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.
III. The Original Meaning of the Eight Trigrams
The Eight Trigrams created by Fuxi each possessed an original symbolic meaning.
The Shuo Gua Zhuan states:
"Heaven and Earth established their positions; mountains and marshes transmit their energy; thunder and wind interact; water and fire do not shoot at each other. The Eight Trigrams are interwoven."
The basic correspondences of the Eight Trigrams are:
- Qian ☰ — Heaven
- Kun ☷ — Earth
- Zhen ☳ — Thunder
- Xun ☴ — Wind
- Kan ☵ — Water
- Li ☶ — Fire
- Gen ☶ — Mountain
- Dui ☱ — Marsh
These eight natural phenomena—Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Wind, Water, Fire, Mountain, Marsh—formed the fundamental cognitive framework of ancient peoples for understanding the natural world.
Why exactly these eight$4 Why not seven or nine$5
This is an interesting question. According to the Shuo Gua Zhuan, the Eight Trigrams appear in complementary pairs: Heaven and Earth, Mountain and Marsh, Thunder and Wind, Water and Fire. Each pair is a relationship of mutual opposition and generation. The triple combination of two Yin/Yang lines happens to produce eight distinct arrangements (2³ = 8), which is mathematically complete.
Therefore, the Eight Trigrams were not chosen arbitrarily but were the complete unfolding of the Yin-Yang principle at the three-line level. They encompass the basic categories of the natural world in the most concise manner.