The Canon of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Jing): Oracular Values of Heaven, Earth and Man

The Canon of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Jing):

The Oracular Values of Heaven, Earth and Man

Published by Alexander Goldstein

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Alexander Goldstein

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

* * * * *

Contents

Author's Note

Introduction

The Body Text of the Canon of Grand Triad

SECTION ONE: HEAVEN

PART I: Heaven’s Values (from Zhong (1) to Zeng (13))

1. ZHONG (Centeredness Within)

2. ZHOU (Circling)

3. XIAN (Initial Difficulties)

4. XIAN (Barring)

5. SHAO (Germination)

6. LI (Disparateness)

7. SHANG (Rising)

8. GAN (Penetration)

9. SHU (Stealthy Advance)

10. XIAN (Distortion)

11. CHA (Misdoing)

12. TONG (Greenhorn)

13. ZENG (Increase)

PART II: Heaven’s Values (from Rui (14) to Shi (27))

14. RUI (Perspicacity)

15. DA (Reach)

16. JIAO (Communion)

17. RUAN (Shrinkage)

18. XI (Waiting)

19. CONG (Following)

20. JIN (Promotion)

21. SHI (Release)

22. GE (Delimiting)

23. YI (Smoothing)

24. LE (Joy)

25. ZHENG (Collision)

26. WU (Efforts)

27. SHI (Duties)

SECTION TWO: EARTH

PART III: Earth’s Values (from Geng (28) to Ying (41))

28. GENG (Alteration)

29. DUAN (Breakthrough)

30. YI (Persistence)

31. ZHUANG (Outfit)

32. ZHONG (Multitude)

33. MI (Crowding)

34. QIN (Kinship)

35. LIAN (Accumulation)

36. QIANG (Strengthening)

37. CUI (Cleanness)

38. SHENG (Maturing)

39. JU (Accommodation)

40. FA (Law)

41. YING (Responding)

PART IV: Earth’s Values (from Ying (42) to Kun (54))

42. YING (Greeting)

43. YU (Encounters)

44. ZAO (Hearth)

45. DA (Greatness)

46. KUO (Expansion)

47. WEN (Ornamentation)

48. LI (Ritual)

49. TAO (Evasion)

50. TANG (Dissipation)

51. CHANG (Continuance)

52. DU (Measuring)

53. YONG (Infinity)

54. KUN (Blending)

SECTION THREE: MAN

PART V: Man’s Values (from Jian (55) to Hui (67))

55. JIAN (Diminishing)

56. JIN (Clench)

57. SHOU (Preservation)

58. XI (Conformity)

59. JU (Massing)

60. JI (Clustering)

61. SHI (Decoration)

62. YI (Doubt)

63. SHI (Observing)

64. CHEN (Plunging)

65. NEI (Inside)

66. QU (Parting)

67. HUI (Dimming)

PART VI: Man’s Values (from Meng (68) to Yang (81))

68. MENG (Blackout)

69. QIONG (Exhaustion)

70. GE (Separation)

71. ZHI (Stopping)

72. JIAN (Hardening)

73. CHENG (Completeness)

74. ZHI (Locking)

75. SHI (Missing)

76. JU (Straining)

77. XUN (Obedience)

78. JIANG (Reversing)

79. NAN (Hardship)

80. QIN (Diligence)

81. YANG (Feeding)

APPENDIXES

Yang Xiong’s Commentaries on the Canon of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Jing)

Chapter 1: Polar Oppositions of the Tetragrams (Tai Xuan Chong)

Chapter 2: Interplay of Tetragrams Taken Promiscuously According to the Opposition of Their Meanings (Tai Xuan Cuo)

Chapter 3: Evolution of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Li)

Chapter 4: Illumination of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Ying)

Chapter 5: Numbers of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Shu)

Chapter 6: Elaboration of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Wen)

Chapter 7: Imitations of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Yi)

Chapter 8: Diagrams of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Tu)

Chapter 9: Revelation of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Gao)

About the Author

Endnote

Author's Note

This is the newest translation of the key work of Han-period China spread out in the land between the four seas in the period from 206 BCE to 220 CE, the epoch which has left its indelible footprint in the entire thousands years old history of the country traditionally named tian-xia (Under Heaven), present-day zhong-guo (Central Kingdom). The Han dynasty can fairly be considered as the cradle of Chinese philosophical thought when one hundred schools, trends in arts, sciences and religions flourish in full to form the basis for the state ideology of imperial China for mostly two thousand years till the national revolution of 1911. For the most part, this translation of Tai Xuan Jing or The Canon of Grand Triad (hereinafter is referred to as Triad) into English is based on the earliest commentary of Master Fan Wang (4th century CE) and provides unique access to the source of Chinese oracular tradition due to the fact that its sole author, Yang Xiong (53 BCE-18 CE), was a devoted researcher of antique scripts and divinatory scriptures of the Shang and Zhou dynasties (18-5th centuries BCE) who drew upon a variety of pre-Han original sources.

