Chapter Ninety-Two: Three Changes

I nodded and let out a soft nasal hum, then looked again at the second mask, the one that represented the Kun hexagram. “So this second piece represents Kun. How am I supposed to understand that?”

Kaleidoscope smiled, took the golden mask from my hand, and traced six broken yin lines on the ground. “You know this hexagram, don’t you?”

I nodded. “Yes. Kun is the Earth.”

“Kun is the Earth, and all six lines are yin. The line text says: ‘Supreme success; advantage through the mare’s constancy. If the noble one sets forth, at first he goes astray, but later he finds the master. Advantage in the southwest to gain friends, loss in the northeast to lose friends. Auspicious perseverance brings good fortune.’ The image commentary says: ‘The earth’s condition is receptive. Thus the noble one with generous virtue carries all things.’ In plain terms, it means great good fortune. Inquiring about a female horse yields an auspicious omen. If the noble one travels forth, he first loses his way and later finds his master; this is fortunate. Travel to the southwest brings gains, while travel to the northeast brings losses. To inquire about settling down brings good fortune. The image commentary says: the broad and yielding nature of the earth follows and receives the law of heaven. The noble one, observing this hexagram, takes the earth as his model and bears great responsibilities with deep and generous virtue.”

That flood of archaic jargon made my head swim like a golden lantern in a gale, and I was left none the wiser.

Seeing that I still looked baffled, Kaleidoscope glanced at me, gave a helpless smile, and shook his head. “You don’t understand what I’m saying, do you? Then I’ll keep going.” He pointed to the lower line of the Kun hexagram drawn on the ground. After reciting one line statement, he counted upward to the next.

“The lowest line of this hexagram is a yin line: ‘Treading on frost, the hard ice is coming.’ The image commentary says: ‘Treading on frost, hard ice is coming; this is where the yin first begins to凝聚. Following the path to its end, it reaches hard ice.’ Stepping on thin frost, one can infer that a thick layer of ice is about to form. The image commentary means exactly that: by treading on frost, one may judge that hard ice is near. This shows that the cold, yin force has begun to gather, and as it naturally advances, thick ice is about to freeze into being. The second line is also yin. Its line text says: ‘Straight, square, great; without practice, no disadvantage.’ The image commentary says: ‘The movement of the second six is straight and square; without practice, no disadvantage, for the way of the earth is glorious and boundless.’ That means the second six: straightness, firmness, and breadth are the qualities of the earth. Even when one goes to an unfamiliar place, there is nothing unfavorable about it. The image commentary says: the second six is straight and square, and even when one goes to an unfamiliar place, there is nothing unfavorable, because the way of the earth is vast and limitless...”

Kaleidoscope was speaking with such relish that he was already about to continue with the third line of the Kun hexagram when I hurriedly cut him off.

“Uncle Kaleidoscope, wait a moment. Let me ask you something. There’s one thing I don’t understand.”

“What don’t you understand?” he asked.

I scratched my head and smiled awkwardly. “What book is this image commentary you keep talking about?”

At that, Kaleidoscope laughed again. “Nephew, do you know that in addition to King Wen’s later heaven Eight Trigrams, there are two other books named with the word Changes?”

I froze for a moment, then gave another embarrassed smile and shook my head.

“You can’t be blamed for not knowing. Most people don’t. Those three books are The Zhou Changes, The Mountain-Line Changes, and The Returning Treasury Changes.”

Hearing that, I frowned. His words stirred up a memory. The Mountain-Line Changes, the Returning Treasury Changes, and the Tang Dynasty’s Chart of the Back of the Turtle had long since been lost.

The Mountain-Line Changes, also called The Mountain-Line, was the earliest of China’s books of Changes. Its regular hexagrams are eight in number, and its variant hexagrams are sixty-four. Scholars have long held that the Mountain-Line Changes begins with the Gen hexagram, as mountains run one after another, hence the name Mountain-Line.

The Returning Treasury Changes, also called The Returning Treasury, is said to have been written by the Yellow Emperor. In the traditional sense, The Returning Treasury is regarded as the Book of Changes of the Shang dynasty, and after the Wei and Jin periods it was lost. The Shang Changes placed Kun as its first hexagram, hence the name Returning Treasury.

The Rites of Zhou, in the Spring Officials section, says: “The Grand Diviner administers the methods of the three Changes: first, the Mountain-Line; second, the Returning Treasury; third, the Zhou Changes. Their regular hexagrams are all eight, and their variant hexagrams are all sixty-four.” In other words, The Mountain-Line, The Returning Treasury, and The Zhou Changes are three different methods of divination, but all are composed of sixty-four variant hexagrams formed by overlapping the eight regular hexagrams. Legend says the Yellow Emperor composed the Returning Treasury Changes, amounting to forty-three hundred words. The Song scholar Jia Xuanweng said: “The book of Returning Treasury was composed by the Yellow Emperor. And the sixty-cycle sequence running alongside the pre-heaven sixty-four hexagrams is the central-heaven Returning Treasury Changes.”

