For some very accidental reason, Mr. Fuxi painted gossip instead of six hexagrams. In fact, gossip doesn't look more perfect than six hexagrams. Judging from the composition, six hexagrams are obviously more touching than gossip. Six hexagrams are composed of many equilateral triangles, and gossip is much inferior in this respect. Gossip can be broken down into many isosceles triangles at most. No matter where you put it, Liu Yao is safe and sound, and he won't fall when he stands up. Assuming that six hexagrams are used to symbolize all things in nature and their changes, six hexagrams are as competent as gossip. The six sides of six hexagrams are named heaven, earth, wind, thunder, fire and water respectively, which can perfectly represent the structure and changes of nature. Unlike gossip, one side is water and the other side is ze-hey hey, repeat.

Gossip is a theoretical model or philosophical model for understanding nature. All models are more symbolic than practical, what's more, this model appeared three or four thousand years ago! What's more, this model tried to symbolize the natural universe, and later included all the changes of human destiny. To tell the truth, even today, we can't build a philosophical model with such complete functions, let alone three or four thousand years ago. Doesn't mean gossip is truth, otherwise, truth is too cheap. Now naive children in kindergartens can inadvertently construct one for us. Don't we feel overwhelmed?

There are many similar philosophical models in the world. In ancient times-only when this philosophical model appeared in ancient times did it have academic research significance-Greece had empedocles's model of soil, gas, fire and water; China also has the model of Jin Mu's fire, water and soil. In my opinion, the theory of five elements is the most complete one, because it captures some elements that make up the world. As for gossip, it includes both "basic elements" such as fire and water, and mixed elements such as mountains, rivers, heaven and earth, and some of them are neither fish nor fowl. However, it is this nondescript model of the universe structure, perhaps because of its earliest appearance, that it became the idol of China people's wisdom worship. Until today, some scholars with too much brain water still regard him as a synonym for "profundity".

Is it unwise to gossip? -It's hard to say. In remote ancient times, human beings lacked the most basic means and methods to understand nature and the most basic experience accumulation. You know, they only had language at that time, but the desire and impulse to know the world had existed for a long time, and it was still very strong in the hearts of some ancient people. What do we do-they probably only solve problems according to their own intuitive experience and the most primitive cognitive ability. In their experience, the biggest is heaven and earth, followed by mountains and rivers; The most common are wind and fire, as well as rain, lightning and forest animals. If they want to form a general understanding of natural things, they have to generalize from these understandable basic things. Empedocles, a Greek, believed that the world consists of four substances: earth, air, fire and water. Fuxi summed up gossip; Another China summed up the five elements; But can you judge who is better than who?

Of course, gossip is more complicated. The myth contains some mathematical principle. The original gossip may not be an octagonal figure, but a mathematical model containing basic numbers from one to nine. When these numbers are arranged crosswise according to certain rules, some mysterious internal relations appear in front of people. For example, the sum of the numbers on the diagonal and the opposite side is exactly equal. Today, this seems to be the simplest mathematical model, even the students in the third grade of primary school are dismissive, but in the eyes of ancient people, the problem will never be so simple. Here, the head contains some certain internal laws, which may also indicate some mysterious dark forces.

If the ancients valued the inherent law, it was the beginning of a certain mathematical system; Following this law, it is not difficult to find more mathematical laws, and Euclid geometry may be deduced in this way. If the ancients valued the mysterious power, then the thinking mode of the ancients' skulls, which was good at direct association, would inevitably produce some mysterious philosophical system. The ancients in China thought along this road. First, they use this geometry to tell fortune; Later, they used this geometric figure for philosophical thinking, linking him with nature, universe, life, morality, society and destiny as a whole.

It is a terrible thinking habit to trap philosophy and morality in a primitive and simple geometric figure, which is also mixed with fortune telling and divination. Human civilization has just begun. If people's philosophical rationality and moral rationality are not saved from this geometric figure, this civilization will fall into a quagmire and be hard to extricate itself. Thanks to Lao Tzu, when Tao Te Ching was born, China's philosophical rationality had obviously parted ways with fortune telling. But unfortunately, a double slave was born. Confucius not only imprisoned the personality of China people in the quagmire of servility, but also brought the philosophical reason of China people back to the chaotic quagmire of fortune-telling.

Before Confucius, it is said that King Ji Chang expanded Fuxi Eight Diagrams to sixty-four hexagrams. Comparing the eight diagrams with the sixty-four diagrams, we find that as a philosophical model of cognitive world, the sixty-four diagrams are not more valuable than the eight diagrams. However, as a fortune-telling model to speculate on human destiny-if gossip can really be used to speculate on human destiny-it is inevitable that gossip will extend to sixty-four. Obviously, the change of people's destiny is not only eight simple patterns, not only eight situations, such as good, bad, success, failure, good luck, fierceness and adversity, but also much more complicated. The ancients liked fortune telling, so did Zhou Wenwang. When Zhou Wenwang was imprisoned by Shang Zhouwang, he was said to have been in prison for seven years. In these seven years, Wen often relies on fortune telling and divination to solve his own time. Can I go out? When will you come out? By what means? Which ancestor or god should I pray to? Who should I bribe and how can I be saved? -We can't blame Zhou Wenwang. People who are trapped are easily superstitious. More importantly, Zhou Wenwang was really unpredictable at that time, and he had a superstitious psychological foundation. In a word, Zhou Wenwang spent seven years repeatedly deducing eight diagrams to tell fortune, and finally extended Fuxi eight diagrams to sixty-four hexagrams; Moreover, it is very likely that he personally wrote many divination, prayer and philosophical insights.

Later, King Wen was finally released. As the leader of the Zhou tribe, there are many wizards who specialize in telling his fortune to exorcise evil spirits, but he has believed in sixty-four hexagrams since then. This can be clearly seen in the hexagrams in Zhouyi. Smart fortune tellers never talk too much, but are ambiguous, philosophical and symbolic. Recording these divinatory words can also be interpreted as philosophical insights in some aspects. However, fortune telling is fortune telling, and fortune telling will never become a philosophy. Unless we worship any relics handed down by the former king as idols, as Confucius did, we have to admit that Zhouyi is a fortune teller, and it is only a fortune teller.