Since the main purpose of this book is to disclose the contents of Yang Xiong’s masterwork from the point of practical forecasting and divining outcome interpretation as in the course of self-discovery and sagely cultivation, this is not the place to analyze in details the historical and philosophical background of the Triad's writing. To this effect, it is not matter whether Yang Xiong restated the Confucian doctrine that had addressed the crucial objections posed by many other rival schools or not. Instead, we will try to reconstruct the original structure and multivalent meanings of the oracular text in relation to the other three oracles, among which the Book of Circular Changes (Zhou Yi), also known as Yi Jing, has come down to nowadays in various interpretations. It occurs to me that one primary flaw lies at the root of every translation that has been published hitherto is that each one seems to be based solely on commentaries furnished by members of the posterior Confucian School. Here, I think, an injustice has been done to Yang Xiong and his imitation of the Zhou Yi, which is a great deal that stands too far from merely an identical imitation. To a Confucian scholar the Daoist system, in every sense of the word, is a source of the universe, as the Daoist elements enter largely into all, and a commentator or interpreter who holds this belief is certainly the best expositor. (All those who need to see the Dao-Deist material with more granularities, I would refer to my book entitled "Decoding of the Lao-zi (Dao-De Jing): Numerological Resonance of the Canon's Structure.") As a matter of fact, the Triad represents a divinatory guidebook rather than a scholarly treatise, which suggests a multilevel communion with subtle constituents of the past and future, unfolding in the twenty-four seasons and nine milestones of a yearly cycle by virtue of casting out the thirty-six sacred yarrow stalks. The Triad is also one of the epoch-making masterpieces of intellectual poetry, the imagery of which is unrivalled in its multifaceted meanings of the Chinese archaic script, the beauty and complexity of which the translator of the following pages has tried to draw hereby to the devoted reader’s attention. To facilitate the Triad's study, supplementary comments are added to some fragments where it seems to be necessary to reveal the oracular text in the light of practical wisdom of the ancients, the usage of which has never dried out.

On the Triad's Style and its Translation

Among the sources of Yang Xiong's inspiration were such striking examples of Chinese ancient poetry as the Shi Jing (The Book of Odes dated as early as the sixth century BCE), which had been complied from earlier materials, and the Chu Ci (The Songs of Chu) completed in the second century BCE. At the same time his poetic style was affected by elegant brevity of the previous oracles he used in his creation of the Triad, whose style once came to be dramatically different from his earlier poems written for imperial court and abundant with lush metaphors, extreme exaggerations and mythological descriptions to artistic effect. Still, Yang Xiong's style of the Triad is quite uneasy to read. First of all, it concerns the lost meanings of old scripts. Very often a whole significance of one graph or combination of them has been lost in depths of centuries, leaving the reader be lost in guesses. (For this reason, the earlier commentator's literature can hardly be overestimated.) Secondly, the Chinese archaic language gu-wen attains tremendous power and expressiveness through its lapidary style. It tends to omit all redundancies lest the brief lines seem withheld, in which each graph calls up several different associations depending on its nearest environment and relying on the knowledge of established usage. This makes the translation be detailed to the degree of the author's thoughts, not written words. Therefore, any endeavours to make a word-by-word translation, at best, cannot be treated as proficiently accurate. In most cases, thanks to the thorough commentator's literature, I try to recreate Yang Xiong's multilayer meanings that had been influenced by the preceding oracles generalized under the joint name of San-yi (Three Oracular Books of Changes). As is well-known, Yang Xiong was a recognized authority in Chinese antique writings and inscriptions on the oracular bones, so he rhymed and inserted into the Triad's body text that many-valuedness of the noteworthy yet unexpected associations that went beyond usual allusions. Overall, there is not so much an interpretation of the archaic graphs employed by Yang Xiong as participation of his thoughts; there is the seeing of mind to mind in the divine form of oracle. The Triad thus derived for the translator is not one of the licenses. It will be his intention to convey the meaning of the original as accurately and eloquently as possible to do it in English. But it will be required for him to introduce a word or two, even phrases and sentences, to indicate what the author's mind supplied for itself. What have been done in this position will generally be seen enclosed in the following chapters with a hope that the author of this translation has been effective in this way to make the oracle comprehensible first of all to diligent practitioners rather than merely idle intellectuals.

Included in the following introduction are short passages dedicated to the canon's structure and its oracular usage. Admittedly, no translation can ever express in full the intricate beauty of the original text written by the renowned scholar and outstanding poet who completed his oracle at the turn of millenniums in the hope that it would attract attention of all those who carried on the oracular tradition. This book is the practical guidance for mastering the tools of sagehood, by means of which one will be able to disclose his or her good nature and true mind on the arduous way of self-discovery and self-improvement.

-- AG

Written in the fourth day of the sixth lunar month of the cyclical year Ren-chen

Introduction

In the history of ancient China, there was a collection of three antique oracular systems entitled San Yi (Three Oracular Books of Changes), including Lian Shan, Gui Cang and Zhou Yi. All the three represented quite independent methods of forecasting utilized in different historical and ideological periods of great antiquity.

The first oracle, Lian Shan, which can be translated as The Chained Mountains, expressed the idea of a chain of events, a long train of ceaseless changes and linear development. The book was composed by the legendary emperor Shen Nong (c. 2737 BCE) who arose in the place of the mythical Fu Xi (2852 BCE), the founder of Chinese civilization and creator of the eight trigrams (ba-gua), the platform of all Chinese oracular systems. According to some posterior sources, the Lian Shan was used to prognosticate through either heating tortoise shells or manipulation with 36 yarrow stalks that, in fact, not only substantially simplified the procedure of divination, but was used to keep people within the framework of decrees and order execution established by ruling household.

