Yi Jing
Yi Jing (The Book of Changes) is an ancient classic expounding the changes of the universe and everything in it. It is also an enigmatic philosophical treatise on dialectics. The original Yi Jing consists of three volumes, but only one of them – Zhou Yi – is extant today, which, as legend has it, stems from the eight trigrams drawn by Fuxi based on Hetu and Luoshu.
Yi Jing records a complete set of profound astrological reasoning developed by the ancient Chinese through the observation of the universe and covers a wide range of subjects including philosophy, politics, life, literature, arts, and science. In remote ancient times, the Chinese people formulated such concepts as tiangan (Heavenly Stems) and dizhi (Earthly Branches), yin and yang, five elements, and bagua by observing the movement of celestial bodies. Based on that, they developed a systematic worldview that explained all beings in the universe and all changes in human society according to the principle of unity of the opposites, such as yin and yang, qian (heaven) and kun (earth), and hardness and softness. The book reflects how the ancient Chinese understood the perpetual changes of the universe, reveals its features and traits, and depicts how everything between heaven and earth evolves.
Regarded as the first of all classics in Chinese history, Yi Jing is held in high esteem by the ancient statesmen, military strategists, scholars, and businessmen alike as the theoretical root for the natural philosophy and cultural practices contained in traditional Chinese thinking. Through constant evolution and improvement, the ideas expressed in the book have become a philosophy. It explains the rule of living followed by the Chinese known as "man is an integral part of nature" and gives birth to the spirit of the Chinese nation – striving continuously for self-improvement and caring for all things with ample virtue.
《易經(jīng)》
《易經(jīng)》是闡述天地世間萬象變化的古老經(jīng)典，也是博大精深的辯證法哲學(xué)書。《易經(jīng)》包括《連山》《歸藏》《周易》三部經(jīng)書，其中《連山》《歸藏》已經(jīng)失傳，現(xiàn)存于世的只有《周易》。相傳伏羲根據(jù)河圖洛書畫成八卦，即為《周易》之來源。
《易經(jīng)》記錄了中國古人探索宇宙奧秘，并由此演繹出的一套完整深奧的星象推理文化，內(nèi)容涉及哲學(xué)、政治、生活、文學(xué)、藝術(shù)、科學(xué)等諸多領(lǐng)域。上古時(shí)期，中國古人觀察天象，確定天干地支、陰陽五行、八卦原理，結(jié)合時(shí)空、陰陽觀念，發(fā)展成為一個(gè)系統(tǒng)的世界觀，用陰陽、乾坤、剛?cè)岬膶α⒔y(tǒng)一來解釋宇宙萬物和人類社會的一切變化。《易經(jīng)》反映了中國古人對宇宙萬物時(shí)刻變化的認(rèn)識，揭示了宇宙的特性，囊括了天地間萬物的發(fā)展屬性。
在中國歷史上，《易經(jīng)》被譽(yù)為諸經(jīng)之首，是中國傳統(tǒng)思想文化中自然哲學(xué)與人文實(shí)踐的理論根源，為古代政治家、軍事家、學(xué)者、商業(yè)家所推崇。經(jīng)過不斷演繹，《易經(jīng)》已成為一門哲學(xué)，描述了中國人遵循的一種“天人合一”自然生存法則，并孕育了中華民族自強(qiáng)不息、厚德載物的民族精神。
