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Sunday, September 5, 2021

易经跟宗教有关吗?Is the Book of Changes, I-Ching related to religion?

 

易经跟宗教有关吗?现今三大宗教;基督教, 伊斯兰教和佛教都是易经之后才产生。(请看图以了解它们的历史.)


易经是怎么创造出来呢?被公认的有三大重要人物。第一个就是伏羲,第二个是周文王,第三个是孔子。但一般上历史学家都认为易经是一部集体创造的经典,而不是由某个人所创造。



伏羲的历史是相当的悠久,也很难考古,是相当于原始人的时代。相传在6000年前,伏羲一画开天,画了一个阳爻,再画了一个阴爻, 然后伏羲观察大自然而创造了八个卦。乾为天,坤为地,习坎为水,离为火,震为雷,巽为风,艮为山而兑为泽的八种自然现象。当时人类并没有文字, 他们靠的是符号. 《易经》里的阳爻__和阴爻- -就是那样来的. 因此有人稱《易经》为无字天书, 因为开始时它只有符号. 那是比中华文化5000年的历史还久呢!

《易》據說有三種:《连山》、《归藏》和《周易》,合稱三易。《连山》和《归藏》已经失传,《周易》是唯一有傳至後世的文獻。相傳《周易》是依循周文王主編《易》的著述而來,成書大約在西周時期。

易经的第二个重要人物是周文王。他在监狱里面把易经64卦写出来,相传他还没有写完64卦就已经去世了因为他年事已高,其余的卦是由他的儿子周武王和周公旦完成的。周文王是公元前1125~1051年的人物。

甲骨文

我们今天用的汉语方块字比较完整的是可以追踪到3300年前的甲骨文。当时易经成書西周時期的汉字还是没有那么完整,也不是今天我们所用的汉字也应该没有那么多,因此周文王的64卦里的汉字是有限的。这也是为什么今天研究易经有一些困难的地方。

易经的第三个重要人物是孔子。孔子是2500年前的人物。当时这世界出现了一个所谓轴心时代,同时出现了孔子,老子,释迦摩尼佛和苏格拉底的重要思想家。

孔子看了易经就粛然起敬, 他与其后学为易经的为经作注解,合称十翼。翼即輔助。传为孔子与其后学的合作成果。孔子写了“十翼”来解释易经里难懂的内容。“十翼”是要把易经加上 10 个翅膀让它飞起来.

论语有记录;子曰 :加我数年,五十以学易,可以无大过矣。意思是说孔子说如果能够给他多几年,不要等到 50 岁才来学易经,他就不会犯什么大过了。

孔子论语的“学而时习之,不亦说乎,有朋自远方来,不亦乐乎。’  了解了易经,要个找个志同道合的人来分享和互相学习实在非常不容易。如果能够找到,就会特别的喜悦的事情。这种心境在易经第58兑卦有说到, 兑是喜悦的意思。在易经里面,如果你看到 “说 “就是代表着喜悦,这是因为人如果喜悦的时候,就会自然而然的放松说很多话,甚至有的时候会语无论次因为很是喜悦;因此在易经八卦里兑卦代表着口。同样的道理如果我们的支票兑现了,我们就会自然而然的喜悦;别人兑现了他们的承诺,我们也会特别开心。

轴心时代之后出现了基督教耶稣基督。接着下来就出现了伊斯兰教的先知。现今三大宗教;基督教, 伊斯兰教和佛教. 基督教教徒有24億, 伊斯兰教教徒有18億, 而佛教教徒有5.2億. 

我对基督教和伊斯兰教的了解不高,但从易经可以找到很多跟佛教的共同点。如果要问我,易经对哪一个宗教的影响最多呢?我要说那是道教。道教把老子尊称为他们的祖师,而老子是深受易经影响。

易经可說是比宗教和科学还久远. 自漢代開始尊奉為「五經」之首;《易經》的影響並不限於占卜和術數,大凡古代中國的哲学、宗教、政治、經濟、医学、天文、算术、文学、音乐、艺术、军事和武术等各方面,皆可見到陰陽變化的思想寓於其中; 中医, 太極拳, 孙子兵法, 风水命理都深受易经影响, 易经可说是东方文化的源头。自從十七世紀開始,《易經》經由天主教耶穌會的傳教士引介至歐美國家, 由此可見易经是难得可贵的经典.

Is the Book of Changes related to religion? The three major religions nowadays; Christianity, Islam and Buddhism are all born after the Book of Changes. (Please refer to the document above)

How was the Yijing created? Three important people are recognized. The first is Fuxi, the second is Zhou Wenwang, and the third is Confucius. But in general, historians believe that the Book of Changes is a collective creation of many scholars, not created by someone.

