompanied by a corresponding text. Confucius, born in the troubled times of the Spring and Autumn Period when Zhou Dao declined, studied the Book of Changes for another 50 years, studied hard, and finally described the meaning of the three saints and made ten wings. The Book of Changes, written by the above-mentioned sages, covers all the principles of heaven and man and the universe and is a rare book. After the Book of Changes was written, it was responsible for the divination of the Zhou Emperor, but the lower class people didn't have a chance to see it, let alone understand its use. As a result, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty declined, the academic level moved down, and the ancient Yijing also flowed into the later dynasty and the bachelor class. It was under such conditions that people in the Spring and Autumn Period were able to study ancient classics and form their own new Yi-ology, which can be seen from the relevant records in Zuo Zhuan and Guoyu. There are 22 articles in Zuozhuan and Guoyu. Based on the Zhouyi and other ancient books, these materials show that there are two points worth mentioning in people's Yi-ology thoughts in the Spring and Autumn Period. First, he also initially put forward some theories on the formation of hexagrams. For example, Zuo Zhuan was twenty-two years old, and Zhou Shi took Zhouyi and ancient classics as divination examples, among which there were divination images such as Gan Tian Kun Di and Xun Feng, which was the beginning of Yi learning. Secondly, there are people who use the meaning of people to explain hexagrams and hexagrams, which is the origin of Yi-ology. These two points laid a certain foundation for the transition from ancient times to modern times and the birth of the ten-wing theoretical system. From the middle and late Warring States period, the ideas of Taoism and Yin-Yang School were changed to "Yi", and the two basic paintings of ancient classics were explained by the rigidity of Yin and Yang, that is, the rigidity of Yin and Yang was expressed, and then the rigidity of Yang and Yin and Yang were expressed, forming different painting combinations. At this point, the theory of Yin and Yang has become the essence of the fundamental theory of Yi. It is under this background that famous papers such as Zhuangzi, Tianxiapian and Yi regard Tao as yin and yang. Yin-yang theory is a profound theoretical baseline, which runs through the systematic cosmology of heaven, earth and man. The vision of Zhouyi theory has been greatly broadened, and its theory itself has become profound. Since then, the study of Zhouyi has really entered the ranks of high-level knowledge to explore the mystery of the universe between man and nature and to investigate the laws of the universe between man and nature. Taking this as a starting point, a flowing stream of Yi-ology was formally formed, just as it has a long history. In a word, Yi-ology, as an eternal school of human beings, is related to human destiny. Modern human beings recognize and accept her, indicating that human beings are awakening.