Awakening to traditional culture "The Book of Changes" (2) - Tai Chi
1. The concept of Tai Chi
Tai Chi, a category used by ancient Chinese philosophy to explain the origin of the world The word "Tai Chi" comes from "Zhuangzi": "The great road is above Tai Chi but not high; it is below the six poles but not deep; it is innate to heaven and earth but not permanent; it is longer than ancient times but not old." "Tai" means "to"; "ji" means "limit"; "Tai Chi" means reaching the limit. Things change when they are extreme, and when they change, they transform, so the source of change is Tai Chi.
Tai Chi explains the process of the universe from Wuji to Tai Chi, and to the transformation of all things. Among them, Tai Chi refers to the state before heaven and earth were opened and chaos was not divided into yin and yang. A line from the Book of Changes: "This is why the Yi has Tai Chi, which gives rise to two rituals." The two instruments are the Yin and Yang instruments of Tai Chi.
Tai Chi is an important concept and category in the history of Chinese Taoist culture. "Yi Zhuan": "Yi has Tai Chi, which produces two Yi. Two Yi produces four images, and four images produce Bagua." After Zhuangzi, people in later generations gradually deduced mature Tai Chi based on the discussion of "Tai Chi" in "Book of Changes·Xici" The concept of Tai Chi really absorbs the essence of Zhuangzi’s chaos philosophy.
Similar to Zhuangzi’s philosophy of chaos, the concept of Tai Chi, an attitude towards life that looks at the phenomenon and essence of all things in a trance, and this way of thinking itself, actually contains sober and wise philosophical thinking, and its ultimate The purpose is to hope that human activities will comply with the great virtues and the laws of nature, not be restricted by external things, "do nothing but do everything", and finally reach a spiritual realm of tranquility and harmony that tolerates nothing.
"Yixi Ci Zhuan" records: "In ancient times, the Fuxi clan was the king of the world. Looking up, he observed the images in the sky, and looking down, he observed the laws on the earth. He observed the words of birds and beasts in harmony with the earth. Take all the bodies, take all the things from afar, and then start to write the content of "Bagua". It means the process of forming hexagrams. First there is Tai Chi, before the yarrow is separated (yarrow is used as a tool for divination). After the yarrow is divided, the two Yao of Yin and Yang are formed, which is called Liangyi. When the two lines are added together, there are four possible images, which are called four images. By adding a line from each of them, it becomes Bagua. What we are talking about here is the process of drawing Bagua. It was originally related to astronomy, meteorology and the distance and direction of the region. It was later further explained in a philosophical way by Neo-Confucianists in the Song Dynasty.
Tai Chi in Taoism generally refers to the most primitive state of order in the universe, which appeared after the chaotic period (Wuji) when yin and yang were not separated, and then formed the origin of all things (the universe). The earlier ones that used the concept of "Tai Chi" include "Zhuangzi" and "Yi Zhuan". The concept of Tai Chi is generally used in cosmology and methodology. Among Chinese classics, "Yi" has always been a philosophical book that exhausts the mysteries of heaven and earth. The analysis of the process of forming a hexagram is basically an overview of the creation of heaven and earth. Tai Chi generates two rituals, which is the process of the differentiation of Tai Chi to form heaven and earth. The two rituals are heaven and earth, as well as yin and yang. The concept of Tai Chi often appears together with Yi Xue. Taoist Yi has its own unique system, and the concept of Tai Chi is an important basic concept in Taoist Yi's cosmology and cultivation theory.
2. A Brief Introduction to Tai Chi
When studying Zhuangzi, one philosophical concept is Tai Chi. "Xici·Zhangzhuan", which was influenced by Taoism and Yin-Yang School, said: "Therefore Yi has Tai Chi, which gives rise to two rites, two rites produce four images, and four images produce Bagua." Also in "Xici·Xiaozhuan" Said: "The eight trigrams are arranged in a row, and the elephants are among them. Therefore, the emphasis is on the Yao, which is among them. The hardness and softness push each other, and the changes are in it."
