An interesting, personal and meaningful exploration of the character zai 災 and its variant in the Shanghai Museum Manuscript of the Yijing by my good friend Luis Andrade.
http://www.yitoons.com/yiblog/2015/09/13/on-disaster-walking-staffs-and-the-yijing/
The Yijing / I Ching (易經 / 周易) has been studied over at-least two millennia and remains today a cryptic text of un-certain origins. Despite being an enigmatic text, it has attracted countless people throughout time across the world to investigate it for a variety of reasons. People are encouraged to study the Yijing / I Ching as a form of Divination for:-
The London Yijing (I Ching) Society has been set-up following a discussion amongst a few friends who have studied the text over decades. It is to be a place for anyone interested in the subject and want to share their ideas and experience. The society aims to inspire people to use the text wisely and effectively or at the very least encourage a serious approach.
Historically the Yijing / I Ching has been studied and used by people from a wide-range of backgrounds and in the same way the Society will receive diverse members from all walks-of-life. We will hold meetings in Central London over tea and biscuits and if enough people are inclined we may even partake in one of London’s cosy public-houses.
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I originally wrote this paper (in Dutch) for a friend, but I thought I might as well share it with the community. The article discusses the origin of the month hexagrams as found in Jou Tsung Hwa’s The Tao of I Ching and reiterates the error in this book as mentioned earlier in my article on the Eight Houses.
吉.原筮.元永貞.無咎.不寧方來.後夫凶.
Yuan 原: many old commentaries say that yuan should be read as zai 再, ‘again’. But this meaning of yuan is quite rare. The Shanghai Museum Manuscript has 备 (not to be read as the simplified character of bei 備) instead of yuan. It is an abbreviation of the character yuan 邍 which is a known loan character of 原 (see 戰國古文字典, p. 1014; 古文字詁林, vol. 2, p. 454-455 and the Multi-Function Chinese Character Database). This also narrows down the possible meanings of 原. Continue reading
利永貞.
Yong zhen 永貞: long-term (長久) divination:
戊寅卜
貞我永.
Crack-making on day 15, divines for my long-term prognosis.
(Heji 合集 248)
Several oracle bone inscriptions end with a character or phrase denoting the auspiciousness of the received oracle, like ji 吉 or da ji 大吉 (see for examples Heji 合集 27013, 27020, 27041, 27973, 28142, 28663). Sometimes we find the character yong 永 as such an end note, probably denoting an auspicious long-term divination (Heji 合集 6108 臼, 6527 臼, 6855 反, 10199 反, 17555 臼, 21381).
Favourable long-term divination.