Fuxi's history is quite long, and it is difficult to archaeology. It is equivalent to the age of primitive people. According to legend, 6,000 years ago, Fuxi drew a yang line, and then painted a yin line, and then Fuxi observed nature and created eight hexagrams. Qian is the sky, kun is the earth, Xikan is water, Li is fire, Zhen is thunder, Sun is the wind, and the Gen is the mountain and the conversion is the eight natural phenomena. At that time, human beings didn’t have words, they relied on symbols. The Yang Yao and Yin Yao in the Book of Changes came like that. Therefore, some people called the Book of Changes as a heavenly script without words, because at the beginning it only had symbols. That is longer than the 5000-year history of Chinese culture!

It is said that there are three kinds of "yi": "Lianshan", "Gui Zang" and "Zhou Yi", collectively known as the Three Changes. "Lianshan" and "Gui Zang" have been lost, and "Zhou Yi" is the only document that has been passed down to later generations. According to legend, "Zhou Yi" is based on the work of Zhou Wenwang's editor-in-chief of "Yi", and it was completed in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

The second important figure in the Book of Changes is Zhou Wenwang. He wrote the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes in the prison. According to legend, he died before he finished writing the 64 hexagrams because of his old age. The rest of the hexagrams were completed by his sons Zhou Wuwang and Zhou Gongdan. Zhou Wenwang was a figure from 1125 to 1051 BC.

The Chinese characters we use today are relatively complete and can be traced to the oracle bone inscriptions 3,300 years ago. At that time, the Chinese characters in the Western Zhou Dynasty were not as complete when Zhou Wuwang  wrote the Book of Changes. It is not that there are not so many Chinese characters we use today. Therefore, the Chinese characters in the 64 hexagrams of Zhou Wenwang are limited. This is why there are some difficulties in studying the Book of Changes today.

The third important figure in the Book of Changes is Confucius. Confucius was a figure 2500 years ago. At that time, a so-called axis era appeared in the world, and important thinkers such as Confucius, Laozi, Buddha Shakyamuni and Socrates appeared at the same time.

When Confucius read the Book of Changes, he respected it. He and his later students who learned the Book of Changes made comments for the Book of Changes, collectively called Shiyi, it means ten wings to explain further the Book of Changes which is the result of the cooperation between Confucius and his posterity. Confucius wrote "Ten Wings" to explain the incomprehensible content of the Book of Changes. "Ten Wings" is to add 10 wings to the Book of Changes to make it fly.

There are records in the Analects; Confucius said: Add me for a few years and do not have to wait my fifty years old only to learn the Book of Changes, there can be no big mistakes. It means that Confucius said that if he can give him a few more years and don't wait until he is 50 to learn the Book of Changes, he would not commit a big mistake.

Confucius's Analects of "Learning from time to time. It is a pleasure to have friends from afar." After understanding the Book of Changes, it is very difficult to find a like-minded person to share and learn from each other. If you can If you find it, you will be particularly happy. This state of mind is mentioned in Hexagram 58 Dui of the Book of Changes. Dui means joy. In the Book of Changes, if you see "saying", it means joy. This is because When people are happy, they will naturally relax and say a lot, and sometimes they will talk a lot of nonsense because they are very joyful; therefore, in the I Ching bagua, Dui gua represents the mouth. The same principle is true if our check is cashed, We will be naturally happy. We fulfil their promises, and we will be especially happy.

There is a record in the Analects of Confucius, saying, “It’s okay to hear the Dao in the morning, and die at night.” He didn’t explain that I understood the truth in the morning, and I was willing to die at night, but that once I understood the truth, I found out that I used to be It’s wrong, but it’s okay. I made a mistake because I didn’t understand it before. Now I understand it. I have realized what I made a mistake yesterday, so the past I who made mistake is no longer exist anymore.

After the Axis Age, Christianity Jesus Christ appeared. Then came the prophet of Islam. There are three major religions today; Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. There are 2.4 billion Christians, 1.8 billion Muslims, and 520 million Buddhists.

I don’t know much about Christianity and Islam, but I can find a lot in common with Buddhism from the Book of Changes. If you want to ask me, which religion has the I Ching influenced the most? I want to say that it is Taoism. Taoism respects Lao Tzu as their ancestor, and Lao Tzu is deeply influenced by the Book of Changes.

It can be said that the Book of Changes is longer than religion and science. Since the Han Dynasty, it has been respected as the first of the "Five Classics"; the influence of the Book of Changes is not limited to divination and numeracy. Medicine, astronomy, arithmetic, literature, music, art, military and martial arts, etc., can be seen in the thoughts of yin and yang changes; Chinese medicine, Tai Chi, Sun Tzu's Art of War, Feng Shui and numerology are all deeply influenced by the Book of Changes, which can be said It is the source of Eastern culture. Since the 17th century, the Book of Changes has been introduced to European and American countries by the missionaries of the Catholic Jesuits. It can be seen that the Book of Changes is a rare and valuable classical book.

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