Chapter Seven: A Radical Inquiry from the Perspective of High Antiquity — How Is the Hexagram-Line Symbolic System Possible$38

I. The Primordial Unity of Symbol and Reality

From the perspective of high antiquity, the two statements "the yao is that which effects this" and "the xiang is that which images this" presuppose an utterly fundamental conviction: a humanly constructed symbolic system can faithfully model and image the genuine order of nature.

This conviction may seem to require justification today, but in the intellectual context of high antiquity in China, it was virtually self-evident. Why$39

Because the understanding of symbols in high antiquity was radically different from that of later ages. In the archaic context, symbols were not arbitrarily agreed-upon conventional marks but rather essential patterns extracted directly from the cosmic order. Fu Xi observed celestial images and examined terrestrial patterns, and thereby drew the Eight Trigrams — the trigrams were not "invented" by Fu Xi but "discovered" by him in the order already manifest in heaven, earth, and all things. Just as an archaeologist does not "create" fossils but "excavates" them from geological strata.

The Xici zhuan (Part I) states:

"The River brought forth the Diagram; the Luo brought forth the Document. The sage modeled upon them."

The River Diagram and Luo Document — these are symbols actively presented by heaven and earth to humanity. The sage did not fabricate these symbols but "modeled upon them" — effected them, followed them. Under this conception, there is no chasm between symbol and reality: the symbol is reality's self-presentation.

This "symbol-reality unity" has deep foundations in pre-Qin thought. The Zuozhuan (Duke Zhao, Year 2) records that Han Xuanzi, after viewing the archives of Lu, exclaimed: "The rites of Zhou are preserved entirely in Lu." For Han Xuanzi, the documents (symbols) were not "descriptions about" the rites of Zhou but the very "presence" of the rites of Zhou themselves. Likewise, the hexagram-line symbols are not "descriptions about" the Way of heaven and earth but the very "presence" of the Way of heaven and earth.

II. Turtle-Shell Divination and Milfoil Divination: A Comparison of Two Modes of Symbol Generation

To understand the meanings of "effecting" and "imaging" more deeply, we may compare the two divination methods of turtle-shell (guibu) and milfoil (shishi).

Turtle-shell divination involves heating a turtle shell to produce cracks (zhao), whose patterns are then interpreted to determine fortune and misfortune. In turtle-shell divination, symbol generation is physical — fire scorches the bone, producing cracks whose shapes lie beyond human control.

Milfoil divination involves manipulating milfoil stalks (or later, coins) according to a specific mathematical procedure to generate yin and yang lines, which are then combined into hexagrams. In milfoil divination, symbol generation is mathematical — through the steps of dividing, counting, and setting aside, random numbers are converted into determinate yin-yang lines.

The Xici zhuan (Part I) states:

"The great expansion number is fifty; of these, forty-nine are used. Dividing them into two groups images the Two heaven and earth. Suspending one images the Three heaven, earth, humanity. Counting them off by fours images the four seasons. Returning the remainder to the space between the fingers images the intercalary month. In five years there are two intercalary months, therefore the remainder is set aside twice before the suspended stalk is replaced."

Note the repeated occurrence of the character xiang (image) in this passage: "images the Two" — symbolizing the bifurcation of heaven and earth; "images the Three" — symbolizing the Three Powers of heaven, earth, and humanity; "images the four seasons" — symbolizing spring, summer, autumn, and winter; "images the intercalary month" — symbolizing calendrical adjustment. The milfoil procedure itself is a complete symbolic system — each operational step models a particular phase of the operation of heaven and earth.

This forms a stark contrast with turtle-shell divination. In turtle-shell divination, the symbol (the crack pattern) is directly produced by natural force, and the human being is a passive interpreter. In milfoil divination, the symbol (the hexagram lines) is actively generated by the human being through modeling the procedure of heaven and earth, and the human being is an active participant. "The yao is that which effects this" — the active agency inherent in the word xiao accords precisely with the operational character of milfoil divination.

From an archaeological perspective, the great quantities of oracle-bone inscriptions unearthed at Yinxu demonstrate that the Shang dynasty primarily practiced turtle-shell divination. The milfoil tradition represented by the Zhouyi was more closely associated with Zhou culture. The transition from turtle-shell to milfoil divination was not merely a technological change in divinatory practice but a profound epistemological transformation — from the passive reception of heaven's intent through "cracks" to the active modeling of heaven's Way through "lines." The philosophical significance of this transformation is precisely what the word xiao (effecting) bears.