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 395

368
THE APPENDIXES.
SECT. I.
us in speaking ; on its changes for (the initiation of) our movements; on its emblematic figures for (definite action as in) the construction of implements;
jargon indeed about the formation of the five elements, but in order to make it appear not reasonable, but capable of being related, writers call in the Lo writing' to the aid of the Ho map;' and the five elements' is a division of the constituents of material things, which is foreign to the Yi.
Paragraph 51 is intended to describe the process of divination in manipulating the stalks, but the description is confused by introducing into it the four seasons and the subject of intercalation, so as to be very difficult to understand.
In the middle of the Ho map are the five circles symbolical of heaven and the ten dark terrestrial markings (five above and five below the others). These multiplied together give fifty, which form
the great expansion.' But 50 divining stalks or slips, when divided, give either two odd numbers or two even; and therefore one was put on one side. The remaining 49, however divided, were sure to give two parcels of stalks, one containing an even number of stalks, and the other an odd, and so might be said fancifully to represent the undivided or strong, and the divided or weak line. It is needless to go minutely into the other steps of the process. Then comes in the counting the stalks by four, because there are four seasons in the year, and those that remain represent the intercalary days. But how could such a process be of any value to determine the days necessary to be intercalated in any particular year? The paragraph shows, however, that, when it was written, the rule was to intercalate two months in five years. But it does not say how many days would remain to be carried on to the sixth year after the second intercalation.
Paragraph 52. The actual number of the undivided and divided lines in the hexagrams is the same, 192 of each. But the representative number of an undivided line is 9, and of a divided line 6. Now 9 X4 (the number of the emblematic figures) x 6 (the lines of each hexagram)= 216; and 6 x 4 x 6=144. The sum of these products is 360, which was assumed, for the purpose of working the intercalation, as the standard length of the year. But this was derived from observation, and other considerations ;-it did not come out of the Yi.
Paragraphs 53-56. The number in 53 arises thus :—192 (the
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