One must note that correct understanding and correct action are not always conducive to one’s immediate advantage or interest, but nevertheless they will always contribute to one’s total growth as a person. One must also note that to act according to one’s circumstances is not to act without principle; on the contrary, it is to act with a principle that will bring out the harmony and unity in the circumstances, and thus contribute to the unity and harmony
– Chung-Ying Cheng, The Primary Way
Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done
– Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching
According to Chung-Ying Cheng in The Primary Way, the I Ching was transformed with the contribution of Confucius. He refers to the book in his Analects, and the Ten Wings are attributed to him directly or indirectly. He may have written them, or possibly his students.
No one disputes the I Ching began as a divination system. There is some disagreement about the philosophy of the book, if it exists, and about the role of Confucius. This is secondary however to the fact of the Ten Wings. The writings are not divinatory like hexagram judgements, while commenting on the I Ching, and that too is indisputable.
I agree with Chung-Ying Cheng. There is a connection between the Confucian Ten Wings, the I Ching, and therefore Confucianism in general. The I Ching is metaphysical, Confucianism more sociological, so how do they relate? Read the I Ching and you find the meaning of the symbolism is generated by divinatory judgments, Confucian in origin. You cannot view the trigrams and hexagrams without explanatory guidance. You internalise the meanings with experience, but based on the work of others. We can consider the symbolism, the texts, or both; meaning occurs because of reciprocal interaction. It’s not necessary to study Confucianism, to read and understand the I Ching, but the Ten Wings are Confucius related.
The principle of harmony is central to Confucian writing. If you think about it politically, you might object. As with Emile Durkheim’s notion of Functionalism, it seems we all have a place and contribute within it. This is different from the conflict analysis of Marx and Hegel.
For some years however I read Wilhelm’s I Ching thinking it was Taoist, when in fact it’s Confucian. The labels are of no consequence, only categories of understanding, but I was thinking differently. Harmony for Confucius could mean maintaining social structure, especially in China. But if the reality is conflict, harmony doesn’t mean you deny it. In the Tao Te Ching Lao Tsu appears to dismiss social problems, but that’s not what he’s referring to. He means the material world is not where you find spirit, essence, or self.
Politics concerns are “the thinking principle” of meditation advice in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. They are thoughts, like any other thoughts, a problem when you sit and close your eyes. At a psychological level, Jean-Paul Sartre argues in Being and Nothingness that prisoners are free because they have the power of choice. Taoist philosophy is metaphysical irrespective of either prison or mansion. It’s an invitation, not an argument, as Jung expounds with the I Ching:
The I Ching does not offer itself with proofs and results; it does not vaunt itself, nor is it easy to approach. Like a part of nature, it waits until it is discovered. It offers neither facts nor power, but for lovers of self-knowledge, of wisdom – if there be such – it seems to be the right book (Wilhelm foreword)
Differences are resolved in the I Ching when it recognises vertical reality within horizontal struggle. The opening quotation from Chung-Ying Cheng describes a situation where you may have to fight, and don’t like it, but as part of horizontal necessity for which the I Ching says “no blame.” In Aikido philosophy you fight if you have to, because an attack is the problem, so a response maintains your centre. It might be unpleasant but necessary as part of greater meaning. Conversely you might adopt a yin response of forgiveness, for less dangerous circumstances, because you recognise they cannot control what they are doing.
In a related passage, Chung-Ying Cheng expands the idea with the additional concern of theory and action:
The process of self-cultivation involves both correct understanding (theory) and correct practice (action). Valid self-cultivation is always found in the unity of theory and practice, and understanding and action. Hence, to sustain harmony and unity in oneself, one must achieve unity of understanding and action. But there will be no unity if there is no correct understanding of one’s position and relationship with others in the world, and there will be no unity if there is no correct action following correct understanding. To see what correct understanding consists of, we must see how one is to sustain one’s own personal unity by sustaining the unity between oneself and others in the various situations one finds oneself placed in (Chung-Ying Cheng, The Primary Way)
This is consistent with Taoist metaphysics and correctly understood Confucianism. There is such a thing as evil – malevolent intent, selfish disregard, the desire to hurt – which the I Ching explains as a force or energy to oppose. How we do that, where and why, are separate questions which should eventually become harmony. Morehei Ueshiba described this as the centre of the universe. In Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere, practitioners Adele Westbrook and Oscar Ratt explain:
This centre will be used as a unifying device in the difficult process of co-ordinating the whole range of your powers and possibilities. It will be used in establishing a stable platform of unification and independence from which you may operate in full control, relating to and coping with your reality.
These may appear as abstract ideas with no relevance. They are however a structure of living, for which the I Ching is a manual, advising on understanding and action. This is vertical (metaphysical) and horizontal (practical). Action varies according to circumstance and might be expressed subtly and imperceptibly with the trigram Sun, or obviously and strongly with Chen. These energies correspond to wind and wood influence with the first, and thunder shock with the second. We operate within a nature defined world with related human capacities: “The eight trigrams therefore are not representations of things as such but of their tendencies in movement” (Wilhelm).
Throwing the coins consults the unconscious mind, recognising there are knowledge resources beyond obvious perception. This is a perennial sentiment not singular to China. In The Greeks and the Irrational, E.R. Dodds refers to “psychic intervention – an interference with human life by nonhuman agencies” which Carl Jung describes as archetypes within oneself. Ancient Greece was a time of rationality more than mysticism, but Pythia lived beside Apollo.
The concern when you throw the coins is this: where is your position? Hexagram 53 is called Development or Gradual Progress, which is relative. Every person is different which means varying answers according to circumstance and level. Wilhelm describes this poetically: “This hexagram is made up of Sun (wood, penetration) above, i.e., without, and Kên (mountain, stillness) below, i.e., within. A tree on a mountain develops slowly according to the law of its being and consequently stands firmly rooted.”
There is no alternative other than being rooted. No answers outside oneself, although we need help finding them. Roots for a human being concern emotional mood, thinking outlook, and life orientation. This reality corresponds with the following I Ching model:
| Line Six | Outer reason. Intellectual activity in relation to others. Consummate. |
| Line Five | Outer feeling. Social activity in relation to others. Stabilise. |
| Line Four | Outer desire. Emotional life in relation to others. Beginning. |
| Line Three | Inner reason. Intellectual activity. Consummate. |
| Line Two | Inner feeling. Social activity. Stabilise. |
| Line One | Inner desire. Emotional life. Beginning. |
I write like this is a magazine column. With research, references, and a lot of time. If you like it, perhaps you would support me.