Today is Chinese New Year celebrated through out Asia, amongst those practicing Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.In the Taoist magickal practice (which Asian Astrology, alchemy and Feng Shui are based on) it is the year of the Red Pig, or Yin (feminine) Pig, not the Boar but the Sow.
In the Taoist scrying system of the I Ching the year of the pig is the Hexagram 31.
Astrology and other systems of magickal symbolism are psychological systems of subjective interpretation of events. While they have their debunker's and septics, they are as valid as other systems of subjective psychology like Rosarch Tests and Freudian dream interpretation.
As far as astrological significance of global events goes I have listed some for the year of the pig.
In the wonderful world of syncronicity the Year of the Pig was when Nixon declared the Vietnamization of the Viet Nam War and the beginning of the withdrawal of American troops from the war. And in this Year of the Pig we find America declaring the Iraqization of their war in Iraq and the beginning of the end of that war.
After all Sun Tzu was also a Taoist.
The Tao Te Ching, the Inner Chapters of Chuang Tzu, and the I Ching are not the only Taoist texts. There are many other famous and important ones we tend to overlook - The Art of War, and the other strategy books of that genre are all deeply rooted in Taoism.
Pigs in History
Pigs, Shit, and Chinese History, Or Happy Year of the Pig
A little background: In the late 19th and early 20th century, Chinese farmers actually did pretty well. Imperialist depredations damaged
Schmalzer argues that the reformers nonetheless made several mistakes. One was to assume that Chinese pigs served the same function as American ones. American farmers wanted pigs to convert their abundant corn into bacon, not scraps into fertilizer. American pigs were “scientifically” bred to produce more meat and therefore less fertilizer. Second, the reformers left out gender: Chinese pigs were domestic partners, raised mostly by women. What’s more, the Chinese system prized sows, and over the years bred selectively for sows which produced large, frequent, litters of admittedly smaller piglets; American breeders valued boars and bred for size and fashionable looks to compete at the county fair. The reformers introduced American boars so huge that they had to build special support platforms for mating.
When the Japanese invasion of 1937 ended the Ding Xian experiment, the imported pigs disappeared into the chaos of war. James Yen and agricultural scientists had no time to produce modern, scientific techniques based in Chinese practice. So in the end the difference was not between “scientific” (i.e. Western) pig breeding and Chinese folkways but between American and Chinese needs and situations.
An afterword. When my wife and I visited Yen’s Philippines Rural Reconstruction Movement in the late 1960s, local workers showed us the air conditioned pens housing the pigs introduced from the States; the new pigs, they explained, couldn’t stand the heat, were sensitive to sun burn, and demanded special treatment – not unlike, the local workers slyly added, most of the other Americans they knew.
And you thought pigs were pigs! If so, you should read Richard P. Horwitz, Hog Ties: What Pigs Tell Us About America (1998). Rich, a friend who teaches American Studies at
This is a year with countless gossips and arguments. There are dispute everywhere, on every level. The people have their own fights and the nature has its own conflicts. The trigram that represents the world¡¦s luck in 2007 is ¡¥Xian¡¦. The Xian trigram represents the communion between the two genders and the connection between the heaven and earth. On the up side, it means understanding. On the down side, it may turn into arguments related to romantic affairs. The trigram has the change on its fourth stroke, meaning the imbalance of Yin and Yang energy. That is why the world is filled with arguments and gossips. The fourth stroke is also where human stands according to legends. That explains why most important fights and disputes happen between human beings not nations. Communication could make people feel good if it¡¦s not forced upon those concerned. Imposed mandatory communication is horrifying and repulsive. The arguments among human tend to happen behind closed doors. For instance, the U.S., China and even a small piece of land like Macau would have to deal with their internal conflicts. Their people would keep arguing on and on. The Xian trigram (Hexagram 31) just gives a general impression of the state of matters, without revealing the details. Yet, more details are disclosed by its subsidiary trigram ¡¥Xiao Guo¡¦, the fifth stroke of which says, ¡¥Overcast without rain; clouds from the Western outskirt; crisis of the new sovereign just like an animal caught in its cave.¡¦ From a pessimistic point of view, the text can be interpreted as a major incident is in the making. No matter how hard someone tries to hide, he/she would still be discovered by those strong and powerful. This is especially for those countries which seal themselves completely from the rest of the world; and those which haven¡¦t been recognized internationally. Those internationally wanted by the police, because of criminal offences, political issues and terrorism, would be arrested in 2007. Certain countries or regions would also be threatened by external forces. On the other hand, certain objects or people that have long been forgotten; and those items with profound historical significance would be prioritized once again this year. In terms of global economy, those less affluent countries would see more resources and national growth in 2007. Finally, accidents are likely to occur to structures or geographic formations situated on great height, such as satellites, mountains, houses or bridges.
