Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 385

358
THE APPENDIXES.
SECT. 1.
Chapter VI. 33. Yes, wide is the Yt and great! If we speak of it in its farthest reaching, no limit can be set to it; if we speak of it with reference to what is near at hand, its lessons are) still and correct; if we speak of it in connexion with all between heaven and earth, it embraces all.
34. There is Khien. In its (individual) stillness it is self-absorbed; when exerting its motive power it goes straight forward ; and thus it is that its productive action is on a grand scale. There is Khwăn. In its (individual) stillness, it is self-collected and capacious; when exerting its motive power, it developes its resources, and thus its productive action is on a wide scale.
35. In its breadth and greatness, (the Y1) corre
the symbol of heaven, every one of its three lines is undivided; it is the concentration of the yang faculty; so Khwăn, the symbol of the earth, is the concentration of the yin. The critics themselves call attention to the equivalence of the symbolic names here given to yin and yang. The connexion of the two is necessary to the production of any one substantial thing. The yang originates a shadowy outline which the yin fills up with a definite substance. So actually in nature Heaven (Khien) and Earth (Khwăn) operate together in the production of all material things and beings.
The 'numbers,' mentioned in paragraph 31, are not all or any numbers generally, but 7, 8, 9, 6, those assigned to the four 'emblematic figures,' that grow out of the undivided and divided lines, and by means of which the hexagrams are made up in divination. The future or coming events' which are prognosticated are not particular events, which the diviner has not already forecast, but the character of events or courses of actions already contemplated, as good or evil, lucky or unlucky, in their issue.
The best commentary on paragraph 32 is supplied by paragraphs 8-10 of Appendix VI. The Spirit' is that of God;' and this settles the meaning of tâo in paragraph 24, as being the course of nature, in which, according to the author, 'God worketh all in all.'
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