Sages have different interpretations of what Tai Chi is. Yu Fan said: "Tai Chi is Tai Yi." Han Kangbo said: "Tai Chi has no name." Kong Yingda said: "Tai Chi is the beginning of Tai Chi." Su Zizhan said: "Tai Chi is the first of all things." "Zhu Xi said: "Tai Chi is the principle." Lai Zhide said: "Tai Chi is the principle." Jiao Xun said: "Tai Chi is the principle." Although the interpretations of each school are different, they are all the same. Etaiji is the original body of the characters in the world, referred to as the ontology. This body contains infinite images and endless functions. The ontology, image and function are inseparable. If you don’t study the Book of Changes and don’t understand the principles of the Book of Changes, you don’t know that we all have this nature and that all things are prepared for us. As a result, we abandon the basics and seek the last in everything, and seek outside, causing all kinds of disasters for ourselves and the masses. If you learn Yi and understand the principles, you can seek good luck and avoid bad luck. The greatest disaster is that the problem of life and death cannot be solved, and the greatest blessing is learning to become a saint. If you want to learn from the saints, you must first solve the problem of life and death. "The Analects" records that Zilu asked about death, and Confucius answered: "If you don't know life, how can you know death." Death begins with life. If you want to know how to solve the problem of death, you must understand the source of life, and the source of life is Tai Chi.
Tai Chi is the body of two things. Tai Chi is silent and motionless. It has no image at all. It is only a pure and bright body. This is the reason of lifelessness. When it moves, phenomena appear and come into play, which is called life. The number of images produced is infinite, but at the beginning of the movement, there are only two colors, one bright and one dark. The bright color is yang and the dark color is yin, so it is called yin and yang. The yin is as explained in "Kong's Justice" , in terms of Rongyi, because it has not yet become an image, it is not called two images, only two instruments. However, these two rituals are actually the basic structure of the four phenomena and even all phenomena. All phenomena are subdivided from the two rituals, so all phenomena have Yin and Yang. Although the number of all things is infinite, the basic numbers are yang, odd, and yin. When Fu Xi was drawing hexagrams, he invented two very simple paintings to show the source of endless numbers.
3. Tai Chi Diagram
There are many kinds of Tai Chi Diagrams, such as Zhou Dunyi Tai Chi Diagram, Xiantian Tai Chi Diagram (originally known as "The Picture of Nature of Heaven and Earth", commonly known as "Yin Yang Fish Diagram"), ancient Tai Chi Diagram The Tai Chi Bagua Diagram (the innate Tai Chi Diagram is surrounded by Bagua symbols), the Laizhide Tai Chi Diagram and the Duanmu Guohu Tai Chi Diagram of the Qing Dynasty.
After being passed down to this day, among the diagrams, only the Innate Tai Chi Diagram and the Ancient Tai Chi Bagua Diagram are well known. Therefore, what modern people call "Tai Chi Diagram" is the "Yin Yang Fish Diagram" or "The Diagram of Heaven, Earth and Nature". The "Tai Chi Bagua Diagram" is the paradigm of the ancient Tai Chi Bagua Diagram, and the "Tai Chi Bagua Diagram" is often simply called "Tai Chi Bagua Diagram".
Tai Chi diagram is known as "China's first diagram". From the beams and pillars of the Dacheng Hall of the Confucius Temple, to the symbols of Laozi Tower, Sanmao Palace, and Baiyun Temple; from the Taoist priest's robes to the fortune teller's divination stall; the covers and emblems of books and periodicals on traditional Chinese medicine, qigong, martial arts, and traditional Chinese culture From the monogram to the South Korean flag pattern, the Singapore Air Force aircraft emblem, the Boer Medal family emblem, etc., the Taichi diagram has all jumped to the top. This well-known Tai Chi diagram is shaped like a yin and yang fish intertwined with each other, so it is commonly known as the "Yin and Yang fish Tai Chi diagram".
Since "Tai Chi Diagram" has been popular for so long and widely, its origin and evolution have naturally become the focus of people's interest. Before examining its origin, we should clarify the relationship between the name of "Tai Chi Diagram" and its graphics. There are two situations here. One is the same name, but it refers to different graphics. In addition to the yin and yang fish graphics, the "Tai Chi Diagram" also has five layers of graphics (that is, the customary "Zhou Dunyi Tai Chi Diagram"), hollow Circle graphics, black and white semicircle graphics, etc. (In fact, the latter graphics were called "Tai Chi Diagram" much earlier than the former); first, the same graphics have different names, such as the yin and yang fish "Tai Chi Diagram", which was called "Tai Chi Diagram" in the early days. Create "Xiantian Diagram", "River Diagram", "Xiantian Natural River Diagram", "Xiantian Natural Diagram", "Ancient Tai Chi Diagram", etc.; the five-layer "Tai Chi Diagram" is also called "Wuji Diagram" and "Tai Chi Sequential and Reverse Diagram" ”, “Tai Chi Sequential Growth Chart”, “Dan Dao Reverse Growth Chart”, etc. (Of course, the graphics of the two types of Tai Chi diagrams are slightly different).
