《周易》中爻刍议

An Elementary Study of the Middle Lines in I Ching

在《周易》诠释历史上,中爻(即六爻卦象的第二爻、第五爻)被认为具有"中道"思想,是吉利的爻位。这一观念并不符合《周易》经文的实际,《周易》128条中爻爻辞按吉凶性质考察,可分为"吉、凶、吉凶相兼或带有前提条件的吉或凶、吉凶近于中性或爻辞不直接涉及吉凶"四大类,并非中爻一定吉利。中爻吉利观念本质上是儒家中庸思想在《周易》经文中的附会,探索《周易》本义必须走出儒家易学的窠臼。

In history of annotation of I Ching, the Middle Lines (namely, the second and fifth lines of a Diagram that consists of six trigrams), regarded as reflecting the doctrine of 'the Mean', are believed permanent symbols of good luck in divination. However, that does not tally with the content of I Ching. The 128 articles in I Ching concerning implications of the Middle Lines classified the latter into four categories, i.e., good luck, ill luck, mixed luck (or conditional good or bad luck), and neither good nor ill luck (or indirectly-mentioned luck). This indicates that Middle Lines not always suggest good luck. As the opinion that Middle Lines symbolize good luck is in its essence a far-fetched interpretation of I Ching with the Confucian doctrine of 'the Mean', it is then necessary to throw off the shackles of Confucianism in order to explore the essence of I Ching.