The Essence of the 'Great Treatise A': A Philosophical Inquiry into the Gentleman's Establishment of Life and the Order of the *Yi*
This article deeply interprets the core proposition from the 'Great Treatise A'—'That which the gentleman dwells in and finds peace is the order of the *Yi*.' It examines how the gentleman, by internalizing the Way of Heaven and Earth and utilizing the *Book of Changes* as the foundation for establishing his life, achieves a state of 'auspiciousness without detriment' through observing the images and contemplating the textual explanations, situated within the Pre-Qin context and the Confucian tradition.
I. The Vastness of the Way of the Yi
The Xì Cí Shang Zhuàn states:
"The Yi is vast and great! When speaking of the distant, it is inexhaustible; when speaking of the near, it is quiet and correct; when speaking between Heaven and Earth, it is complete."
"Yi guang yi da ye! Yi yan hu yuan ze bu yu, yi yan hu er ze jing er zheng, yi yan hu Tian Di zhi jian ze bei yi (《易》广矣大矣！以言乎远则不御，以言乎迩则静而正，以言乎天地之间则备矣)."
"Vast and great"—the Way of the Yi is boundless. "When speaking of the distant, it is inexhaustible"; "when speaking of the near, it is quiet and correct"; "when speaking between Heaven and Earth, it is complete."
The passage we investigated is but a small segment of the Xì Cí Zhuàn, which is only one of the "Ten Wings," which in turn are merely expositions of the Zhou Yi Canons. The Zhou Yi's sixty-four hexagrams and three hundred and eighty-four lines—each hexagram, each line—contains infinite principles. To exhaust the infinite principles of the Yi with finite words is like measuring the sea with a ladle or viewing the sky through a tube; one obtains only a fraction.
However, "A journey of a thousand li begins with a single step" (Laozi, Chapter 64), and "without accumulating steps, one cannot reach a thousand li" (Xunzi, Quan Xue). By starting with this single passage, delving deeply, and repeatedly savoring it, it is still a valid way to approach the Dao of the Yi.