Many people in modern times believe that Tai Chi Diagram originated from the primitive era. Some even believe that it was a gift from aliens to the people of the earth in the ancient times, or that the last or even two or three civilizations were destroyed before this human civilization. The only token left over from that time. What did Tai Chi Tu evolve from? Mr. Chen Lifu believes: "The ancient Tai Chi diagrams unearthed in mainland China are three to four thousand years earlier than the Zhouyi and Qian Chi Du. For example, the ancient Tai Chi diagrams unearthed in Yongjing, Shaanxi Province 6,500 years ago (Fuxi era) ) The ancient Tai Chi diagram of two dragons on the double-eared pottery pot was painted with the center of a brush and was actually 4,000 years earlier than Confucius. Several bronze vessels from the Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty also showed the Tai Chi diagram of two male and female dragons entwining each other. "Chen Lifu directly called the diagram of the two dragons entwining each other the "Tai Chi diagram of the two dragons". The double dragon entwining picture is actually the "Fuxi and Nuwa mating picture" of the ancestor of China.
Are these graphics the source of Tai Chi Diagram? If we only look at this kind of graphics and patterns, it is obviously not possible to directly deduce Tai Chi Diagram. Because similar patterns have not evolved into Tai Chi diagrams in other ethnic groups, for example, ancient Babylon has a pattern of twin snakes entwining and mating, and relics (silver ornaments, copper pots, vases, etc.) from ancient Greece, ancient India, the Caucasus, and Asia Minor have similar patterns. , but none of these ethnic groups have Tai Chi diagram.
However, judging from the ideas hidden in these graphics, it cannot be said that they have nothing to do with Tai Chi Diagram. These figures are all formed by the intersection of two pairs, or double dragons, double snakes, or double fishes, double phoenixes. They are formed by the intersection of two identical symbols. This is the product of reproductive worship in primitive society. The double-double pattern may represent male and female (Fuxi, Nuwa), or male and female (Pisces, double snakes, double dragons, double birds); the two pairs intersecting reflect the primitive people's intuitive understanding of male and female and the intercourse of male and female. From human body phenomena, biological phenomena, and natural phenomena such as sexual organs, male and female, male and female, sun and moon, we gradually realized the concept of "yin and yang", as well as the coexistence of yin and yang, the relative and intersecting (treatment and unification) of yin and yang, the interaction of yin and yang, and the mutual transformation of yin and yang, etc. This kind of thinking determines that traditional Chinese culture is yin and yang culture in a sense. The yin and yang lines and yin and yang hexagrams in the "Book of Changes" are the symbolization of the idea of ????yin and yang. The black and white and the integration of the beginning and the end of the Tai Chi diagram are the best illustrations of the concepts of yin and yang's unity, growth and decline, and mutual interaction.
4. The connotation of Tai Chi
1. The original and unified vitality of the universe.
Tang Yingda's "Zhengyi Zhengyi": "Tai Chi means that before the heaven and earth are divided, the vitality is mixed into one." "Yi Wei Qian Chi Du" believes that "the tangible is born from the invisible" and proposes that "there is Tai Chi, "There is Taichu, there is Taishi, there is Taisu" to explain "Yi has Taiji" in four stages. The time when Qi is not seen is Tai Yi, the beginning of Qi is Tai Chu, the beginning of form is Tai Shi, and the beginning of quality is Tai Su. The state in which the air, form and quality are mixed together without separation is called chaos. The thing of chaos is what the ancients called vitality. The undivided state of vitality is regarded as Tai Chi, giving it the meaning of original matter. This view was relatively common in the Han Dynasty. For example, Liu Xin said: "The central vitality of Tai Chi"; Wang Chong quoted the Yi scholars as saying: "The vitality is not divided and is chaotic." Zheng Xuan explained Tai Chi in terms of "pure and undivided Qi".
2. Take the body of nothingness as Tai Chi.
Wang Bi explained the number of Dayan: "One does not need to be 'said'. It is not necessary to use the method. It is not a number but a number. This is the Tai Chi of Yi." "One" is Tai Chi. , believes that this "one" is not a number, but "nothing", and "nothing" is the basis for the formation of the number of forty-nine. Han Kangbo commented on "Yi has Tai Chi, which gives birth to two rites." He said: "Human existence must begin with nothing, so Tai Chi gives birth to two rites."
3. The forty-nine numbers of Dayan are not divided. For Tai Chi.
Cui Jing said: "The forty-nine numbers are combined but not divided, which is like Tai Chi.
