易學

Name

Meng 蒙: ignorant, confused, dark, hidden.

Tuan 彖

亨.匪我求童蒙.童蒙求我.初筮告.再三瀆.瀆則不告.利貞.

Fei 匪 = fei 非: ‘not, not be’.

Qiu 求: ask, inquire (請求; 詢問)

Tong meng 童蒙: same as tong meng 瞳矇 or tong meng 僮矇 – a person without knowledge or education:

純德行而民瞳矇, 曉惠之心未形生也.
Virtuous actions were out of the question, and the people were dull and beclouded. Knowledge and wisdom did not yet make their appearance.
Lun Heng 論衡, tr. Alfred Forke

But the context given by the line texts shows that tong is a verb, or an adverb: something is done to, or with, meng. With the proper meanings that tong has this is not possible. However, tong is often used as a loan for other characters, and one of these characters is zhong 重 (古代漢語通假字大字典, p. 646; 古文字通假字典, p. 468; 簡牘帛書通假字字典, p. 250). This character, among many other things, means ‘to repeat, do it again’ (表示動作行爲的重複，相當於“再”、“又”、“重新”). This meaning fits the Judgment text as well.

Meng 蒙: ignorant, confused, dark, hidden. Tong meng: repeatedly confused, ignorant.

Shi 筮: oracle consultation by means of yarrow stalks.

Gao 告: inform, report, notify.

Du 瀆: excessive, beyond the limits.

Accepted offering.
I do not ask the repeatedly ignorant,
The repeatedly ignorant asks me.
The first yarrow stalk oracle I report,
Two, three times is excessive.
When excessive I do not inform.
Favourable to divine.

乘馬班如.泣血漣如.

See also line 2 and 4.

Qixue 泣血 is a fixed expression used in several ancient texts: ‘weep tears of blood’. In the Lun Heng 論衡 we read:

厲、武之時，卞和獻玉，刖其兩足，奉玉泣出，涕盡，續之以血。夫鄒衍之誠，孰與卞和?見拘之冤，孰與刖足？仰天而歎，孰與泣血?
At the time of the Kings Li and Wu, Pien Ho presented them with a jade-stone, and had his two feet cut off. Offering his stone he wept, till his tears ran dry, when he went on weeping blood.  Can the sincerity of Tsou Yen bear a comparison with Pien Ho’s sufferings, or his unjust arrest with the amputation of the feet? Can the sighs towards heaven be put on a parallel with tears of blood?
(tr, A. Forke, p. 113)

From this context we learn that qixue means to cry until the tears are tried up and you continue to cry blood.

Liang 漣: flowing, streaming. Like in the Shijing 詩經 :

乘彼垝垣、以望復關。
不見復關、泣涕漣漣。
I ascended that ruinous wall,
To look towards Fuguan;
And when I saw [you] not [coming from] it;
My tears flowed in streams.
(tr. James Legge)

Carts lingering.
Shedding bloody tears in streams.

Line 4

乘馬班如.求婚媾.往吉. 無不利.

See also line 2.

Carts lingering,
Seeking marriage (for tying bonds).
Going is auspicious.
Nothing disadvantageous.

Line 5

屯其膏.小貞吉.大貞凶.

Gao 膏: The best; cream; quintessence of something. The 王力古漢語字典 gives as one of the meanings ‘the best place/location’ (‘精華所在’; p. 1008).

The best place for stationing troops.
Divination for small issues: auspicious.
Divination for big issues: inauspicious.

即鹿無虞.惟入于林中.君子幾不如舍.往吝.

Ji 即: approach; be close to

Lu 鹿: general term for deer, reindeer, moose, etc. According to Lu Deming’s 陸德明 Jingdian Shiwen 經典釋文 the Wang Su 王肅 notes have lu 麓, the foot of a hill or mountain. Kong Yingda 孔穎達 reads 鹿 as 麓 in his Chunqiu Zuozhuan Zhengyi 春秋左傳正義 :

鹿，山足。林屬於山曰鹿.
Lu 鹿 is the foot of a mountain. A forest that is joined to a mountain is called lu 鹿.

Yu 虞: a forester; someone who is in charge of the forests and everything that lives in it. In the Shujing 書經 we read:

帝曰：「疇若予上下草木鳥獸？」僉曰：「益哉！」帝曰：「俞，咨！益，汝作朕虞。」
The Di said, ‘Who can superintend, as the nature of the charge requires, the grass and trees, with the birds and beasts (on my hills and in my marshes)?’ All (in the court) replied, ‘Is there not Yi?’ The Di said, ‘Yes. Ho! Yi do you be my forester.’

In the Zhouli 周禮 we have a passage in which a forester is specifically linked to the forest that is near a mountain (麓):

每大林麓下士十有二人；史四人，胥十有二人，徒百有二十人。中林麓如中山之虞。小林麓如小山之虞。
Every large forest at the foot of a mountain requires 12 men of the Shi 士 (officials), of the Shi 史 (historians) four men, of the Xu 胥 (petty officials) twelve men, of the Tu 徒 (common workers) one hundred and twenty. A forest of middle size requires a quantity of foresters equal to the quantity required for a middle sized mountain. A forest of small size requires a quantity of foresters equal to the quantity required for a small sized mountain.

Ji 幾: before a verb it should be read as ‘should, ought to’ (用于動詞前，表示理當如此.可譯為“應當、“應該”等; 古代漢語虛詞詞典, p. 457).

Buru 不如, ‘not as good as’, ‘it is better to’.

She 舍: stop and stay overnight (留宿)

Lin 吝: similar to lin 遴, ‘difficulties; difficult progress’. According to Lu Deming Jing Fang 京房 uses 遴 instead of 吝. The Mawangdui text uses 𠳵, which is a known variant of 鄰 –> 遴.

Approaching the forest without a forester, only ending up in the middle of the woods. The lord should stop and stay overnight. To go results in difficulties.

屯如邅如.乘馬班如.匪寇婚媾.女子貞不字.十年乃字.

Tun 屯: to gather, assemble; to station troops, (to) garrison.

Ru 如: According to 古代漢語虛詞詞典 (p. 458-459) ‘多用于形容詞或副詞之后，也有用于動詞之后的，表示事物或動作的状态.可譯為“….一的樣子”、“….的” ‘ . Used behind a verb it denotes appearance, how something behaves or acts. Similar to today’s  ‘…一的樣子’ or ‘….的’. Often translated as ‘…-ing’. Ru after tun means that tun is a verb.

Zhan 邅: haltering, lingering; not able to go forward because of difficulties ahead.

Changma 乘馬: cart drawn by a horse; ride a horse.

Ban 班: same as ban 般, ‘linger, stay’. Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 has ban 般.

Kou 寇: invader, enemy (侵略者；敵人)

Hun 婚: marry

Gou 媾: is also related to marrying, meaning ‘to marry again’, ‘take a second wife’ (重婚，重疊交互為婚姻) with the sole purpose of tying bonds between families (親上加親; 結爲婚姻).

Zi 字: pregnant.

Shinian 十年: ‘ten years’, meaning ‘a long time’ (形容時間長久).

Troops gathering, haltering,
Carts lingering.
It is not an invader who wants to marry (for tying bonds).
Divination for a woman: she is not pregnant.
Only after a long time she will get pregnant.