As an old saying goes, Beyond the mountains are the other mountains transferring an idea of infinity and long-lasting governing under the umbrella of Heaven's mandate. It is not difficult to guess that the Lian Shan began with Gen (Mountain), symbol of completion, opposition and stability of operation, meaning that something deeply opposed is generated in the earth to get out then from there as the endless mountain range. According to the Ideal sequence of the eight trigrams, Mountain is allocated to northwest (the Chinese directionality supposes the south be sited above, north below, east on the left but west on the right side from the centre) to make a balance with Dui (Lake), symbol of joy, in the sense that evaporated from within waters come down again in the form of fertile rains to the delight of all creatures, and which is placed in the opposed southeast. According to the Han-period scholar and commentator Zheng Xuan (127-200 BCE), while forecasting through the tortoise shell heating, the number of explanations to typical 120 cracks made 1,200 remarks (i.e., 10 metaphors per each crack) and counted about 80,000 (!) graphs of interpretation. If we divide 120 into 8 (the number of trigrams), we get 15, the magic square's number correlated with Luo-shu or the writings from the Luo River, on the base of which the entire system of the successive oracle named Gui Cang was founded. Divination by means of the yarrow stalks revolutionary facilitated the divinatory ritual. The Gui Cang, which can be interpreted as Return to Initial (to the Yellow Spring, in terms of the Triad) had only 4,300 characters of the body text and was constructed in a quite different from the former oracle's principle. The linear scheme of development was substituted by the spiral arrangement, proclaiming the new view of the universal principle (li). Subsequently, the linear concept of Lian Shan formed the basis of Mo-zi’s teaching (470-391 BCE), the devoted adherent of which was Qin-shi Huang-di (3rd century BCE), the first emperor in the history of China who united all the Warring States under the auspices of Qin (221-206 BCE). Followers of Mo-zi constantly addressed to the principles stipulated in the Lian Shan, defending the view of social institutions according to Shen Nong. It should be noted here that Qin-shi Huang-di was an ardent supporter of this viewpoint and resolutely struggled with inheritance of Confucianism, burning the Confucian Classics and their followers (the Book of Circular Changes was widely believed to be the only one of the Confucian Classics to have survived the famous Burning of the Books). Besides, Qin-shi Huang-di had developed a strong interest in finding the secret of immortality. Therefore, during his reign a number of maritime expeditions were sent out to discover the mythical Peng-lai (Isle of the Blest), which was believed to lie in the Eastern Sea to be the home of immortals. (The opposed analogue to the isle was Mount Kunlun in the far west of China.)

After Shen Nong's death, there arose Huang-di, the Yellow Emperor (2679 BCE), who became a sample of perfection regarding either internal foundations or external behaviour of a superior man and the worthy leader, the true Son of Heaven. He carried through the necessarily occurring changes so that the people did what was required of them in accord with requirements of time and without being wearied. He exerted such a spirit-like transformation that people felt constrained to approve the ordinances as right. They believed that when a series of changes run in the natural way, it would continue long. As a result of numerous innovations, the new Shang-Yin dynasty (1766-1122 BCE) added to its armoury the name of legendary Huang-di and the way of ideology stipulated in the Gui Cang, the motto of which said: All return to their initial places to be concentrated deeply within the source known as the Yellow Spring. Such centripetal orientation put the figure of Earth (Kun) at the head of the new scheme to be a symbol of concentration deeply within. Now diviners started to manipulate with 45 yarrow stalks instead of the former 36, as long as four-line figures of the Lian Shan turned into five-line diagrams of the Gui Cang to emphasise the principal meaning of the golden (central) number five. Derived from the Luo-shu diagram, the universal mathematical number five sites at the centre of the magic square of three (MST).

On the collapse of the Shang-Yin dynasty, there arose the Zhou dynasty (1122-255 BCE). This happened when its founder, the sage king Wen-wang (1143 BCE), composed the third oracle of the Circular Changes (Zhou Yi), defining the sequence of 64 hexagrams, or six-line diagrams, as substantiation of the new ruling dynasty. Thus, a new epoch in the history of China had been declared. The new method of circular development started from Qian (the repeated trigram of Heaven traditionally depicted as the circle) to predict by means of 55 yarrow stalks that denoted the total number of the He-tu, or the Yellow River's chart, analogue to the Luo-shu writings. The number 49 (55–6=49 or 50–1=49, according to another version) indicates a set of yarrow stalks used for casting-out for the Zhou Yi, instead of the former 45 divining stalks for the Gui Cang (45 is the total number of the Luo-shu diagram; overall, 55+45=100, the complete number of two complementary systems). Since the Circular Changes started from the figure of Heaven (Qian), its concept was expressed by saying that Man was the actual implementation of the way of Heaven, while the sovereign ruler, the Son of Heaven, solely represented Heaven on earth. Hence, the earlier trend downward to the earthly depths was inverted to the opposite direction upward, towards Heaven.

By analogy with the Lian Shan and its four-line diagrams, the Triad suggests significant patterns of the universe manifested through different combinations of three types of lines: undivided, divided once and divided twice organized in a set of 81 figures termed 'tetragrams.' Each tetragram consists of its heading and nine explanations called 'postulates' (zan) resumed with nine accompanied resolutions (ce). By analogy with the Ten Wings of Confucius, Yang Xiong provides his body text with nine chapters of his commentaries as the prototype of the Ten Wings. It seems he has been under a strong influence of all the three oracles (hereinafter is referred to as Changes), the multi-structural and image-bearing features of which could be richly reflected in the Triad's constitution. The Lian Shan, for example, with its four-line figures and total number of chapters, underlain the framework of canonical scripture; the cold breath of the Gui Cang, the second original source, we can detect in the image of the first tetragram Zhong (Centeredness Within), to which a whole author's Chapter Elaboration of Grand Triad (Tai Xuan Wen) has been devoted by analogy with Confucius's Wen Yan and suchlike.

