“风马牛不相及”新解

New Explanation on "Feng Ma Niu have no relevance"

关于"风马牛不相及"的解释,自古争议颇多,古之大家言之不详。今之此类文章,多出自文学家之手,分析问题不甚全面,多有附会。研究认为:风象征巽卦,马象征乾卦,牛象征坤卦,分别表示三个不同的方位:东南、西北、西南,借以说明两国并不接壤、毫不相干。文章另从行人、卿大夫、贤人三个角度,论证了楚使和管仲通《周易》,此二人知晓风马牛之真义。

Since ancient times, there has been a lot of controversies about ＂Feng Ma Niu have no relevance＂ . The ancients gave no details. Nowadays , relavant articles are mostly selected from articles by litterateurs. Their explanations are not precise and caused many misunderstandings.As is shown in the study , Wind repre-sents Xun Gua, horses stands for Qian Gua, and cattle for Kun Gua. To illustrate the two countries are notneighbourly and there is no intercourse between them , wind, cattle and horse represent three different direc-tions southeast northwest and southwest. From the perspectives of diplomats bureaucrats and Sage this article also demonstrates that Chu diplhomats and Guan Zhong familar with the Book of ZhouYi. Both of them know the significance of ＂Feng Ma Niu＂ well.