War in China and West

Once I tried read the “On War” by Carl von Clausewitz, I opened a page, and there had an calculation of how many man would kill a certain number of soldiers; I stopped there. Of course war is not an exercise of the so praised in the West math, but more chaotic. Sun tzu wrote “amidst the chaos of battle may seem disorder”; Sun Tzu would won a fight before it is started “The skilled general seeks victory and then fight“. Although maybe the equivalent of the Art of War may be The Prince of Niccolo Machiavelli, this shows the focus of them.
For example the theory of numbers that show a problem of a prisioner, that West already know the answer, the guy twill contribute or he will be retaliated after, you will not need any complicated calculation.
If I were to fight a martial artist I would ambush him or her, attack with in a superior position, what is shown on rings are nothing but a spetacle.

Yin-yang (阴阳陰陽) as a Science

It’s possible to use yin and yang, and most of the theories that classifies realities, as the five elements 五行wu xing, Yi jing (I ching) 易经（易經）, etc., as a science. Chinese generally used to name the norhern side of mountains as yang 阳（陽）, the bright side, that is the meaning of the name “yang” (In the southern hemisphere you should make the contrary, as I always explain in Feng shui 风水（風水）). Yang is generally associated as light, conduct an experiment and see what side of the mountains receive more light; yang is also associated with heat, compare the temperature of that side of the mountain with the other and you should get a scientific proof of that associations.
But natural science is too easy, Chinese knowledge use the human realm as a science, and go even further, unify the two. Measure the temperature of a calm room and an agitated room and compare the results: activity is yang. Probably you cannot see but there is eletrical energy commanding the movements and probably light.
This work is similar to the work of the founder of science Plato, He used basic units to interpret everything, water, fire, air and earth. Similar to the chinese light and darkness, yin and yang, of course his error is thinking this was really an element to construct matter, the same error most Chinese also made. I propose a concrete use of the Yi jing, that’s our chance to prove if it is wrong or right.

YI jing(I ching)易经（易經）with War

Form the hexagram that represents your style of generalship by adding the lines, yin are broken lines, yang unbroken

Line 1 politics
Line 2 strategy
Line 3 logistics
Line 4 operations
Line 5 tactics
Line 6 technique

The five elements (phases) 五行 and weiqi 围棋（圍棋）

The styles of gameplay bases on the five elements theory.
水shui water: the timid and not risky-taking of territory making, used sometimes by weak oponents
木mu wood: the agressive and destructive strategy of making deep invasions, the rage and destruction that they produce as wood is the fuel of energy.
火huo fire: The rewarding and difficult play for influence, do not play with fire unless you know what you are doing!
土tu earth: the balance of calm gameplay, the equilibrium
金jin metal: the solid strategy, trying to never concede, gameplay of seeking for big moyos. not bending like rigid metal, but Chinese saw things too rigid are easy to break.

Using English words to learn pronunciations of the Chinese characters

You can use English words to learn the pronunciations of some Chinese characters, although don’t seem to work so well with all the hanzi due to the different type of sound of the two languages.
冉ran , passage of time, the time RUNS out.
尧(堯) yao, name, of the legendary emperor that created weiqi(go), to educate his son, and every wrong move he beat him in the head, yao (ouch) (you will learn about Chinese culture too using this story).
母mu, mother, female, it is a pictograph of breasts, where there is milk like in the cow that make a sound like “moo”.
破po break, and you hear the sound“pow”

YI jing(I ching)易经（易經）and go (weiqi) 围棋(圍棋)

Form the hexagram that represents your style of play by adding the lines, yin are broken lines, yang unbroken

Line 1 fuseki constant is yang, creative is yin
Line 2 opening constant is yang, creative is yin
Line 3 early mid game constant is yang, creative is yin
Line 4 later mid game constant is yang, creative is yin
Line 5 end game constant is yang, creative is yin
Line 6 putting the last stones constant is yang, creative is yin

