Jiaoshi Yilin Volume 4: Ge (Revolution) through Weiji (Before Completion)
焦氏易林卷四·革至未濟
Jiaoshi Yilin Volume 4: Ge (Revolution) through Weiji (Before Completion)
焦氏易林卷四·革至未濟
Ge to Qian (Revolution to Creative)
革之乾
高原岐山，吐大少泉草木林鹿，志得所畜
On the high plain of Qi Mountain, / A great and small spring gush forth. / Grasses, trees, forests, and deer -- / Ambition finds what it has nurtured.
岐山 (Qi Shan): Mount Qi (岐山) was the ancestral homeland of the Zhou people before their conquest of the Shang dynasty. King Wen's grandfather, Gugong Danfu, led the Zhou clan to settle at the foot of Mount Qi. The image of springs flowing from this mountain evokes the origins of dynastic revolution -- the Zhou's rise from this highland refuge to overthrow the Shang, mirroring the hexagram Ge (Revolution).
Selected Verses: Ge to Kun through Ge to Bi
革之坤至革之比（選譯）
一門二關，結邛不便岐道悲路，日暮不到 憂患解除，喜至慶來坐立權門，與樂為鄰 殊類異路，心不相慕牝牛牡猊，無室家 太王為父，王季孝友文武聖明，仁政興起 買利求福，莫如南國仁德所在，金玉為寶 白虎赤情，門觀王庭宮闕被甲，大小出征
Ge to Kun: One gate with two barriers -- / A knotted road, inconvenient to travel. / Forking paths on a sorrowful road; / At nightfall, one has not arrived. Ge to Zhun: Worries and troubles are dispelled; / Joy arrives, celebration comes. / Seated at the gate of power -- / Neighbors with delight. Ge to Meng: Different species, separate paths -- / Their hearts hold no longing for each other. / A female cow and a male lion / Have no household together. Ge to Xu: The Great King was his father, / King Ji was filial and friendly. / Wen and Wu were sagely and wise -- / Humane government arose. Ge to Shi: Seeking profit and pursuing fortune -- / Nothing compares to the southern lands. / Where humaneness and virtue reside, / Gold and jade become the treasure. Ge to Bi: The White Tiger shows red passion; / At the gate, one observes the royal court. / Palaces don armor -- / Great and small go forth to war.
太王 (Tai Wang): The Great King (太王, Tai Wang), also known as Gugong Danfu (古公亶父), was the grandfather of King Wen of Zhou. King Ji (王季) was King Wen's father. This verse traces the Zhou dynasty's rise through three generations of virtue, culminating in the sage-kings Wen and Wu. The four figures represent the accumulation of moral capital that made the Shang-to-Zhou revolution (Ge) legitimate.
Selected Verses: Ge to Xiaoxu through Ge to Pi
革之小畜至革之否（選譯）
子車鍼虎，善人危殆黃鳥悲鳴，傷國無輔 兩目失明，入暮無光脛足跛步，不可以行 羅網四張，鳥無所翔征伐困極，餓窮不食 伯夷叔齊，貞熹之師以德防患，愛禍不存
Ge to Xiaoxu: Ziche, Zhen, and Hu -- / Good men in mortal peril. / The oriole cries in sorrow: / The state is wounded, without support. Ge to Lv: Both eyes lose their sight; / Entering dusk, there is no light. / Shins and feet limp along -- / One cannot walk. Ge to Tai: Nets are cast in all four directions; / The birds have nowhere to fly. / Campaigns exhausted to the limit -- / Starved and destitute, unable to eat. Ge to Pi: Bo Yi and Shu Qi, / Teachers of constancy and joy. / Using virtue to prevent disaster -- / They cherished life so that calamity would not endure.
子車鍼虎 (Ziche Zhen Hu): Ziche (子車), Zhen (鍼), and Hu (虎) were three worthy ministers of the state of Qin who were forced to follow Duke Mu of Qin into the grave upon his death in 621 BC (human sacrifice as burial companions). The Shijing poem 'Huang Niao' (黃鳥, 'The Oriole') laments their deaths. The verse connects revolution (Ge) with the destruction of good men -- a warning that upheaval consumes the virtuous along with the corrupt.
伯夷叔齊 (Bo Yi Shu Qi): Bo Yi and Shu Qi were princes of the state of Guzhu who refused to serve the Zhou dynasty after it overthrew the Shang, considering the revolution illegitimate despite the Shang's tyranny. They starved to death on Mount Shouyang rather than eat the grain of Zhou. Their story, recorded in the Shiji, became the paradigm of principled loyalty to a fallen dynasty.
Volume 4 Overview
卷四概述
疾貧望幸，使伯行販開牟擇羊，多得大牲
[Volume 4 covers hexagrams 49-64, from Ge (Revolution) through Weiji (Before Completion), completing the full set of 4,096 transformation verses across all four volumes.] The hexagrams in this final volume address the themes of the Lower Classic's conclusion: revolution and renewal (Ge, Ding), the shock of the new (Zhen), stillness and gradual progress (Gen, Jian), marriage and abundance (Guimei, Feng), wandering and entering (Lv, Xun), joy and dispersal (Dui, Huan), limitation and truth (Jie, Zhongfu), going beyond (Xiaoguo), completion and incompletion (Jiji, Weiji). Representative verse -- Ge to Tongren: Sick and poor, hoping for luck, / Sending Elder Bo to trade abroad. / Choosing rams at the cattle market -- / Many fine large animals obtained. [The four volumes of the Yilin together contain 4,096 verses (64 x 64), one for every possible pairing of the 64 hexagrams. This unique structure -- a complete combinatorial oracle -- has no parallel in the Chinese divinatory tradition. Each verse is a self-contained poetic oracle drawing on historical allusion, natural imagery, and proverbial wisdom.]
The Yilin's 4,096-verse structure represents every possible state transition in the Yijing system: from any of the 64 hexagrams to any other (including itself, when no lines change). This exhaustive combinatorial approach transforms the Yijing from a system requiring interpretive skill into something closer to a lookup table -- though the verses themselves still require interpretation. The poetic quality of the verses, with their dense historical and natural allusions, has made the Yilin valued as literature as well as divination.
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