Wednesday, 5 July 2006
The remarkable deductions in 'xiangshu' explanations
九四為外互坎之中爻. 後天象坎在正北. 於十二辰為子. 子之肖生鼠。而居大臣之位。是鼠之大者也. 故曰鼫鼠. (...) 貪殘畏人如鼫鼠. 雖欲持祿保位.
The fourth line is the middle line of the outer nuclear trigram Kan 坎. As a Houtian 後天 image Kan belongs to the true North. In the Twelve Hours this corresponds with hour zi 子. Hour zi resembles the (Chinese sign) Rat. Furthermore, the fourth line resides at the position of a high official. This is the 'great' of the rat. Therefore it is said 鼫鼠, 'large rat'. (...) Corrupted, greedy and fearing people are resembled by the large rat. They only desire to maintain there position without achieving anything.
Huang does not explain how the Zhouyi can use the system of the Chinese zodiac which was introduced in China centuries after its composition. His thoughts are amusing, but hardly convincing. Chung Wu bluntly copied Huang's ideas in his The Essentials of the Yi Jing without questioning if they were valid (p. 333). It shows that copying is easier than thinking.
