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.
V. Appending Words—The Leap from "Image" to "Word"
Once the hexagram Images were established, it was necessary to append Words (Ci)—to use language to explain the meaning of the Images.
The Xì Cí Shang Zhuàn states:
"The Sages established Images to observe the world, appended Words to determine fortune and misfortune, and made the firm and yielding push each other to generate change."
"She zhi wei xiang, xi ci yan yi ming ji xiong, gang rou xiang tui er sheng bian hua (设卦观象，繫辞焉以断吉凶，刚柔相推而生变化)."
Why were Words necessary$7 As discussed earlier, while Images allow for an intuitive grasp of the overall structure, they remain ambiguous and polysemous. Only through written language (Ci) can the meaning of the Images be clarified and concretized.
For example, the Image of Qian (☰☰) is "Heaven moves vigorously"—Heaven's movement is strong and incessant. But this Image alone cannot tell people specifically what to do. Thus, Words are appended: "Great success, penetrating usefulness, perseverance, correctness"—Great Success, Prosperity, Benefit to things, Firmness. Furthermore, Line Judgments like "Hidden dragon, do not act," "Dragon seen on the field," "Flying dragon in the sky," "Arrogant dragon suffers regret," etc., transform the abstract Image of "Heaven moves vigorously" into concrete behavioral guidance.
From the ancient perspective, the leap from drawing Trigrams (creating a symbolic system) to appending Words (creating a linguistic explanation system) was a major leap in human cognition. This leap transformed the Yi from a purely divinatory tool into a comprehensive classic integrating divination, philosophy, ethics, and politics.