Classification of the trigrams bagua八卦 in yin and yang 阴阳(陰陽)

This don’t make much sense since each ba gua has it characteristic, and even the 乾qian and 坤kun shouldn’t be classified as yang and yin, because they refer to a more specific situation then yang and yin; remember that a white horse is not a horse.

We can classify the ba gua in three distinct ways: the way its used now: heaven, thunder, water, mountain, the father and 3 sons representing yang(from eldest to youngest); earth, wind, fire, lake, the mother and 3 daughters( from eldest to youngest). The idea behind this classification is simple, the different line is what gives its characteristic, its much more simple to visualize the situation by the perspective of that line (you will see me using similar strategy to explain the hexagrams in my book, generally to the point of view of the fewest lines, 14大有great possessions not by saying the first line unbroken, second unbroken, third line unbroken, etc., but saying that it is a broken fifth line with the rest unbroken), when the element is on the bottom it represent the beginning, what come first, past, hence eldest.

The other way is exactly the contrary, and is pretty obvious: the lines that are in great number gives a preponderance of that element (similar to the28-大過da guo and 62-小過 xiao guo hexagrams, although the Yi Jing(I ching)易经(易經) is not so simple) . This make perfect sense when you use the pre heaven arrangement: for example if we use temperature as a example: the yang lines are increasing when getting near the top where its represented by the heat of the pure yang, and less in the colder of pure yin: 0 Celsius degrees is very cold and is represented by three yin lines, earth; 10 degrees is cold but getting warmer and is represented by two yin lines, thunder; 20 degrees is mild and because it is getting warmer, with odd number of lines, it is given two yang lines is represented by fire, 30 degrees is hot and if is getting more hot is represented by lake having two yang lines, 40 degrees is very hot and have three yang lines, represented by heaven, 30 degrees is hot and have two yang lines and getting cold is wind, 20 degrees is the same temperature of fire but since its getting colder it gains 1 more line of yin, and 10 degrees represented by two yin lines, mountain is given this place. We can also separate thunder, fire, lake and heaven into yang, and wind, water, mountain and earth into yin. The idea behind this arrangement is look at the direction of the movement: going to yang or getting warmer, brighter, more active, etc is yang; going to yin or getting colder, obscure, passive, etc. is yin, you can see this in the 先天xian tian pre-heaven, old days arrangement.

The seemingly frivolous Analects of Confucius

The Analects were, to me, in part, seemingly superficial; what the master ate, how he sleeps, how he dresses… But now I understand that a opportunity of having a Sage should not be missed, and we should try to grasp any meaning, any opinion he has about the world around us, like seem in the Analects “someone asked the master about …” and learn学(學)xue. It is sad that we don’t give attention to Sages, or should I translate as thinkers, as people gave before.

Of course we have to have care to not go too far, an error made for example using the Yi jing; when you receive a reading of the fifth line of 1乾qian “a dragon flying in the skies”, don’t mean you will see a dragon that you will try to capture and sold such a rare creature; don’t hunt dragons. If a situation is represented by one of the trigrams of the 八卦bagua or one of the five elements (better translated as phases), the fire, water, or mountain, is not important, this don’t mean water means that will rain, that you’ll have to go uphill to a mountain during a trip or that someplace will burn; it is just an indication of something more profound. An movement of the form of 太极拳(太極拳) taijiquan (taichichuan )is not made to be mimicked, they are there to show a greater truth that cannot be shown in one million of movements.

The name of the Trigrams (Bagua)

The thunder trigram was taken from dividing in a half the hexagram 震 zhèn, that means shock, thunder, earthquake. The 離 li hexagram gives name to the fire, because it means light, fire, also separating, a net. The trigram 兑 duì is given the the meaning of marsh, translated in the west lake, because where there was water there was place for planting rice, and food means happiness 悦 yuè. The 乾 qián meaning creating, acting, strong, was given the symbol of heaven because is a symbol of strength. The 巽 xùn trigram that mean obey, penetration, was given the name of wind, or wood, because its gentleness, like the blowing wind or the growing, penetrating sprouts of a plant. The trigram 坎 kǎn a pit, an abyss, was given the name of water, because the danger (and you can see this word in one of the line texts) of these places, and water represented danger by the fear of the sea the Chinese had, and the floods, and crossing rivers (as seem again in the text of the Yi jing( I ching)). The trigram 艮 stopping, was given its name by the solidness of a mountain, in the art of war Sun Tzu said: “be immovable like a mountain

