Book of Changes

Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730) was one of the king's five mathematicians who were sent to China by the French King Louis XIV. Based on his manuscripts found in Rome and Paris, the paper analyzes Bouvet and his study of the Yijing within its social context. It tries to point out why Bouvet studied the Yijing and why the Kangxi emperor ordered him to study it. It also explains the role Bouvet played in linking Leibniz and the Kangxi emperor.

"The Elven Book of Changes" is a magical interpretation of the I Ching or Book of Changes, and is for magicians, elves, and magic wielders of all kinds. It is written without gender bias and serves both as an Oracle and as a book of instruction to help the magician find hir way through the maze of modern life, the mystical worlds of spirit, and the magical realms of Faerie.

自東漢初年，黃老思想與養生之術相互連繫起來，黃老學說於各個發展階段的狀態與意義，便成為研究道教學者所關心的面向。特別是《周易參同契》運用漢《易》原理衍說丹道，吸收神仙方術的內容，讓哲學、科學與宗教互摻為一，更奠定了後世道教《易》學的基礎。無論從外丹或內丹的詮釋與分析，我們都可以清楚地看到，從元氣講變化修煉的理論形態，不僅只是兩種不同修煉方法的相互應用而已，其背後所蘊涵的，更是戰國秦漢以來黃老思想典型的轉移。而向來對於《參同契》內煉取向黃老「引內養性」之說的概念探討，大都侷限在道教史或思想史的區塊中，甚少有一整體勾勒。職是之故，本文擬由《參同契》相關的思想理論，觀察內丹學如何吸收黃老學說中的「氣」論，去轉化成其追求長生不死的丹道體系。

Classical Confucianism, through its repository of canonical texts, offers a compelling political vision that promotes the exemplary treatment of persons and a society in which human potential is maximized and government is held accountable to a standard greater than itself. Embedded within a picture of the ideal functioning society in the Da Xue 大學, (conventionally translated "Great Learning") and explicated as exemplary personhood (junzi 君子) within the Lun Yu 論語 (the "Analects") are the rudiments for a universal, normative political standard of exemplary treatment of persons and the accountability of government. This paper examines the metaphysical roots of this

Our Virtue Existential Career (VEC) model aims at complementing western modernism and postmodernism career theories with eastern philosophy. With dialectical philosophy and virtue-practice derived from the Classic of Changes, the VEC theoretical foundation incorporates merits from Holland typology, Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment, Social Cognitive Career Theory, Meaning Therapy, Narrative Approach Career Counseling, and Happenstance Learning Theory. While modernism considers a matched job as an ideal career vision and prefers rational strategies (controlling and realizing) to achieve job security; postmodernism prefers appreciating and adapting strategies toward openness and appreciates multiple possible selves and occupations, our model pursues a blending of security and openness via controlling-and-realizing and appreciating-and-adapting interwoven with each other in a dialectical and harmonious way. Our VEC counseling prototype aims at a secular goal of living on the earth with ways and harmony (安身以法 以和) and an ultimate end to spiral up to the wisdom of living up to the way of heaven (天 道) with mind and virtue (立命以心以德). A VEC counseling process of five major career strategies, metaphorical stories of qian and kun, and experiential activities are developed to deliver VEC concepts. The VEC model and prototype presented in this research is the product of an action research following Lewin's (1946) top-to-down model. Situated structure analyses were conducted to further investigate the adequacy of this version of VEC model and prototype. Data from two groups (one for stranded college graduates and the other for growing college students) revealed empirical supports. Yang type of career praxes tends to induce actualization, which resulting in realistic goals and concrete action plans; yin type of career praxes tends to increase self-efficacy, which resulting in positive attitude toward current situatedness and future development. Acceptance and dialectic thinking often result from yin-yang-blending career praxes. Growing developers benefit from a strategy sequence of yang-yin-synthesized; stranded developers from a strategy sequence of yin-yang-synthesized. Our contributions and limitations are discussed in the context of developing indigenous career theories and practices for a globalized and ever-changing world.

