Between Emulation and Resemblance: A Fundamental Inquiry into the Microcosm of the Dao of Change
This article deeply analyzes the core proposition of 'Yáo imitating Xiàng' found in the *Xici Zhuan II* of the *Zhou Yi*, distinguishing the dynamic differences between 'imitation' (xiào) and 'analogy' (xiàng), tracing the referent of 'this' (cǐ), and interpreting how Yáo-Xiàng constitutes the epistemological framework for revealing the subtle workings of the Dao within the Pre-Qin context.
I. The Original Unity of Symbol and Reality
From the perspective of ancient thought, the two sentences, "The Yao are those that emulate this. The Xiang are those that resemble this," presuppose a fundamental belief: Man-made symbolic systems can faithfully emulate and resemble the true order of nature.
This belief might require argumentation today, but in the context of ancient Chinese thought, it was almost self-evident. Why$40
Because the ancient Chinese understanding of symbols was distinctly different from later eras. In the ancient context, a symbol was not an arbitrarily assigned marker by human convention, but an essential pattern directly extracted from the cosmic order. Fuxi painted the Eight Trigrams after observing celestial images and geographical models—the Eight Trigrams were not "invented" by Fuxi, but "discovered" by him in Heaven and Earth. This is akin to an archaeologist not "creating" a fossil, but "excavating" it from the geological strata.
The Xi Ci Shang states:
"The River brought forth the Map (Tu); the Luo brought forth the Script (Shu). The sages took them as models." (Hé chū Tú, Luò chū Shū, shèng rén zé zhī.)
The River Map and Luo Script—these were symbols actively presented by Heaven and Earth to humanity. The sages did not create these symbols; they "followed them as models" (zé zhī). Under this concept, there is no chasm between symbol and reality: The symbol is the reality presenting itself.
This "Symbol-Reality Unification Theory" has deep roots in pre-Qin thought. The Zuo Zhuan, Duke Zhao, Year 2, records the exclamation of Han Xuanzi after viewing the archives preserved in Lu: "The Rites of Zhou are all here in Lu!" For Han Xuanzi, the documents (symbols) were not a "description" of the Rites of Zhou, but the "presence" of the Rites of Zhou itself. Similarly, the hexagram and line symbols were not a "description" of the Dao of Heaven and Earth, but the "presence" of that Dao.