Lao zi did not know the Dao道

The Dao De Jing 道德经(道德經) shows a complete ignorance of what is the Dao, Laozi老子 even dare to give it a name “knowing is a decease that the sage do not have”, demonstrating a great knowledge of ignorance. He not said “who want to know the truth come to me” or “I’m the alpha and the omega”; Lao zi was just able to see some patterns of the Tao, that repeats as in a game of Weiqi(go)圍棋（围棋）and maybe they would repeat again, but rarely there is two equal games.
He had no special connection with the Dao (the one that can’t be named), or had supernatural powers; it’s evident by the lack of a text describing spirits or what the Dao is. The examples he gave about the manifestations of the Dao were so simple: the empty space in a house, a hall full of jade, etc. something that obviously a mere mortal (although with a exceptional wisdom) could do; and that is what is fantastic in Laozi’s work, he not made mystic and complex theories, alchemy with elements, arrangements of guas, he showed and could explain with an extreme simplicity the world around us. Have us surpassed so greatly Lao zi or are we going the wrong path?

The sun in Fengshui 风水（風水）

Sun in Chinese is 太阳（太陽）tai yang, the great yang, the great brightness. Could something be more representative of the forces than the sun? Of course there is a myriad of energies in question, but few as strong as the sun. That is why I arrange the bagua八卦，the eitht trigrams, acording to the sun.
The sun will bring warmth for parts of the house in cold climates and it’s lack can bring desastrous effects in humid and hot climates, like spreading of fungi.
You could arrange the house to receive the beneficial sun of the morning during this time, arrange some cold machines like refrigerators to not receive direct sun, and some parts of the house that are prone to fungi and humidity like bathroom and kitchen to receive sunlight.

The greatest flaw of the sages of ancient China

The greatest flaw in the theory of sages of ancient of China is the point of view we had of them. And this point of view is reflected by others points of view also flawed. No one claims to have the knowledge of Confucius, hence no one is able to completely understand Confucianism; No one claim to know the Dao道 as Laozi老子, hence no one understands Daoism completely, no one claims to have the knowledge about strategy as Sun Tzu孙子, hence no one is able to fully understand his teachings of war, No one claims to know the theory of the Yi jing(I ching) 易经 (易經) as King Wen or the Duke of Chou, hence no one is able to understand fully its content.
Even if these sages were perfect, the points of view we have or receive of them are flawed. We see their texts through a number of copyists if you see one of the copies recovered by archaeologists, and even a transforming language through the time in the received texts (see the modernist school of the Yi Jing as a good example), if by a translation, by its author; you see the forms of Taijiquan (Taichichuan) 太极拳 (太極拳), that are even more abstract then texts, through a number of persons.
My point of view is perhaps also flawed; it is your role to point my faults.

A new way of consulting the Yi Jing: a rational use

I offer a new way of using the yi jing: a rational way, an alternative to divination; is not my intention criticize or end with divination, is exactly the contrary, I would be happy if this method continues to be used, and attract more people to the Chinese culture, maybe they think Chinese martial arts are interesting, ask me for advice of consultations of the Yi Jing.
We have two methods of using the yin yang theory, divination and rational. For example you could observe and use knowledge to see if hot is yang or ying, using the rational method, or throw coins, or arrange sticks, for answers of gods, subconscious, universe, etc( I don’t want to over simplify the method of divination, there’s various methods and various reasons for acquiring an answer); the two are the same, they are what I call “categorization of reality” you can use the divinatory system in any of these “categories of reality” or reason in any of them, the four images: define with reason what season of the year you are, the bagua to determine the level of yin and yang, and the Yi jing, of course.
The rational method is used long ago, the Chinese don’t thrown coins or other methods to see what side of the mountain received sun and what not, they observerd and used reason to see a side received light and called it yang 阳（陽）(literary the sunny side of the slope) and the other yin (literary the shadowy side of the slope), they don’t used sticks to see what was rigid, in chinese gang, represented by a solid, rigid line, they used reason, and used this to name the other type of line, the yielding, flexible, represented by a broken, yielding line, of a flexible, curved line. The rational method is used in Chinese medicine to determine if a patient have a yang or yin characteristic. In feng shui you should arrange the bagua using observation and determine what is the north to arrange the baguas accordingly. In Martial arts we use reason to see an attack as yang and yield with an yin move, etc. Of course divination should have its advantages, but I’m not specialist to say if it is bad or good, I don’t see why both can’t coexist.
In fact saying that I use the rational method is a misconception as I use the rational and the intuitive, the whole; if you want a concrete example of rational use with the Yi Jing(I ching)易经(易經) I present will present them in my next texts.