Original Meaning of the Zhouyi, Volume 3: Great Commentary, Lower Section

The eight trigrams form a sequence: the images are within them. By doubling them, the lines are within them. The firm and yielding push against each other: transformation is within them. Statements are appended to give them their charge: movement is within them. The auspicious and inauspicious, regret and distress -- these are born from movement. The firm and yielding establish the foundation. Transformation and penetration keep pace with the times. [Zhu Xi:] 'Listed in a sequence' means: Qian one, Dui two, Li three, Zhen four, Xun five, Kan six, Gen seven, Kun eight. The images are the forms and shapes of the hexagrams. 'Doubling them' makes the sixty-four. The six lines of each hexagram are then within them.

Therefore: when love and hatred attack each other, fortune and misfortune are born. When the near and the far seize upon each other, regret and distress are born. When sincerity and falsehood respond to each other, benefit and harm are born. In all the dispositions of the Changes: when things are near but do not harmonize, there is misfortune, or harm, regret, and distress. All movement under Heaven returns to the one constant. Qian, resolute and firm, shows people ease. Kun, yielding and receptive, shows people simplicity.

In ancient times, when Lord Baoxi ruled the world, he looked up and observed the images in Heaven, looked down and examined the patterns on Earth. He observed the markings of birds and beasts and the suitability of the terrain. Close at hand he took from his own body; at a distance he took from things. Thereupon he first created the eight trigrams, to penetrate the virtue of the bright spirits and to classify the dispositions of the myriad things. He made knotted cords into nets and snares for hunting and fishing -- probably taking this from the hexagram Li (Clinging). [The chapter continues to attribute civilization's key inventions to hexagram images:] When Baoxi passed away, Shennong arose. He split wood to make a plowshare and bent wood to make a plow handle, using the benefit of tilling to teach the world -- probably taking this from the hexagram Yi (Increase). He established midday markets, gathered the goods of the world, had people trade and then depart, each obtaining what they needed -- probably taking this from the hexagram Shike (Biting Through). When Shennong passed away, Huangdi, Yao, and Shun arose. They hollowed logs for boats, shaved wood for oars, using the benefit of boats to cross where there was no passage, reaching distant places to benefit the world -- taking this from Huan (Dispersal). They yoked oxen and rode horses, hauling heavy loads to distant places -- taking this from Sui (Following). They doubled gates and struck clappers to await violent intruders -- taking this from Yu (Enthusiasm). They cut wood for pestles and dug earth for mortars -- taking this from Xiaoguo (Slight Excess). They strung wood for bows and sharpened wood for arrows -- taking this from Kui (Opposition). They replaced cave-dwelling with palaces, roofed above and walled below against wind and rain -- taking this from Dazhuang (Great Strength). They replaced open-field burial with coffins and outer coffins -- taking this from Daguo (Great Excess). They replaced knotted cords with written records -- taking this from Guai (Breakthrough).

Chapter 3: Therefore the Changes is images. Images are likenesses. The Tuan (Judgment) statements give the material. The lines imitate the movements of the world. Therefore fortune and misfortune arise, and regret and distress become manifest. Chapter 4: The yang trigrams have more yin lines; the yin trigrams have more yang lines. Why is this? The yang trigrams have one ruler and two subjects -- the way of the noble person. The yin trigrams have two rulers and one subject -- the way of the small person. [Zhu Xi:] Zhen, Kan, and Gen are yang trigrams, each having one yang line and two yin lines. Li, Dui, and Xun are yin trigrams, each having two yang lines and one yin line. The total strokes of yang trigrams are five (odd); of yin trigrams, four (even). Chapter 5 quotes and explicates specific line statements, including: 'The Changes says: Anxiously going back and forth -- friends follow your thoughts.' It explains: What need is there to think and deliberate? All under Heaven returns to the same place by different roads, arrives at the same conclusion through a hundred deliberations. Chapter 6 opens with: 'The Changes arose in the middle antiquity, did it not? The makers of the Changes had some cause for anxiety.' It then discusses nine hexagrams as foundations of moral conduct: Lv (Treading) as the basis of virtue, Qian (Modesty) as the handle of virtue, Fu (Return) as the root of virtue, Heng (Duration) as the solidity of virtue, Sun (Decrease) as the cultivation of virtue, Yi (Increase) as the abundance of virtue, Kun (Exhaustion) as the discernment of virtue, Jing (The Well) as the ground of virtue, and Xun (Gentleness) as the governance of virtue.

Chapter 7: 'Was the flourishing of the Changes perhaps in the last age of the Yin and the time of Zhou's fullest virtue? Was it not the affairs of King Wen and Zhou?' Therefore its statements about the perilous make one level; its statements about the easy make one topple. Its Way is supremely great: nothing among the hundred things is left out. Fearful from beginning to end, its essential meaning is 'no error.' This is what is called the Way of the Changes. Chapter 8: 'The great virtue of Heaven and Earth is called life. The great treasure of the sage is called position. By what does one guard one's position? It is called humaneness. By what does one gather people? It is called wealth. To manage wealth, correct speech, and forbid the people from wrongdoing is called righteousness.' [The remaining chapters discuss:] Chapters 9-10: The invention of the trigrams, the divinatory process, and the relationship between numbers and images. Chapter 11: The Changes as the means to exhaust the principles of things and complete one's nature. Chapter 12: The concluding chapter summarizes the entire Great Commentary, noting that the Changes 'is a book that one must not keep at a distance' and that its Way 'moves ceaselessly, flowing through the six positions without rest.'