The Changes had been created by the sage kings and legendary emperors as substantiation for implementing a particular governing program, the cardinal factors of which were determined by Heaven at the crucial moments of historical curves and zigzags. For one of the Changes the crucial role at that time played image of Mountain, for another Earth, for the third it was Heaven that defined a course of development for individuals and community. In the sense, it is quite intriguing to contemplate an archaic graph used in the culture of Dawenkou tribe inhabited in the territory of present-day Shandong Province, the parts of which consist of all the three images: the five-peak mountain with the sickle moon above it, symbol of Earth and the Yin forces, and the topmost sun, symbol of Heaven and all what correlates with Yang.

The reason for writing an imitation of Changes, most probably, was that those who discussed the Changes in Han-period China had been totally vague in regard to the system of imagery and numbers termed xiang-shu. Owing to the trend of discrimination between ethics and applications of the Changes, it was so fragmented that they could not delve into it to make the whole picture. As a result, Yang Xiong just extended the numerological section of discussion regarding the images and numbers to assume intentions of the sages. He considered this to be sufficient in terms of philosophy to examine their original referent in creating the Changes and, in terms of application, to enhance the practical usefulness of men's observation of changes and pondering of predictions. As an instance of such a tight intertwining of the numbers and images, he accounts the tetragram parity or imparity according to the five phase element system (wu-xing). Thus, the tetragram Distortion (10) should be considered as the odd-numbered (1+0=1) as it pertains to the Yang house of Water (position 1) while the tetragram Misdoing (11) as the even-numbered (1+1=2) as it allocates to the Yin house of Fire (position 2) and so forth, until the nine-part cycle comes to its close to start again as the new coil. This means that the tetragram's house determines the Yin or Yang nature of a certain phase element, to which it pertains in a particular point of a year. As it suggests, Yang Xiong's commentary is essentially a divination manual, relying heavily on xiang-shu (for this reason, the central Chapter 5 entitled Tai Xuan Shu or The Numbers of Grand Triad is his policy). The first chapter of his commentaries represents a comprehensive study of the numerological and cosmological symbolism. First of all, it concerns the Yellow River chart (He-tu) and the Luo River writings (Luo-shu). According to tradition, the former came out of the Yellow River on a dragon-horse when Fu Xi began to reign in all under heaven. He, therefore, took its representation with the total number 10 as a model in drawing the eight trigrams, while the Luo River writings were the design arrayed on the back of a spirit-like tortoise at the time when the great King Yü controlled the flood in the land between the four seas. In it, there were the simple numbers up to 9; hence the nine regions of the drain country. Thus, King Yü appropriately followed its classifications in setting up all the nine regions. Yang Xiong accepted the tradition of ancient heritage of the Luo-shu and believed it to have been revealed to the sages by Heaven. Meanwhile, there is a need to interpret its patterns, numerological principles and arrangement of the phase elements in particular to produce well-grounded interpretation.

The Triad was intended to be the oracular book, the practical guidance of divinatory ritual used by those who were learning the ways of sages. The ultimate goal of producing divination, like everything else in the system of sagehood, is to contribute to self-cultivation. As we shall see below, the oracular power of the Triad is considered to be a spiritual (shen) part of the entirely open mind of a sage to see with what he or she will encounter ahead. To know that the diviner should put together the even (Yin) and odd-numbered (Yang) positions, day and night of time, warp and weft threads of each tetragram's texture to make a mixture of three in one, also known as xuan, the visual embodiment of the Triad. On the other hand, each chapter consists of four-line diagram, nine postulates and their resolutions arranged according to the five phase activities, through which a subject of each chapter goes diligently to glean the progress or regress, generation or destruction behind the formula 4+9+5=18/2=9. The transcendent clarity of mind could be cultivated by those who strived to upgrade themselves with efficient tool of practical wisdom in hand.

If we look at pictograph xuan written in archaic script (gu-wen), we make out an image of silk linen tied with three knots in preparation for dyeing. The chief significance of this pictograph may be expressed by a quotation from Er Ya, which says, hei zhong dai hong, meaning the red colour (attribute of Fire) contained within the black (attribute of Water). This phrase resembles the basic principle of reasoning that consists of the dialectical process known as wu zhong sheng you (literally, the tangible is born within intangible), which means the known comes out from unknown. Thus, the term xuan carries a range of meaning from reddish black, the true colour of Heaven, to darkness and hidden within as the traits of Earth. It also means the unity of opposites, while the unity of opposites means xuan. The number one divides into two to assert the principle of unity of opposites, returning then to the number three represented by xuan (namely, the silk knot of three, or a blend of three, three in one considered as Triad (Heaven-Earth-Man)) to make three threes (3x3) and then nine nines (9x9) to return eventually to one (Oneness). In early Chinese thought, such a three-pace notion indicates the depth of experience that can be known only through quiet and deep contemplation, or by illumination known as final realization. It can be defined in terms of three phases of mind: silence, stimulation and penetration, responding in accordance with things as they come, which means stimulating and then penetrating into all possible situations. If it were not the most sacred thing in the world, how could it be ever-present? Yang Xiong acknowledges that this passage refers not to the human mind but to the Triad, which represents the method of integration called san-wu (literally, 3:5), adding, though, that the human mind, in its activity and stillness, is also ever-present. The system of integration 3:5 supposes that the number 3 may be interpreted as three paces until the process of generation (sheng) turns back to destruction (ke). This means that Wood begets Fire, Fire begets Earth and Earth begets Metal, which then destroys Wood. Since the hub number 5 occupies the central position among the simple numbers up to 9, it unites and controls them all by dividing them into what is before (four positions) and after (four positions) it. Thus, the systematic numbers 3 and 5 are the key figures of divination for the Triad.