Xijinpin习近平and the future of China 中国

The new leader of the communist party, Xi jin pin, said the government should take care of corruption and maintain contact with people’s wishes. How many governments with total power have explicit concerns with this type of problems? China seems to be in a good direction; wish they are not leaders but as fathers that look upon the Chinese like sons, showing filial piety 孝.

The economic growth in china seems to be, as yin and yang 阴阳 (陰陽), found his apex and cannot continue with so high numbers for a long time. But, as when we reach the summit of the sun we still have a whole year until snow comes, The growth may diminish but is a long way from a not productive economy.

Don’t be fooled: China is a sleeping dragon, like the first line of the Yi Jing (I ching) 易经 (易經). No, the dragon has not yet awaken, this we are seen do not represent 1/6 of the power that china can reach.

Some strategies I would employ for China I will present in my next texts.

A white horse is not a horse白馬非馬 (白马非马)

What seems one of that non-sense dialogues of oriental philosophy, of a school of that is even not well heard, has one of the most important lessons of Chinese thinking: The whole is more than the sum of its parts. We cannot take a part of the horses (the white ones) and compare with the whole, all the horses. If we want a black horse for night sneak attack this will be different from having a horse, because a horse is horses of various colors. You could obtain a white horse which is completely different than what you need: a white horse are not a horse. Sometimes, as we can see, it can be the opposite of the desired: a white horse can be quite different than a horse.

The whole universe is at war

That is why the Sun Tzu’s Art of War 孙子宾法 is so formidable, the game of weiqi(go)(围棋)(圍棋) so useful; they reflect the whole existence. The energy released in the Big Bang, the matter, the void, atoms forming molecules, molecules divided in atoms, light, darkness. That is for the Westerns that think knowing about the space and matter is the most important thing, I need not to mention the war on the human realm, that, apart various wars themselves, have conflicts of hierarchy, governs, struggle in classes, for resources, etc. Even on “Equalitarian” societies like the communists, socialists, etc. we generally see a governing party and a great leader exalted. Even if we end with all human conflicts, the fact that we cannot strive and possibly the forces that imped such events are a form of dominance over another force.

Confucianism 儒家and lies

Lie is, surprise, one of the most common forms of礼(禮) rites, or propriety (as translated by Legge, in the Chinese language is the same word) , of course not endorsed by Confucius 孔子 kong zi (my idea of rite is, as most everything in my work, of larger scope). The world wouldn’t live three days without it: Imagine a leader of a nation telling what he thinks about the wife of another leader in a meeting, people telling the truth about others in a society full of preconceived ideas; with our pride, the world would soon end in a great blood battle.

Defining lie is trick; there is half-truths, truths omitted, euphemisms, etc., etc.

When Confucius was asked about death “how can we know about the death if we don’t know about life?”, we could imagine that he don’t believed much in such extraordinary things “The things that the master not talked about was extraordinary facts and spirits”, what he would have to do with sacrifices? To explain this, we should resort to opposite ideas, a good way to search for the truth; Mozi墨子, a student of Confucius, but with differing ideas, described the sacrifices as just a way of social reunion (and some Confucianists have the same idea) .“If I don’t attend to a sacrifice I consider as not having”; the sacrifice to the spirits was the last important thing, the presence was important. What some people would call this?

And, almost anyone that lies would lie about lying. For example if you found that the nature of human beings was inherently evil, would you lie about it being good to give them hope? I would. I prefer the more human people that lies than the perfect “saints”: “only the virtuous can love and hate”.

Of course the importance put on not lying was important for Confucius, as he put great emphasis on example as a form of education. Maybe the key with lies is exact that: lie and lie about lying.