Currently, humanity stands at the threshold of a new century, amidst increasingly intricate global circumstances. Our nation, too, faces both auspicious opportunities and daunting challenges in the pursuit of modernization. Particularly for China, navigating through this era of profound transformation entails confronting a multitude of historical conundrums: reconciling ancient and weighty historical traditions with the rapid advancement of modern civilization, bridging the gap between the mindset of small-scale agrarian production and the ethos of modern socialized mass production, expediting modernization while safeguarding ecological harmony, and fostering the healthy progression of civilization while mitigating tendencies towards alienation.
At this juncture of historical transition, for a nation as ancient and illustrious as ours, extracting viable impetus from the achievements of our ancient culture becomes an urgent and pivotal imperative. The contemporary fervor for classical studies, traditional learning, and heritage appreciation exemplifies this epochal demand.
As the philosopher Jaspers aptly remarked: “To this day, humanity continues to subsist on all that was conceived, contemplated, and created during the axial age. Each new leap forward revisits this era and is reignited by it. Such has been the case ever since. The awakening and recollection, or revival, of the potential of the axial age consistently furnishes spiritual impetus. The return to this origin is an ongoing phenomenon in China, India, and the West.”
“Our exploration of the Book of Changes, also known as the Yi Jing, aims to furnish spiritual impetus to our nation’s modernization endeavors. We aspire to discern the contemporary significance of the Yi Jing, endeavoring to unearth its positive and illuminating philosophical depths.
In the trajectory of cultural evolution, the disparities between the East and the West are profound: the West embarked on a path of external conquest of nature through empirical scientific methods, attaining remarkable cultural achievements; while China pursued an internal transcendence of the mind through intuitive comprehension, fostering the brilliant civilization of ancient China.
The renowned scientific luminary, Albert Einstein (1879~1955), marveled at the exceptional cultural creativity of the Chinese people, offering a profound commentary: ‘The development of Western science rests on two great achievements: the invention of the formal logical system by the Greek philosophers (in Euclidean geometry) and the discovery that a systematic experimentation can lead to the discovery of causal relationships (during the Renaissance). In my view, the Chinese sages did not take these crucial steps. It is not surprising that they did not do so. What is astonishing is that these discoveries were made at all (in China).’
So, what was the essence that propelled China to engender such resplendent culture?” “The Book of Changes,” as the “source of the great way” in Chinese culture, undoubtedly played an irreplaceable role in the development of Chinese culture, influencing its mindset, values, survival wisdom, and philosophical outlook on life. Almost every aspect of Chinese culture bears the distinct imprint of “The Book of Changes.”
Specifically, the orderly and ever-evolving worldview of the Taiji universe, the doctrine of change where Yin and Yang interact and phenomena inevitably transform, the epistemology of observing from different perspectives and comprehensively understanding the principles and essence, the subjectivity of sages achieving their potential and assisting others in their growth, the governance philosophy of aligning with the heavens and adapting to human needs to maintain harmony, the moral principles of benevolence, righteousness, sincerity, and the balance of firmness and flexibility, the life philosophy of continuous self-improvement and acceptance of fate with optimism, the transcendental ideals of harmonizing with the universe and embodying virtue under the guidance of celestial bodies, and so forth—all these philosophical tenets have profoundly shaped the Chinese way of thinking, the framework of existence, and the fundamental character, thereby enabling the Chinese people to excel in fields such as science, art, philosophy, and religion, and to create a magnificent civilization of unparalleled elegance.