Ancient Chinese history holds a quality which has syncretized traditional thought with its cultural wealth unified of mystical and mythological figures in the background. Such that classical documents, which had begun to be written before Common Era, has directly influenced the political regime, education system and status of society in China. One of the most prominent features of these works is to propound collective knowledge about perception of cosmology, attitudes to earthiness, community standards, policy and morality. Among Five Classics works of these masterpieces of Chinese philosophy, Book of Changes which stands closest to metaphysical narrative, mainly consists of the texts about prophecy. While this piece of work had been referred as a divination guide in Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BC), it turned into a cosmological text that included a range of philosophical commentary during Warring States Period (475-221 BC). The mainstay of this remarkable change is the direct correlation of all the concepts and terms that characterize the worldly beyond along with the relevant text, especially yin-yang dualism, which symbolizes an extraordinary harmony in early Chinese thought. Traditional idea suggests reciprocity in which heaven, earth and man are interconnected to maintain natural order. However, the superiority attributed to human beings also brings compulsive responsibilities to idealize a compatible society. This paper aims to discuss influences of cosmological and anthropological items on human behaviors explained in prescriptive perspective.

This essay has been inspired by the writings of the contemporary Neo-Confucian philosopher Mou Zongsan and the German sinologist Wolfgang Bauer. It assumes that the power of Mao Zedong’s thought sprung from its ability to systematically subordinate the transformative philosophy of the classical Book of Changes to the Marxist model of revolutionary class struggle. If dialectical thinking requires thought to think against itself and thereby be able to continuously change itself from the inside, Mao seems to have been a master of dialectical thinking. One of the intellectual impulses for the Great Cultural Revolution was the radically unsentimental judgement that, in order for the socialist revolution to succeed, it was necessary to erase the ancient Chinese legacy of paradoxical thinking, and that this was a precondition of the possibility of Mao’s Sino-Marxist discourse. But the enormous power that Mao’s thought derived from the tension between revolutionary heroism and transformative flexibility revealed itself as self-destructive. Mao tried to fight against the failure of his revolutionary vision and the possibility that the wisdom of paradoxical thinking and the classical heritage of China could, finally, gain the upper hand in the ongoing struggle for modernization. From this perspective, this essay touches upon a contradiction, which can be understood as the principle contradiction of contemporary Chinese philosophy: the contradiction between the defence of Sino-Marxism as the ideological foundation of a “socialism with Chinese characteristics” on the one hand, and the renaissance of traditional culture and classical learning on the other, which entails a powerful challenge to this very foundation.

Keywords: dialectics, paradoxical thinking, Mao Zedong, Mou Zongsan, Wolfgang Bauer

The main objective of this article is to present a philosophical and comparative analy- sis of the concept of primordial energy 氣 qì during the early stage of confucianism. The article is mainly based on The Book of Changes and classical confucian texts. The author of the article is particularly interested in the philosophically charged concept of primordial energy 氣 qì. it should be emphasized that by philosophy he means not some abstract theory that outlines the essence of human beings and the universe but a type of thinking that is closely related to a person’s day-to-day life. Therefore, the author focuses on yet another very significant tradition of classical confucianism which can be described as a practical way of life whereby all of the seemingly abstract philosophical ideas and concepts become fruitful and meaningful only when the philosopher fully implements them in his or her own life ethically, mentally, and spiritually, or, in other words, turns abstract ideas into concrete actions that identify his or her purpose and life.

How can phonetic patterns assist the 周易 zhōuyì reader, in organizing and connecting the raw material such an “open interpretive space with a principle of multiplicity”  seems to offer ?

In between the framework of contemporary phonological researches this project aims:

a) to collect phonological datas both linked to received and unearthed ZhouYi texts/characters;
b) to display them in an ordered/manageable suit;
c) to use this suit, explorying the ZhouYi text by rhyme, prosody and meter connections;
d) [Land Ho!] to devolop narratives on previous basis together with a playful goal: to translate for the querent, not for the reader.

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В статье освещается проблема изначального философского смысла фразы из комментария к «Книге перемен» «Си цы чжуань», послужившей прообразом понятия 形而上學 (кит. син эр шан сюэ, яп. кэй дзи дзё гаку), дословно, «учение о том, что выше форм», понятия, которым переводится на восточные языки термин «метафизика». Рассматриваются смысловые значения составляющих фразу понятий дао 道, син 形 и ци 器, выделяются три основные версии интерпретации смысла фразы.