Part of Chinese mysticism also suggests that all that exists is associated with the term Tai-ji, which can be translated as Grand Extreme, or Oneness, and which roots in the notion of Wu-ji (Ultimate Nothingness, literally No Extremes), meaning each and all. Tai-ji, therefore, symbolizes both activity and stillness, i.e., the static form and dynamic process; it is ideal both in its form and essence, and all its manifestations accentuate from the many embodied by Wu-ji. Traditionally, Tai-ji breaks down into its two opposing entities at the level of eternal and deeply integrated partnership of Yin and Yang. Yin-Yang symbolizes the process which has two aspects: contraction (Yin) and expansion (Yang) of substance-qi or energy. Since the two represent the most fundamental and cross states, return to the whole requires essential blend of Yin-Yang's substances. In a literal sense, if Tai-ji symbolizes Oneness, then Yin-Yang can be likened to the process of breathing in and breathing out, making up the overall concept of breathing. In a more sophisticated point, there is analogy here with processing of creating the third derivative entity known as the human consciousness embodied in the idea of Man.

As mentioned earlier, the practical method xuan represents the general relationship of Heaven, Earth and Man whereas the latter is the third and central principle of Triad. Invisible connection between Heaven and Man may be regarded as the upper xuan (heavenly man) correlated with metaphysical and intangible nature of the Absolute. Relationship between Man and Earth may be regarded as the lower xuan (earthly man) associated with physical and tangible manifestations. This is the reason why the essence is always concealed within to announce xuan as consisted of two other xuan, correlations to the heavenly and earthly relations of Man. (This can be likened to Tai-ji, which consists of three parts: Yin, Yang and S-shape line of their unity. Maybe, the best parallel to this is pronounced in Confucius's definition of the Dao, which says that the blending of one Yin and one Yang is enough to determine the way of Dao (Oneness) (yi yin yi yang zhi wei dao). In other words: 1+1=1.) Truly, when we look up at Heaven we observe its earthly manifestations; when we talk about Earth we denote its heavenly symbols and signs. This is because both links concern Man with his relations to Heaven above and Earth in the lower regions below.

Another reason why Yang Xiong includes xuan in the canon’s name consists in attempt to reflect the profound structure of the classical text and emphasise the geometrical aspect of his work based on the intersection of horizontals and verticals, weft and warp, cross and lengthwise threads of canonical texture, also known as celestial net, all-embracing matrix and the system of axes in the field of Man's activities. Once we keep an eye on the archaic (gu-wen) graph xuan, it is not difficult to discern three levels integrated into the canon's structure; all the three are correlated with the upper, middle and lower parts denoted as Heaven, Earth and Man respectively. Besides, it is interesting to notice that each level is shaped as a triangle. In principle, this gives us the whole idea of the Triad’s interpretation according to its formula 3x3. Hence, the number 3 (a series of three, triplet, ternary, Trinity or Triad) is the built element of the structure offered by Yang Xiong (unlike the circular changes of Zhou Yi constructed on the base of dichotomies). To establish Yang Xiong’s Triad we need to start with the magic square of three (3x3) of the Luo-shu diagram, the hub number 5 of which is also the central in the linear sequence 1-2-3-4-(5)-6-7-8-9. As opposed to the Zhou Yi with its hexagrams based on binary lines (undivided and divided once) represented the three powers (san-cai) for the whole of 2x2x2x2x2x2=8x8=64 six-line combinations (thee number of green dragon), the Triad relies on tetragrams of ternary lines (undivided, divided once and divided twice) for the whole of 3x3x3x3=9x9=81 four-line figures (the number of yellow dragon). Traditionally, the progression from the Circular Changes to the Triad is similar to the eight trigrams and references to nine moving stars of the Big Dipper (seven visible plus two invisible, implicit ones), or the eight immortals plus Lao-zi to whose 81 verses of the Dao-De Jing match the 9x9 system applied by Yang Xiong in his canon. In fact, it was more than simply a new Classic but the most significant qualitative leap in the new millennium with its combination of ideas for establishing brand new ideology of parity. The diviner, whose goal was achieving the sagehood, embodied in oneself the excellent traits of three constituent parts of divination: the yarrow stalks, dumb four-line diagrams and their interpretations in the form of Postulates and Resolutions realised objectively, without any private ends and selfish ties. When there is nothing happening, one's mind is still and no one can see it. When there is something happening, then the performance of one's wisdom responds when stimulated. Being always spiritually martial and yet non-violent, the sagely minded man apprehends a pattern without recourse to things. This refers to the basis, on which the sages of great antiquity created the Three Changes (san-yi) with complete oracular tool consisted of the mentioned above three components, among which the tortoise shells and yarrow stalks were involved as divine medium, the diagrams (gua) were still but judgements (Postulates and Resolutions) fluctuated without limits. Before drawing diagrams, such a model was already contained in the mind of sages who understood good fortune and misfortune without resorting to divination. Therefore, Yang Xiong's masterwork on Triad was an attempt to make it available, not only to literary elite but to community at large. Thus, the wisdom and transformative authority of the sages, who had created the system of Changes and their tradition, become available for carrying on down the ages. That was the primary means, by the use of which access to the mighty power of Oneness (Dao) could be attained.

