Now Zhouyi is often associated with fortune telling, so what is the purpose of King Wen's deduction of Zhouyi?

Zhouyi is associated with metaphysics. This has something to do with "metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties". One of the characteristics of metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties is the confluence of Confucianism and Taoism to a certain extent, which proves that "the famous religion comes from nature". A famous teacher, Confucian ethics; Natural person, Taoist metaphysics also. This confluence of two schools of thought is based on literature, which is what metaphysicians called "San Xuan" at that time: Laozi, Zhuangzi and Zhouyi. The first two books are Taoist, and only Zhouyi has always been regarded as a Confucian classic: Confucianism takes the Six Classics as the original canon, and Zhouyi is the so-called "first of the Six Classics". But in fact, Zhouyi doesn't care which one. Only in this way, many pre-Qin philosophers are related to Zhouyi.

Not only that, in fact, it can be said that a history of China's thoughts since then is also an explanatory history of Zhouyi to a certain extent. In the study of Confucian classics in Han dynasty, the "Yi-ology" was extremely prosperous; Dong Zhongshu's philosophy, especially from the concept of Zhouyi. Next is metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties, as mentioned above. Buddhism in Han and Tang dynasties is also related to Zhouyi. We just need to point out that Prajna paramita originates from metaphysics, which is well known. As for Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties, Yi-ology is even more massive, and everyone in Neo-Confucianism can't stop the Book of Changes. Neo-Confucianism is often a Yi-ology scholar. Until the so-called "new learning" in modern times, Zhouyi still played the role of a basic way of thinking. For example, Mr. Xiong Shili, the founder of modern neo-Confucianism, claimed that his "new epistemology" was "a great change after returning to the Sect".

? From this perspective, it is impossible to understand China's thought and culture without understanding Yi Li. So, how should we learn Zhouyi? I think we should have a correct attitude first. The so-called correct attitude, I think the most urgent thing is to get rid of superstition. Since the "Book of Changes fever" in 1980s, people have shown several common superstitions about the Book of Changes: First, the superstition of "application". This is particularly important considering the "divination" characteristics of Zhouyi. To learn Zhouyi, we must first avoid the idea of asking God for divination and divination for good or ill luck.

The second is "scientific" superstition. There is a great superstition in the minds of some people in today's academic circles that the ancients were much smarter than today. In their eyes, it seems that monkeys don't become people, but people become more and more like monkeys. In the study of Zhouyi, an important manifestation of this superstition is that Zhouyi is more scientific than today's science. Is Zhouyi a science? My answer is absolutely not. We can study it in a scientific way today, but it is not science in itself. We study it scientifically, and it becomes the object of science. Just as we study caterpillars scientifically, caterpillars have also become scientific research objects.