Re: I Ching/ Yijing (was Re: musicalexemes (was Re: Interesting Words)

 >From: J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>
 >
 >    One may even argue it is the very Cornerstone of all educated Chinese
 >culture! (That everything else that came after it - the Tao Te
 >Ching/Daodejing, The Art of War, etc. - is just elaborations based on the
 >Oracle - the Book of Changes).

        "All of Chinese thought is a footnote to the Yijing?"  Hmm.
That doesn't quite work, isn't quite Chinese.

        "All of Chinese thought is a neo-Confucian commentary on the
Yijing."  That works better. :)

 >> I even study a martial
 >>art that uses the Yijing as an approach to fighting.
 >
 >    Bagua, right?

        Yep.  Well, actually we're on Xingyi right now -- the two are
commonly taught together for entertaining historical reasons -- but we
do touch on Bagua from time to time in our Xingyi study.  In about 9
mo. we start in on the Bagua fully.  For Xingyi, we focus on the 5
phases, often called the 5 "elements," misleadingly, IMHO.

        Different schools of Bagua emphasize the Yijing differently.
The one I study doesn't make a huge deal about it, Jiulong does, as I
understand.  The biggest insight I've gotten out of it so far is the
realization that power doesn't reside in yin or yang, but in the
transition state between them.

        I had started in on a nice martial arts vocabulary for Vaior,
but as my understanding of the arts changes, my vocab design changes.
I'll probably hold off for a while longer...

--
wm

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