Further Delving into the Triad's Structure

The structure and content of the Triad not only imitates but also amends the symmetry and coherence found in the previous Changes. In the Triad's body text there is a set of volumetric three-dimensional complexes of four-line diagrams, which, in contrast to the Zhou Yi where lines (yao) are categorized either as divided (Yin) or undivided (Yang), yield three possibilities for each line of a tetragram: (1) undivided line, correlation of Heaven; (2) once divided line, representation of Earth; and (3) twice divided line, symbol of Man. The tetragram's components should be read from up to bottom, i.e., in the opposite than in the Zhou Yi order, to be associated with a hierarchical system of pyramidal division which at once geopolitical and social:

3 Countries (fang)

9 Provinces (zhou)

27 Districts (bu)

81 Farmhouses (jia)

There is nothing above the three Countries (fang) but only Triad (xuan) alone, embodiment of Oneness. Therefore, one begets three, three begets nine, nine twenty-seven, twenty-seven eighty-one to return then to one (8+1=9; 9/3=3; 3/3=1). The cosmogonic Triad, like the sovereign of all under heaven, is said to employ both realms: the cosmic and socio-political, in which all the three entities (Heaven, Earth and Man) come together to make Oneness or Triad. Each Country is divided into Provinces that correspond to the nine regions of ancient China. Each Province is subdivided into three Districts to make 27 bodies apt to the Han sub-provincial level. The latter division is subdivided by three into eighty-one Farmhouses symbolized numerous local units that manage the myriad phenomena (in Chinese term, wan-wu, ten thousand or the myriad things) of community and in the universe.