One account says The Returning Treasury had already been lost by the Han dynasty, because it was not listed in the Bibliographic Treatise of the Book of Han, and the Bibliographic Treatise of the Book of Sui likewise says: “The Returning Treasury had already disappeared by the early Han; it appears in the Jin dynasty’s Central Classics, but it records only divination and does not resemble the intent of the sages.” The Ming scholar Yang Shen believed that The Returning Treasury was not lost in Han times: “The Mountain-Line was stored in the Orchid Terrace, and The Returning Treasury in the Grand Diviner’s office; this is seen in Huan Tan’s New Discourses on the Classics. Therefore, in the Later Han, The Mountain-Line and The Returning Treasury still existed, and one should not doubt them merely because the Bibliographic Treatise did not list them.” The Qing scholar Zhu Yizun wrote: “The Returning Treasury was still extant in the Sui, and by the Song there were still the three chapters Early Classic, Mother of Qi, and Root Milfoil, as cited in later commentaries.”

In March of 1993, during archaeological work at Tomb No. 15 in Wangjiatai, Jiangling, Hubei, the Returning Treasury text was unearthed in the form of Qin bamboo slips, and interest in studying it was reignited. Some scholars believe that the Qin bamboo-slip divination text is not merely the Returning Treasury, but more precisely the Zheng Mother Classic within the Returning Treasury Changes.

Today, only seven sections remain: Early Classic, Sixty-Four Hexagrams, Twelve Monthly Hexagrams, Qi Mother Classic, Zheng Mother Classic, Root Milfoil Chapter, and Beginning Divination.

After explaining the ancient Three Changes and their origins, Kaleidoscope turned to the image commentary.

The image commentary is also called the Zhou Changes Image Commentary. In the Zhou Dynasty, the transmitted “Three Changes” were the Xia-dynasty Judgment Changes, the Shang-dynasty Image Changes, and the Zhou-dynasty King Wen Changes. Of these, only the already badly damaged King Wen Changes, that is, the Zhou Changes, survived down to our time. The Image Changes was later renamed the Kun-Qian Changes, because the Returning Treasury Changes placed Kun first. The main text of the Zhou Changes was written by King Wen of Zhou, Ji Chang. He cited the Mountain-Line Changes and the Returning Treasury Changes as supporting authority, and labeled those sections “The Judgment says” and “The Image says.” This pattern became widespread in the Zhou Dynasty. It not only showed King Wen’s respect for the writings of ancient sages, but also set the precedent for citing classical sources as proof.

In the Han Dynasty, the Confucian scholar Zheng Xuan revised the Zhou Changes into the Book of Changes, preserving this structure and adding sections such as the Text Commentary and the Appended Remarks. A careful examination shows that works such as the Text Commentary and the Appended Remarks are indeed not original to the Zhou Dynasty’s Three Changes. However, works such as the Judgment and the Image are indeed original text from the Zhou Dynasty’s Three Changes.

Therefore, the “Image” of the Zhou Changes consists of selected lines from the Shang dynasty’s Kun-Qian Changes, used by King Wen as supporting evidence.

Kaleidoscope’s endless stream of explanation left me with the feeling that I had not understood a single word. I mumbled a few indistinct sounds of assent, and when he was about to continue, I quickly stopped his lecture.

“Uncle, uncle, we’re still in the tomb. Life and death are uncertain. Why don’t we deal with the mechanism on these three pipes first? When we have time, I’ll come back and ask you about it.”

As soon as I said that, Kaleidoscope’s grand, podium-like manner as though he were lecturing at Peking University immediately collapsed out of character. He scratched his head and chuckled. “Look at that, I’ve gone and found the feeling of teaching from the lectern again. I even forgot we’re still in the tomb. Long story short: the most important line in the Kun hexagram is the top six. ‘The dragon fights in the wild; its blood is dark yellow.’ That means dragons battle upon the earth, and blood spills across the fields. This line is extremely ominous, so it warns us that we must read the score on top one final time. Only then can we safely pass through the mechanism in this tomb passage.”

After hearing that, I frowned. I always felt that forcing this mask together with the explanation of the Kun hexagram was a little strained. Compared with the previous mask’s “Xun is Wind” and “Mountain Wind, Decay,” which were already complicated enough, this one reduced everything to a single line—“the dragon fights in the wild; its blood is dark yellow”—and called it a day. But I had no better explanation, so I could only nod and tacitly accept his reasoning.

Kaleidoscope looked at my expression and clearly saw my doubt, but since I did not voice it, he did not tear open the question himself.

“Long story short,” Ghost-Face Zhang said at that moment, walking over with his deadpan, gloomy face. “I’ve already smoked five or six cigarettes. Don’t make me lose my patience.”