Now it is divided into two to represent two rituals. Divide the yarrows and count them by four. One policy is for one time, so the four policies are like the four seasons. "Cui Jing's discussion of the numbers of Dayan and his theory of Tai Chi does not regard any unused number as a void entity, and the forty-nine numbers are not divided into Tai Chi. He also believes that the Eight Diagrams are included in the numbers of Dayan. This view, It is of great significance in the history of Yixue philosophy, and provided a method for Song Yi to transform the Han Yi's theory of cosmogenesis into ontology.
4. The mixture of Yin and Yang is not divided into Tai Chi.
Zhou Dunyi's "Tai Chi Illustration": "Wuji and Tai Chi, Tai Chi moves to generate Yang, the moving extreme creates stillness, the stillness generates Yin, the static extreme moves again, one movement and one stillness, they are the root of each other, dividing Yin and Yang. The two rituals are in harmony. ”
After Zhou Dunyi, the interpretation of Tai Chi was divided into three major schools:
(1) Talking about the great extreme with numbers.
The one thing about Tai Chi is that it does not move. The two are gods; one divides into two as odd and even to explain that Tai Chi produces two rituals. It is believed that in humans, "the heart is the great pole", and in heaven and earth, "the Tao is the Tai Chi." "
(2) Talk about Tai Chi based on principles.
Ji is the ultimate principle, and the principle that summarizes everything in the world is Tai Chi. Tai Chi is its principle. Tai Chi is everything in the world The sum of the principles of all things, and there is also the principle of Tai Chi in specific things. Therefore, it is said: "Everyone has a Tai Chi, and everything has a Tai Chi." ”
(3) Tai Chi is viewed from the perspective of the unity of opposites.
One thing has two bodies, and its great extreme is called and? Tai Chi is the source of the movement and change of all things in the world. It believes that there is no existence Yin and Yang are unpredictable when combined, and their opposites change each other. Wang Fuzhi elaborated on Zhang Zai's theory and insisted on the unity of opposites to explain Tai Chi. He asserted that Tai Chi and Liang Yi are related to each other, not father and son. The entity of the two qi united into one, this entity itself has the nature of movement and the law of change, and is contained in all things in the world. All phenomena are different manifestations of this unity of yin and yang, which exerts the "Qi of Taihe" as the foundation of the world. The original thought.
5. One Yin and One Yang are the explanation of Tai Chi.
So what is Tao? It refers to the way of heaven, the way of earth, and the way of all things. They all have two sides, and they are constantly changing, and there is a certain correlation. The way of heaven and earth are scientifically proven and easy to understand. The key is humanity, which mainly refers to thoughts. What we talk about is respect. Our own thoughts, respect the laws of nature, learn to control our emotions, and not be afraid of evil thoughts. We should work hard to find the correct method.
5. Tai Chi Theory
Tai Chi is Taoism. Philosophical concept. This concept has influenced Chinese cultural schools such as Confucianism and Taoism. "Liezi" talks about Taiyi, Taishi, Taisu, Taiji, and the five stages of the universe. : “Wuji and Tai Chi. "This injects the word "Wuji" mentioned in "Laozi" and "Zhuangzi" into Neo-Confucianism, and also connects the concept of Wuji with Tai Chi. The "Yizong Jinjian" compiled by Taiyuan Hospital during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty adopted the concept of Wuji. There are five stages: "Wuji Taixu Qi Zhongli, Tai Chi Taixu Li Zhongqi." The movement and stillness of Qi generate Yin and Yang, and Yin and Yang are divided into heaven and earth. There is no cosmic qi to take shape, but there is already a cosmic shape containing qi. The study of Qi from its shape is called Yin and Yang, and the theory of Qi is called Tai Chi. "
1. Taichu, the original meaning.
"Zhuangzi": "The great road is above Tai Chi but not high; it is below the six poles but not deep; first Heaven and earth do not last forever; they last longer than ancient times but do not become old." "Book of Changes": "Yi has Tai Chi, which first gave birth to two rituals, two rituals gave birth to four images, and four images gave birth to Bagua. "Kong Yingda Shu: "Tai Chi means that before heaven and earth are divided, the vitality is mixed into one, which is Taichu and Taiyi. "
2. Scholars from the Song Dynasty believe that "Tai Chi" is "principle".
Volume 75 of "Zhu Zi Yu Lei": "Tai Chi is just a set of muddy principles. It contains yin and yang, hardness and softness, odd couplings, everything. "Zhang Zizheng Meng's Notes on Taihe" written by Wang Fuzhi of the Qing Dynasty: "Tao is the general principle of heaven, earth and people, which is the so-called Tai Chi."
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Ding Jungui
April 25, 2020