Saturday, September 8, 2012

Shuo Gua Zhuan 說卦傳 (1)

Shuo Gua Zhuan is one of the Ten Wings to supplement the Yi Jing. It becomes an indispensable tool in the study of Feng Shui and divination. I will translate this wing to the best I can in simple English as a prerequisite to other subjects in Chinese metaphysics.


說卦傳  第一章

  昔者,聖人之作易也,幽贊神明而生蓍,参天两地而倚數


  觀變於陰陽,而立卦﹔發揮於剛柔,而生爻﹔和順於道德,而理於義﹔窮理盡性,以至於命。


Shuo Gua Zhuan   Chapter 1

In the old days, when the sages revealed the Yi, they respectfully sought help from Spiritual Intelligence and developed the rules of manipulating the yarrow stalks. The number 3 represents Heaven with 2 the earth. All other numbers are then derived from these.

How the yin and yang change are observed and the trigrams are established, based on the strength and weakness, the full and divided lines (yao) are developed. With the harmony from ethics and reasons from righteousness, when reasons are exhausted and the nature of life lifted to the highest, this is the mandate from Heaven.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this, Joseph. You have given me much to explore. The text reads like a parable. What intrigues me most is the passage reading: "With the harmony from ethics and reasons from righteousness, when reasons are exhausted and the nature of life lifted to the highest..." I am looking forward to your next thoughts. - Judy Morris

Teresa Hwang Feng Shui & Design said...

Dear Master Yu,

Thank you for the translated text. Very helpful indeed in our understanding of Shuo Gua Zhuan.

Best regards,

Teresa

Jodi Brunner said...

Hi Joseph, "With the harmony from ethics and reasons from righteousness...". This sounds like Confucian ethics, so does that mean the SGS was written after Confucius' time?

Joseph Yu said...

HI Jodi,

Shuo Gua Zhuan is one of the Ten Wings written by Confucius together with his disciples.

JY