Chapter Nine: Concluding Reflection—The Eternal Inquiry Between Emulation and Resemblance

I. Why is this Passage Important$41

Reviewing the analysis, it becomes clear why the passage, "The Yao are those that emulate this. The Xiang are those that resemble this; when the Yao and Xiang move within, fortune and misfortune are revealed without; meritorious achievements are seen in change, and the sage's sentiment is manifested in the words," is so significant: it answers four fundamental questions about the Zhou Yi in extremely concise language:

Question 1: What are the basic elements of the Zhou Yi (Yao)$42 —They are the emulation (xiào) of the movement of Heaven and Earth. Question 2: What is the mode of presentation of the Zhou Yi (Xiang)$43 —It is the resemblance (xiàng) to the form of Heaven and Earth. Question 3: How does the Zhou Yi operate$44 —Internal movement of Yao and Xiang generates the external revelation of fortune and misfortune. Question 4: What is the ultimate destination of the Zhou Yi$45 —Achievements are realized through change, and the sage's sentiment is revealed through the words.

These four questions cover four dimensions: ontology (what are Yao and Xiang$46), epistemology (how do we cognize fortune and misfortune from Yao and Xiang$47), practical theory (how are achievements established through adaptability$48), and axiology (how is the sage's concern conveyed$49). It is astonishing that a passage of just over thirty characters constructs such a complete philosophical framework—a testament to the summarizing power of pre-Qin thinkers.

II. Three Unresolved Inquiries

However, deep analysis also raises several unresolved questions worth further consideration:

The First Inquiry: The Limit of Emulation. The Yao "emulate" the movement of Heaven and Earth—but the movement of Heaven and Earth is infinite and infinitely subtle. Can sixty-four hexagrams and three hundred eighty-four lines possibly exhaust all of it$50 The Xi Ci Shang admits: "In its vastness and readiness, the Yi contains the Way of Heaven, the Way of Man, and the Way of Earth." "Vast and ready" (guǎng dà xī bèi) is an ideal declaration, but logically, can a finite symbolic system exhaust infinite cosmic change$51 This is a profound epistemological problem. Perhaps the answer is that the Yao do not seek to exhaust every detail of Heaven's movement, but rather to capture its fundamental patterns and structures—just as a mathematical formula expresses a universal quantitative relationship without listing every specific value.

The Second Inquiry: The Objectivity of Fortune and Misfortune. "Fortune and misfortune are revealed without"—are fortune and misfortune objectively "out there," or do they depend on the interpreter's subjective judgment$52 Duchess Mu’s case already implies an answer: fortune and misfortune are not inherent qualities of the hexagram image, but judgments that emerge from the interaction between the hexagram image and the concrete situation. If this is the case, then different interpreters faced with the same hexagram image might make completely different judgments of fortune and misfortune—does this mean the "objectivity" of the Zhou Yi is actually an "intersubjectivity"$53

The Third Inquiry: The Transmissibility of the Sage's Sentiment. "The sage's sentiment is manifested in the words"—but can later generations truly comprehend the sage's sentiment fully through the words$54 The Xi Ci Shang states, "Writings do not exhaust words, and words do not exhaust meaning." If words cannot exhaust meaning, then the Cí cannot completely exhaust the sage’s sentiment either. What the Cí can "manifest" (jiàn) is only one aspect of the sage's sentiment. This implies that the interpretation of hexagram and line texts is always an open process—every generation can and should discover new meaning within the Cí. This might be the fundamental reason why the Zhou Yi has retained its vitality across millennia.

III. Contemporary启示 of Emulation and Resemblance

Finally, let us consider the contemporary relevance of this passage.

In an age of information explosion and symbolic proliferation, the proposition of "emulation" and "resemblance" carries a particularly sharp relevance. We create and consume massive amounts of symbols daily—text, images, data, algorithms—but are these symbols truly "emulating" and "resembling" any real order$55 Or are they merely empty markers floating in the void, disconnected from any reality$56

When the ancient sages drew trigrams and attached texts, they maintained a humble reverence for the Dao of Heaven and Earth. Their symbolic system was one of "emulation" and "resemblance"—a faithful presentation mirroring a greater order. The way contemporary people create symbols is often through "making" (zuò) and "constructing" (zào)—building arbitrarily based on subjective will. When symbols cease to emulate any real order, and images cease to resemble any true existence, the symbol loses its proper function—it no longer "emulates this," nor does it "resemble this."

Perhaps rereading, "The Yao are those that emulate this. The Xiang are those that resemble this," can remind us: all vital symbolic systems must be rooted in reverence for and emulation of some greater order. Without this foundation, the symbol becomes mere noise, and the image becomes mere illusion—incapable of revealing fortune, achieving merit, or conveying the sage’s sentiment.