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《周易》一書由經和傳兩部分組成。“經”包括卦、卦名、卦辭、 爻題和爻辭。卦以陽爻和陰爻為基本成分。三畫組成的卦畫共有八個，即八卦，分別象徵天、地、雷、風、水、火、山和澤。八卦重疊，形成六十四個六畫卦。一個六畫卦可以分成兩個三畫卦，分別叫做下卦和上卦，或是內卦和外卦。每一個六畫卦都有一個相對應的名稱，卦名之後的解說文字為卦辭。六畫卦的每一爻，由下往上分別稱作初、二、三、四、五、上；陽爻為奇數九，陰爻為偶數六，合稱為爻題，例如：初九、九二、六三、上六。每一爻題後有一段爻辭。乾卦和坤卦分別多出一條爻辭“用九”和“用六”。稱《易》為“經”始於西漢年代，從那時起，六十四卦分為兩部分，前三十卦為上經，後三十四卦為下經。
《易》是“無思”、“無為”和“寂然不動”的，但是人一旦問筮，“可以感通天下”。“書不盡言，言不盡意”，書冊不能把全部的言語記錄下來，言語不能將思想完滿地表達出來，於是，“聖人立象以盡意，設卦以盡情偽，系辭焉以盡其言，變而通之以盡利”。這是說，象、卦、辭和變是相互聯繫和相互包含的，我們從中可以瞭解到言語表達不出的和書冊沒有記錄的天地間的道理。《易》不是膚淺的占筮之書，因為“聖人以此齊戒，以神明其德”，就是說，聖人誠心學《易》，以提高思想認識的水平，達到最高的境界。 卦辭和爻辭分別解說卦和爻。它們開始是占卜的記錄，經過編排者的選擇和加工，編入《周易》，成為經的組成部分。從文句看，大體上有三類，一是以自然變化比擬人事變化，二、人事的得失，三、吉凶的判斷。 The Zhou Book of Change is made up of two parts: thetext and the appendices. The TEXT includes hexagrams, hexagramnames, hexagram judgments, names of the lines, linear judgements.The basic components for a hexagram are the yang line - and the yinline --. Three lines form a trigram, there are altogether eighttrigrams as the cardinals, and they symbolize heaven, earth,thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain and lake respectively.Multiplication of eight trigrams and eight trigrams makessixty-four hexagrams. One hexagram can be divided into two trigramsas the lower or the inner, and the upper or the outer trigrams.Each hexagram has a name with some judgments attached to it. Thesix lines of each hexagram can be named from bottom to top as thebottom line, the second line, the third line, the fourth line, thefifth line and the top line. The yang line is called nine (an oddnumber), while the yin six (an even number), thus the name for eachline can be, for instance, nine at the bottom line, nine at thesecond line, six at the third line, or six at the top line. Eachline is followed by a linear judgement. For the Qian and the Kunhexagrams, each has an extra line as “all changeable nines” or “allchangeable sixes”. The Zhou Book of Change was entitled “classic”and divided into two volumes in the Western Han dynasty with thefirst thirty hexagrams as Volume 1 and the next thirty fourhexagrams as Volume 2. The Zhou Book of Change is “thoughtless”, “inactive” and“motionless”, but once man divines and consults it for help, it canthen tell about everything under heaven. “Books can not write downall speeches, and all speeches can not express all meanings.”However, “the sages create images to manifest full meanings, designhexagrams to demonstrate comprehensive and complicated meanings,attach hexagram and linear judgments to express full meanings inwriting, and indicates changes of good fortune and bad fortune inthe lines to guide people to benefit from them.” That is to say,images, hexagrams, judgments and change of fortune are allinterrelated and mutual inclusive. From them, we can understandbetween heaven and earth the philosophy that “speeches can notfully express and books can not fully record.” We should not regardthe Zhou Book of Change as a shallow book of divination, becauseeven “sages show great respect for and study it wholeheartedly forthe purpose of self-cultivation and sublimation to the highestdegree.” Furthermore, the meanings of the Zhou Book of Changeare so extensive and inclusive that the studies are associated withastrology, astronomy, geography, music, art of war, philology,arithmetic, even manufacture of immortal pills in the Daoistreligion. All can find their theoretic support in the book.However, in the hexagram image judgments, we frequently read thesentences that ‘the superior man thereby…,’ and in the linear imagejudgments the advice and warnings, they just demonstrate the careand concern of the sages of old for people, whereas other studiesare only derivations and not in the basic and original sense of theZhou Book of Change.” We should stress that in the whole ancientChinese intellectual studies; almost none of the different schoolsof thought has nothing to do with the Zhou Book of Change. Ahistory of changeology extends almost parallel from the verybeginning to the end with the development of ancient Chinesephilosophy. The hexagram and linear judgments provideexplanation for the hexagrams and lines. At first, they were notesof divination. The editors selected and revised them, and attachedthem to the hexagrams and lines, thus they became a part the text.As far as the content of sentences is concerned, they can bedivided into three kinds: 1. analogy between change in nature andthat in society and human affairs, 2. success and failure in sociallife, 3. judgments on good and bad fortune. |
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