Annotation and Appreciation of the Original Book of Changes by Xun Chuankun

Kun: Yuan Heng. Lizi Ma Zhizhen. A gentleman has friends, fans first, winners later, and interests. Friends in the southwest, friends in the northeast. A Zhen Ji.

Xun said: The highest value is Yuan, and everything is born to inherit heaven. Kun is thick and loaded, and his virtue is boundless. It contains great glory and is salty and "constant". That kind of "mare" is boundless, soft and virtuous. "Gentleman" gives way, "first loses" loses, and "later gains" often follows "gains". "Friends of the Southwest" in the same class; "Lost Friends in Northeast China" is a celebration. The "auspiciousness" of "An Zhen" should be boundless.

[Note] For the explanation of Kun Gua, see Kun Gua in this book. Kun "Yuan": originally refers to the name "Kun" and the word "Yuan" in the hexagrams, which are used together to form a concept, indicating authenticity or local virtue. Kun: Point to the ground. Everything (all). Great. Light: wide. Han: It refers to the omnipotence and omnipotence of the earth. H: prosperity and beauty. Types of mares: both mares and the earth belong to yin. Zhen: Most of them are interpreted as "Zheng" in Biography and Elephant Biography. Li Zhen: It's good for driving on the right road. Chang: Seeking the right path, meaning pun, not only refers to the road and shortcut of travel, but also refers to the right path of life. Class: the same kind, such as classmates, like-minded people, like-minded people. G: Good luck. The advantages of being content with the right path.

(Shi Zhonglian)

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The Biography, which appreciates Kun Gua, praises the character of the earth, but it does not pursue dualism. It defines heaven and tunnel as the sources of two worlds that are not in control of each other, but explains the function of heaven from another angle, that is, by telling the virtue of the earth. Like Gangua, there is also the word "Yuan Heng" in Kungua. Biography praises "Kunyuan" because everything depends on the earth to survive, but its eulogy affirms that the most fundamental character of the earth is "Shun Tian", that is to say, only the sky is the only driving force, and the tunnel is only realized along the sky.

The so-called "inheriting heaven" here means following heaven, that is, the universal laws of the universe and the laws of nature. In Zhouyi, this is the way of the ups and downs of Yin and Yang. The most magical thing about Zhouyi is that although it was formed in ancient times when religious superstitions prevailed, and although it was the product of divination activities to seek good or bad luck for ghosts and gods, there was almost no mention of personality gods in Zhouyi from beginning to end, and there was no supernatural miracle in the text.

Therefore, the concept of "Shun" in Kungua Zhuan has nothing in common with the idea of obeying destiny. In the author's view, Heaven is an irresistible necessity, and conforming to Heaven is the only way to avoid failure and achieve success. Heaven also means order and law. Knowing heaven has great wisdom and can grasp the way and direction of things' change and development. Kungua's words are the way to feel inferior. Shun, as mentioned in the History of the Three Kingdoms, requires people to borrow water to sail in a difficult environment, follow the trend, and of course obey their superiors. This is the proper meaning of inferiority, otherwise nothing can be done.

Obedience does not mean unconditional obedience to any will or will of superiors or monarchs. Xun Zhuan clearly realizes that the concept of submission will be used by evil forces and people will be abused. Therefore, Zuo Zhuan put forward that obedience must be based on righteousness and follow the correct direction, so as to avoid this concept being misunderstood as blind obedience. Xunzhuan pointed out that "the mare is a kind of land, with no boundaries, soft and virtuous", which means that the mare is soft and can drive it to a very far place because it is on the right path. Similarly, Zhuanzhuan interprets "losing first" as losing the right path, and the gentleman succeeded later because he found the right path. At the end of the hexagram, it was once again emphasized that only by being content with the right path can the land be "boundless", that is, making achievements and making Wan Li bright. It can be seen that Xun Zhuan explicitly opposes unprincipled obedience. Due to the limitation of the concept of "righteousness", the meaning of obedience is to conform to the heaven with its basic characteristics of being vigorous, so there is no negative element.

Another invention of the divinatory meaning of Kun Gua in Xun Zhuan is to attribute the tunnel to virtue, saying that "Kun is rich, and virtue is boundless". This is a tribute to the great depth and vastness of the earth, which carries and nourishes the virtue of selflessly popularizing everything. Therefore, people should have a broad mind, selfless virtue and great tolerance. The Biography of Zhuan Xu is based on morality, which is not a simple comparison, but a profound philosophical thought. Most ancient philosophers in China interpreted virtue as "virtue" and said, "virtue is virtue." (See Lao Zi Guan Shu Le Ji) The so-called "gain" means to get what you want, that is, to get what you want from yourself without losing it. At the same time, "De" also has the meanings of "De" and "You". When it is transformed into a noun, it refers to what it has. It can be seen that in China's ancient philosophy, "virtue" is the unity of heaven inherited by a thing and its own character and material, that is, everything that conforms to heaven itself, that is, everything that is excellent. The earth "carries Hua Yue but not heavy, vibrates the river without discharging, and everything carries everything" (The Doctrine of the Mean), which can best show the richness and beauty of the intrinsic value of a thing itself, as well as the vitality and creativity of these values, so it is the most vivid expression of the various meanings of "virtue". Therefore, Xunzhuan says that the earth is "rich and salty", and everything grows vigorously because of the nourishment of the earth, which seems to be rich and prosperous.

The moral concept of Xun Zhuan is helpful to break the moralism of monks. Monckism holds that morality is an external code of conduct, which turns morality into discipline, imprisons people's thoughts and binds people's behavior, thus exhausting people's spirit. On the contrary, Xun Zhuan thinks that morality is the inner quality and spiritual realm of human beings. Full of vitality and infinite vitality. The moral concept of Xun Zhuan can be a powerful ideological weapon to resist this kind of monasticism.

The six hexagrams of Kun gua are all yin, which is a submissive image. Accordingly, hexagrams are the way of speaking. Nuo Zhuan correctly grasped and profoundly expounded the meaning of Kun Gua, which endowed people with great dynamic spiritual strength and made them understand that although they were in a lower position, they could still form a strong spiritual advantage and should have confidence.