Important Philosophical Schools

Before the so called”A Hundred Schools of Thought were formed a book appeared as the cornerstone for the Chinese philosophy.

The Book ofChanges

The book ofChanges or The Changes ofthe Zhou（B）is said to be a composition of the mythical ruler Fuxi ，King Wen of Zhou ，Duke dan of zhou and even Confucius .It is said that the string which linked the bamboo slips（tl fe）were broken three times ，as the diligent master，Confucius，read the wonderful book time and again The book is called the Changes ofthe Zhou，because it is le Zhou people’s manual for the divination with milfoil stalks the “Shi” .The former dynasty，the Shang ，In stead used heat cracking on oracle bones to divine.Its modern shape is very near to the original that must have been composed during the late Western Zhou Dynasty.

The Theories and applications of Yi Jing The theories put forward by Yi Jing are complicated，sophisticated，ambiguous as well as difficult to understand，but t comprises most of the philosophical ideas and can be applied universally，for the commentaries are often abstract and maderoom for occult prognostication，and cosmological speculation According to Yi Jing，the outlook and nature of the world are regular，from the Macro-world to the Micro-world：Every thing comes from nothing Wuji（nothing）gives birth to Taiji everything）and Taiji has Liangyi positive and negative aspects）that divide into Sixiang（four direction）which produce Bagua（eight trigrams）”

Bagua（\#h）are representing the abstract as well as material things Qian（$z）：the Creative；Heaven Kan（t）：the Perilous Pit；Water Gen（R）：Arresting Movement；Mountain Zhen h）：Exciting Power；Thunder Xun（e）：Gentle Penetration；Wind Li（F）：the Clinging；Fire Kun（e）：the Receptive；Earth Dui（5）：Joy and Pleasure；Swamp The clever Chinese have been borrowing freely from this wonderful book and applied wisdom to social struggling，es pecially to military events.Even Taiji Boxing ，the traditional Marshal Art，adopts the theories from Yi JingYi Jing has been used in China and the east for well over three thousand years bothas a divination tool and a philosophical text for seekers of wisdom.The famous book The Thirty Six Stratagems is written on theories of Yi Jing The oldest form of a collection of stratagems might date during the Southern Dynasties（Fa#）empire of SouthernQi（yr）.The profound symbolism and popularity of many of these stratagems–with their historical background-made them a useful variety of proverbs for daily life and every pos sible situation.The modern version dates from 1647.shortly after the Manchurians had conquered China.The thirty-six stratagems are arranged in six groups with each containing six proverbs.It is a perfect application of the theories in Yi Jing，for the excellent officers are fond of changes in fighting

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