Royal Academic Institute

Chung’s “I – Ching 易經” 13 – 5 Mistakes learner of I-Ching should avoid (P3)

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

Mr Joseph Yu explained the Chinese word “Yik 逆” as “artificial”, which is cannot reveal the truth meaning.




According to http://dictionary.reference.com/
ar•ti•fi•cial
adjective
1.
made by human skill; produced by humans (opposed to natural): artificial flowers.
2.
imitation; simulated; sham: artificial vanilla flavoring.
3.
lacking naturalness or spontaneity; forced; contrived; feigned: an artificial smile.
4.
full of affectation; affected; stilted: artificial manners; artificial speech.
5.
made without regard to the particular needs of a situation, person, etc.; imposed arbitrarily; unnatural: artificial rules for dormitory residents.

As we can read from the dictionary, artificial is something man-made or not natural. In Mr. Joseph Yu’s explanation, including how he defined “Yi 易” and his later article where he stated “We can anticipate what we will encounter in the future but it is up to us within the limits of our capability whether to change the outcome or not”, implies that predicting the future requires the involvement of a person’s thought and his/her capability to change. While this maybe correct, and I am glad to see that he is getting closer to the door of I-Ching, his reasons and choice of word cannot adequately disclose the full meaning.

Again, I-Ching is not only used for divination and astrology, it describes the law of the nature. Hence, “Yik 逆” has a greater meaning than what he described.

Let’s take a look in the meaning of “Yik 逆” in Chinese dictionary.

- 迎接。書經˙顧命：「以二干戈，虎賁百人，逆子釗於南門之外。」宋˙蘇軾˙留侯論：「楚莊王伐鄭，鄭伯肉袒牽羊以逆。」
- 接受。左傳˙昭公二十五年：「有司逆命，公之使速殺之。」
- 違背、不順從。如：「忤逆」、「忠言逆耳」。孟子˙離婁上：「順天者存，逆天者亡。」宋˙歐陽修˙縱囚論：「不立異以為高，不逆情以干譽。」
- 抗拒、抵抗。戰國策˙齊策三：「恐秦兼天下而臣其君，故專兵一志於逆秦。」

- 不順的。如：「逆境」。
- 倒出的。如：「批其逆麟」。

- 反、倒。如：「倒行逆施」、「反向逆行」。唐˙杜甫˙復愁詩十二首之一：「野鶻翻窺草，村船逆上溪。」
-預先。如：「逆料」。三國˙蜀˙諸葛亮˙聞孫權破曹休魏兵東下關中虛弱上言：「凡事如此，難可逆見。」

-背叛者。如：「討逆」。晉˙劉琨˙與石勒書：「得主則為義兵，附逆則為賊眾。」

I won’t translate those in English, so non-Chinese speaking audience can use the Google translator to see the meaning in English. However, none of them included the idea of “artificial” in the meaning.

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