Each tetragram is associated with a chapter heading (shou) consisted of three parts: the title, metaphor which refers to the Yin or Yang substance-qi associated with a tetragram's positioning in the nine divisions called Nine Houses of the Triad with nine tetragrams in each, as well as the second image related to the Zhou Yi's hexagrams and assigned all things' imagery though their total number 64 or 128 combined trigrams. Each tetragram's title consists of a single graph naming one aspect of the comprehensive Triad, to which diviners correspond for good fortune or bad. The followed then a short verse describes the evolution of vivid Yang or dull Yin's substance-qi during a certain phase in the course of a whole year. Each tetragram (or chapter) corresponds to a stretch of 4.5 days (0.5x9) in the annual cycle to total 364.5 days (4.5x81=364.5). The first 41 chapters (40.5, to be precise) lie between the winter and summer solstices (covering a distance from Water to Fire) and speak exclusively of the ascendant substance-qi of vivid Yang, while the succeeding 40 chapters (40.5 of them) retail the process, by which Yin's substance-qi waxes then back from the summertime (Fire) to winter (Water). Read in succession, they provide a circular plan of the finely graded phases of cyclic change. What's more, each of the 81 tetragrams is also linked, with some duplication, to one of the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Circular Changes to arouse the orthodox meanings and generally adopted associations. As far as the interpretation of each tetragram is concerned, the most important of Yang Xiong's explanations are the nine Postulates accompanied with Resolutions that content each out of the eighty-one chapters. The Postulates, like the tetragrams, are correlated with the annual cycle, with the Yin-Yang's substances and five phase activities (wu-xing). Each Postulate, as one-ninth of a chapter, represents half a day (12 hours or conventional 6 double-hours also known as watches), so that the alternating odd and even-numbered Postulates denote either day or night. Through their associations with night and day, the postulates come to be considered as Yin (usually inauspicious) or Yang (usually auspicious) related to the odd and even-numbered tetragrams accordingly. Besides, each Postulate is also assigned with one of five phase activities and their enumerated elements, such as: Water (1), Fire (2), Wood (3), Metal (4), Earth (5), Water (6), Fire (7), Wood (8) and Metal (9) to reflect the correlative algorithm two levels of two forms of the unity of opposites. Two additional Postulates in the end of the body text are not assigned to any specific tetragram or time of the day. They exist solely to make up the deficiency of 3/4 (0.75 (0.5+0.25) of a day between 364.5 days of Yang Xiong's basic structure and 365.25 days in the solar year. To construct the Triad, the magic square's sequence should be considered as a linear arrangement: 3–8–4–9–(5)–1–6–2–7 with its hub number 5 at the centre and equally distant opposite pairs of the number 10 (3+7, 8+2 and so on). If we try to multiple it, spreading to the magic square of 9x9 whose central number is 41 (4+1=5) while 9x9=81 (40+1+40), we will fail because 41 is not a multiple of five. However, since 365 (5x73) is the central number of 729 (364+1+364), we can make the magic cube of 9x9x9 with 729 entries, each square of which is the magic square of nine (9x9=81). The magic cube of the Triad gives the same sum for all lines parallel to any edge and for all diagonals containing the central entry. Since 729 (which is both a cubic and square number) is the smallest odd number greater than 1, these 729 entries of the magic cube (9x9x9) with the central entry 365 can be rearranged to form a magic square of 27x27 with 729 entries and the central entry 365. The 729 entries or Postulates (81x9=729+2 intercalary=731) are loosely patterned after the line texts of the Book of Circular Changes. However, the Postulates differ from the Zhou Yi's line texts in the ways that increase accuracy and at the same time expand the scope of interpretation. While each line text of the Circular Changes refers to a single line of a hexagram, by contrast, the Postulates are designed not to explain directly the significance of individual lines in each tetragram; instead, due to the system of Indicators (biao), they provide a series of shifting literary images, suggesting the multivalent nature (no less than three-valued indeed) and three-step process of the main cosmological theme, which operates back and forth along both cycles of generation and destruction, presented throughout all 81 chapters. By tripling the Postulates, and thus freeing them from fixation to the individual positions of each tetragram, Yang Xiong directs the diviner's attention to a larger perspective concerning the effect of eternal cosmic patterns upon the three phased process of changing which originally (naturally) designed-in every single procedure. Thus, fastened together in threes, the Postulates play transcendent part of a metaphorical bridge to span the oracle, and its three main attributes mentioned earlier, with the cyclic dominion of personal destiny, the field of diviner's proper choice and potential attainment. To accomplish this task, Yang Xiong sorts the Postulates according to the following four indications. First of all, the initial three Postulates (1-3) describe the commencement in the objective situation inquired about by the diviner; the mid Postulates (4-6) describe its maturity, while the final three (7-9) speak of its decline. Second, all nine positions correlate their subject's present and future in accordance with the hierarchy of social rank. As in the Han-period commentaries to the Circular Changes Postulate 5 is reserved for the supreme ruler, positions 4 and 6, which flank the ruler, carry implications for his minister and spiritual adviser represented by the Ancestral temple respectively. Positions 1 and 9, the distant from the central place of the ruler (5), pertain to the lowest stratum in social terms and represent the lesser man in moral aspect. This distribution ensures a wide variety of possible social interactions and career promotions. Third, the three sets of Postulates mark three successive phases in the diviner's subjective response to the dynamically changeable situation. Accordingly, the first set of three Postulates or triplet is categorized as conception (si), the initial period of inner reflection which precedes outer-directed action. The second triplet detail good fortune (fu), the period marked by effective action and accompanied by a good luck; and the last triplet speaks to disaster, or misfortune (huo), the failure that tends to follow success because of careless, immoral or untimely activity. All the three stages can be summarized in the following trends of development: conception (1-3) comes out from the initial comprehension of Postulate 1 to go through the advanced treatment at P-2 in reaching the final consideration at P-3; good fortune (4-6) moves ahead from a small good fortune at P-4, crossing a harmonized good fortune at P-5 to reach a great one at P-6; and misfortune (7-9) starts from a calamitous beginning at P-7 to rise up to a medium-scale trouble at P-8 in order to face then an extreme misfortune at P-9. Fourth, unlike the line texts of the Zhou Yi, the Triad's Postulates are read according to the time of day when the divinatory session is carried out. As a rule, daytime aligns with Yang forces while night with the Yin. The result is also determined by odd or even-numbered tetragram with its Yin or Yang house of correlative phase element of five activities. To each time of day the three Postulates are assigned so that the diviner can know the prospect for a query at its initial, middle and final stage of the issue's development. If the act of divination is carried out in the morning, Postulates 1, 5 and 7 (correlation of Heaven) of the issued tetragram are read and considered as the resolution; if in the evening, Postulates 3, 4 and 8 (Earth); if at the median times (the periods centred about noontime and midnight) Postulates 2, 6 and 9 (Man) are submitted for consideration. Thus, each set of three Postulates termed Indicator (biao) includes representatives of all the three levels of Heaven, Earth and Man.

Three Indicators of Heaven, Earth and Man

Yang Xiong arranges his device so that the auspicious or inauspicious nature of these prospects is decided by obedience or disobedience between the Yin-Yang values assigned to the tetragram's subject and that of each Postulate. If the Yin-Yang value for the chapter heading and that of the relevant Indicator are the same, the divination, by rule, is considered as auspicious. If they do not agree (different), the divination is usually considered as inauspicious to remind us the proper and improper places of the hexagram's lines in the Zhou Yi (Circular Changes). Let us see how his stipulations in The Numbers affect the outcome of divination. Consider a divination carried out in the morning; if the casting-out issues a tetragram the subject of which stays in the odd-numbered (Yang) house of a certain phase element, the first Indicator 1-5-7 (correlated to Heaven) shows the outcome as a great good fortune, bringing together for considering all the three factors: (1) time of a day, (2) Yin/Yang nature of a tetragram and corresponded to it house, and (3) Indicator's character, which concurs here with the pure Yang. When a divination is carried out in the evening time and a tetragram's subject stays in the odd-numbered (Yang) house, in such case the second Indicator 3-4-8 (correlated to Earth) would be read, in which only odd-numbered Postulate 3 corresponds to Yang. Staying in the Yang house of Water, as an instance, which is under the odd number 1, it makes the outcome auspicious for initial endeavours at the stage of conception, the special theme of the first triplet. By the same reasoning, assigned to Yin the even-numbered Postulates 4 and 8 are regarded as inauspicious. Considering them, we can find out that indication for the beginning of a situation is coming to be auspicious, but those for its middle period of developing and final closing are going to be inauspicious. When, as a result of the midday divination, the casting-out issues a tetragram's subject residing in the even-numbered (Yin) house, the third Indicator 2-6-9 (correlated to Man) should be taken into consideration; at this conjuncture, positions 2 and 6 obey the way of Dao to be auspicious, but 9 disobeys to go against it (for more details see Chapter 5, "The Numbers of Grand Triad").

