Interpreting and Investigating the Chapter: 'The Sage Perceived the Profundities of the World' — The Primordial Code of *Xiang* and *Yao*
This paper deeply investigates the core proposition, 'The Sage perceived the profundity (Ze) of the world,' within the *Xi Ci Zhuan* (Commentary on the Appended Judgments) of the *Zhou Yi*, analyzing the original Pre-Qin semantics of 'Ze,' 'Xiang' (Image), and 'Yao' (Line). It focuses on explaining the cognitive leap of the Sage through 'looking up and observing down,' transforming deep textures (Ze) into external simulations (Xiang), and reveals the intrinsic connection between the 'Yao' and ancient ritual systems, thereby reconstructing the foundation of Yi learning theory.
II. The Antiquity of "Auspiciousness" and "Inauspiciousness"
The concepts of jí and xiōng were deeply ingrained in high antiquity. Oracle bones contain numerous instances of the characters for jí and xiōng. The oracle bone script for jí depicts "soldier/official" (士) above "mouth" (口), possibly meaning a weapon placed in its sheath, extended to mean peace and good fortune. The script for xiōng depicts a pit or hole (sometimes with an 'X' mark), meaning a trap or depression, extended to mean danger and disadvantage.
In the Shang Dynasty divinations, jí and xiōng were the most basic categories of divinatory results. Every divination concluded with a judgment of "auspicious" or "inauspicious" (not auspicious). This tradition continued into the Zhou Yi.
However, the judgment of jí and xiōng in the Zhou Yi is far more complex than in the Shang oracle bones. Shang divination usually yielded only two results: "auspicious" or "inauspicious" (not auspicious), whereas the Yao Ci (Line Statements) of the Zhou Yi include multiple levels: "auspicious" (jí), "inauspicious" (xiōng), "regret" (huǐ), "blame" (lìn), "no blame" (wú jiù), "benefit" (lì), and "disadvantage" (bù lì).
The Xici Shang Zhuan provides a succinct summary of this:
"Auspiciousness and inauspiciousness are the images of gaining and losing. Regret and blame are the images of worry and apprehension." "Therefore, distinguishing the noble and base depends on position; equalizing the great and small depends on the hexagram; distinguishing auspiciousness and inauspiciousness depends on the statements."
"Distinguishing auspiciousness and inauspiciousness depends on the statements" (biàn jí xiōng zhě cún yú cí). The discrimination of jí and xiōng is achieved precisely through the Yao Ci. This brings us back to "attaching statements to determine their auspiciousness and inauspiciousness"—the purpose of attaching the statements is to judge jí and xiōng.