Royal Academic Institute

Chung’s “I – Ching 易經” 11 – 5 Mistakes learner of I-Ching should avoid (P2)

The Second Issue with Mr. Joseph Yu’s Perspective of SyutGuaJun說卦傳:

Anticipation of the future is artificial知來者逆– Let’s take a look at the meaning of anticipation




an•tic•i•pa•tion
noun
1.
the act of anticipating or the state of being anticipated.
2.
realization in advance; foretaste.
3.
expectation or hope.
4.
previous notion; slight previous impression.
5.
intuition, foreknowledge, or prescience.

fu•ture
noun
1.
time that is to be or come hereafter.
2.
something that will exist or happen in time to come: The future is rooted in the past.
3.
a condition, especially of success or failure, to come: Some people believe a gypsy can tell you your future.
4.
Grammar .
a.
the future tense.
b.
another future formation or construction.
c.
a form in the future, as He will come.
5.
Usually, futures. speculative purchases or sales of commodities for future receipt or delivery.

know
verb (used with object)
1.
to perceive or understand as fact or truth; to apprehend clearly and with certainty: I know the situation fully.
2.
to have established or fixed in the mind or memory: to know a poem by heart; Do you know the way to the park from here?
3.
to be cognizant or aware of: I know it.
4.
be acquainted with (a thing, place, person, etc.), as by sight, experience, or report: to know the mayor.
5.
to understand from experience or attainment (usually followed by how before an infinitive): to know how to make gingerbread.

The above explanation is from http://dictionary.reference.com/

Translating “知” to “anticipation” reflects Mr. Joseph’s ignorance in Chinese, especially in the context of I-Ching and Confucian.

The proper word should be "know". Since SyutGuaJun說卦傳 is commonly known as a literature written by Confucius, it is logical to refer to his other literatures to investigate the meaning of "知". In the Confucian Bible, Confucius said, “When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge.- JL” (知之為知之，不知為不知，是知也). Hence, it clearly shows the word “know” is a better choice because it has a broader meaning, and more importantly, it includes the idea “understanding”. Anticipation, on the other hand, does not concern about the reasons for something to happen nor contain the “knowledge” component in the idea.

Moreover, I-Ching talks about three ideas: Simple, Not Change, and Change. Hence, the word “anticipation” is an inadequate word as it doesn’t cover all of those ideas. For example, you don’t say, “I anticipate people will die” because it is a fact (at least at the writer’s time and in our current time). The word “Know” has the implication to perceive or understand as fact or truth, which is similar to “知” in this context. Remember, Yi (易) describes the nature law.

From his explanation of “知” , we can clearly see Mr. Joseph Yu is poorly educated in ancient Chinese literature. Both the word "知" in Chinese and the word "know" in English don’t contain any idea about future is set (or fixed). Hence, Joseph’s argument, “To ‘know’ the future implies that the future cannot be changed”, clearly shows his confusion between the word “know” and the idea of “future”. A simple way to look at it is that “to know” implies the person has acquired what he or she believes the appropriate knowledge, such as in the context of “I know science” or “I know this person”. The depth of the knowledge is not being measured, and the word “know” is mainly associated with a person’s internal thought.

“Future”, on the other hand, is something more in the external side; hence, there are many factors that can influence it. Obviously, some of you may argue when you say “I know it will rain tomorrow” means I am certain (100% sure) it will rain tomorrow where as “I anticipate it will rain tomorrow” indicates I predict it will rain tomorrow (not 100% sure). However, in a macro perspective and the context of SyutGuaJun說卦傳, “know” does covers more than the prediction component, it also indicates the reason why the future is happening in this way.

While “know” implies understanding is a fact, it includes the component of experience. When reviewing a sentence or paragraph, whether ancient passage or modern writing, one should not read each word separately. One should understand the main idea.

Based on Mr. Joseph Yu’s argument, not only did it reveal his lack of understanding in language arts, but it also demonstrated his thoughts and argument are illogical and weakly structured.

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