Of course, good luck and ill, like Yin-Yang orientations in general, are never absolute but relational. In the Triad's system of values, any Yang affiliation is auspicious by definition, but in practice it can never be considered in isolation from the other factors around. To remind the reader that not a single factor, such as the Yin-Yang orientation, precisely determines events, Yang Xiong ensures that a number of Postulates do not accord with the regular conception and can make conformance exception. This shows that virtuous action outweighs all else in determining an outcome. As long as a man should be inwardly 'square' and firm but outwardly 'round' and gentle, humbling himself, the outcome of his actions is either fortunate or unfortunate. The need to combine subtle reasoning on cosmic trends with sensitivity of social interactions and individual propensities reintegrates Heaven, Earth and Man into a proper decision, making divination by the Triad a highly skilled art. The ritual of divination involves a number of psychosocial factors, such as ethics, sensory acuity and virtuous perspicacity to form the complex individuality named the diviner in practice.

The linear arrangement of 81 tetragrams according to san-cai and wu-xing (3:5)

In addition to the body text of 81 chapters consisted of 729+2 Postulates, Yang Xiong has provided nine supplementary chapters of the author's commentaries modelled after the Great Appendixes of the Zhou Yi completed by Confucius. Resolutions (ce), on the pattern of the Commentary on Images (Xiang Zhuan), summarize the main significance of each Postulate and so are integrated in the body text. In all extant editions, Resolutions, unlike the other commentaries, have been dispersed throughout the basic text, so that each Postulate is accompanied by Resolution to which it refers. Similar to the Elaborated Teachings (Wen Yan) of the Zhou Yi, the Elaboration (Tai Xuan Wen) discusses only the first tetragram as a microcosm of the entire Triad. The remaining commentaries assess and clarify the Triad in the manner of Classics.

A Breakthrough the Fourth Dimension of the Triad

In addition to his innovations, Yang Xiong has successfully incorporated temporal cycles into the structure of his new oracle, because the sequence of Zhou Yi's hexagrams was deeply ciphered within the temporal arrangement of a year. Owing to its meticulous construction, the Triad specifically reflects the basic seasonal rhythms, the regular motions of the celestial bodies and the five phase activities that drive change in the natural world, no less than it reflects the fundamental social relations established in the human world. His construction starts from Postulate 1 of the first tetragram correlated with the moment known as Grand Inception (tai chu), which at midnight marks the Winter Solstice, the first day of the first lunar month and creation of a 60-day cycle. Each tetragram describes the waxing and waning of Yin and Yang and their impact on the phenomenal world during the short period of each chapter's sovereignty for 4.5 days. When the chapter headings are read in succession, they constitute a graded sequence of 81 phases in the yearly cycle that reflects an implicit cosmic pattern in the form of a canon.

Nine milestones of the annual cycle

We proceed then through nine milestones of temporal significance, including the winter and summer solstices (tetragrams 1 and 41); the vernal and autumnal equinoxes (21 and 61); the four onsets of seasons, midway between the solstices and the equinoxes (11, 31, 51 and 71); and the final chapter (81). At the solstices, the greatest dominance of Yin or Yang is countered by germinating power of its opposite, soft but persistent in those periods. At the equinoxes Yin and Yang are momentarily balanced. At the vernal equinox this balance is implied by the moderation of Yang’s substance-qi. Looking at the chapter headings that immediately surround the two equinoxes, we can see that, as the dominance of Yin or Yang fades into correspondence at an equinox, the rise to dominance of the complementary Yang or Yin activity is predetermined. The beginnings of the four seasons not only mediate between, but also reflect symbolically the solstices and the equinoxes. The seasons, by contrast, are not moments but quarters of the year, groups of six solar periods each. A single solar period can do no more than maintain the transition from one season to another. The vernal equinox marks the moment when the greater spirit of Yin gives way to that of Yang. The spring onset that came to playing three solar periods earlier reflected the transition between the three-month period of old Lao-Yin and that of young Shao-Yang. These two levels of transition, the beginning of spring and the vernal equinox, are reflected in tetragrams 11 and 21. At the borders of the seasons we find a similar interplay with the same distinction between current strength and subsequent weakness, between relative balance and subsequent change. Spring and autumn begin with metaphors of harmony, sovereignty and security, but they are immediately followed by other chapters, in which one type of cosmic energy exists at the expense of exclusion the other. In general, summer is the height of growth and activity, but winter represents the lowest point of the yearly activity. Outfit (31) and Stopping (71), which open the opposed two seasons, consider this complementarity. At the beginning of summer (Outfit) Yin appears to be losing its struggle to survive. In contrast, at the beginning of winter (Stopping) the functions of Yin and Yang in their separate spheres are mostly identical. This is because the dominant Yang character of summer implies clear distinction, but the dominant Yin of winter demonstrates non-diversity. Overall, the principle of order is evident: the content of two opposed chapter headings, half a year apart, is complementary. This rule holds for all chapters without exception. In most cases, the chapter representation is explicit; in others, it becomes clear when we read each heading in the context of a linear series. The Triad describes evolution sequentially, chapter by chapter, diagram by diagram, postulate by postulate. By running so, they reproduce the annual complementarities and symmetries of time and space in terms of the five phase activities (wu-xing).

In this interpretation of the Triad, we are dependent upon Master Fan Wang of Jin (265-420 CE), the nearest