Forecast for Global Issues 2007
The belief about pigs is expected to be exaggerated more than ever this year.
The lunar calendar designates each year as one of the 12 zodiac animals; the pig is the 12th zodiac animal.
The lunar year follows the sequence of the 12 zodiac animals _ rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and lastly, pig.
But this pig year, called the year of ``chonghae,’’ which means a red pig, returns every 60 years.
Among other pig years circling in a lunar cyclic numeral system, the red pig year is believed to be the most auspicious pig year, according to a research of the National Folk Museum of Korea.
The red pig year is considered a year of booming businesses and family.
More interestingly, this year is strongly believed to be the ``Year of the Golden Pig,’’ which only comes around every 600 years, according to fortunetellers, a rumor that emerged in Korea and China.
People believe children born this year will be blessed with good luck and financial wealth. As wedding halls were crowded in 2006, maternity hospitals are expected to be in 2007.
Regardless of whether it's just superstition or not, the impact on society has been quite enormous.
The nation predicts that birthrate is expected to rise 10 percent from the previous average because of the myths of the Year of the Golden Pig, helping maternity and baby related industries enjoy a boom much like the effects of the millennium baby boom in 2000.
However, many say that this will be debunked just as 2006, which was dubbed the year of ``two springs’’ (lunar calendar) and also a lucky year for couples to get married, was just feeding wedding-related businesses.
Folklorists say that the year of the golden pig is groundless as it is hardly mentioned in Korean history, except for the mythical story about Choi Chi-won, a literati during the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D. 935).
According to the museum’s research, the myth says that Choi was the son of a golden pig with magical powers that kidnapped a county magistrate’s wife.
The magistrate rescued his wife from the pig by using leather from a deer, which the pig feared, based on the mythical belief. Later, the wife gave birth to Choi, who was believed to be the pig’s baby.
A Mythical Animal with Supernatural Power
Although Korean historical records do not buttress the myths about the year of the golden pig, some attribute mythical meanings to pigs such as in the ``Samguksagi,’’ a history of the Three Kingdoms _ Paekje (18 B.C.-A.D. 660), Koguryo (37 B.C.-A.D. 668) and Silla (57 B.C.-A.D. 935) _ written during the Koryo Kingdom by Kim Bu-sik and ``Koryosa,’’ a history of the Koryo Kingdom (918-1392).
According to the museum, the two history annals include a story where a pig helped the kingdoms designate the capitals of Koguryo and Koryo in Kungnaesong and Songak respectively.
In Samguksagi, one day, King Sansang, who had no son, was given a supernatural instruction from a god to have a baby. During a ritual, a pig that was to be sacrificed ran away and a woman helped to catch the pig. The king had sexual relations with her and she bore him a son.
Like this, pigs played prophetic roles for many rulers and sometimes as a messenger connecting them to god.
Sacrificial Animal in Rituals
From ancient times to the present day, it is easy to see heads of pigs on tables as sacrificial offerings during shamanistic rituals, and sold in traditional markets due to consistent demand.
The folk custom to use a pig’s head as an object of worship and symbol of abundance dates back to the Koguryo Kingdom.
Pigs were sacrificed in Samguksagi, when people prayed to the gods of heaven and earth.
People pray for success to the heads of pigs when they start on a venture such as opening a business or even before filming of a movie.
Symbols of Wealth, Good Luck
Pigs are omnivorous animals that survive well under any climate and circumstances.
They also are fertile giving birth to 6 to 12 piglets on average, and grow faster than any other animal.
For that reason, a shop owner hangs a picture on his wall of a pig feeding a lot of piglets, symbolizing fertility and abundance.
Also, dreams about pigs are thought of as auspicious, foretelling the gain of wealth. When people dream of a pig at night, they often buy lottery tickets or make an investment.
Also, the dream considered as a sign of conception as a pig symbolizes fertility.
The Year of the Pig by Emil De Antonio and Bill Nichols
from Jump Cut, no. 19, December 1978, pp. 37-38
copyright Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 1978, 2005
Year of Pig Marxist film
by Emil De Antonio
I want to reply to two lines in Bill Nichols's "New from California Newsreel" in Jump Cut, No. 17, p. 10.
"These films have their greatest value in ongoing political struggles to organize and mobilize the working class and Third World peoples. It is important to bear this in mind as a fundamental quality for it places them in a different context than left-liberal films that circulate predominantly in a middle-class, educational context (colleges, high schools, public libraries), such as IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG (Emile de Antonio, 1968)."
IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG was/is an organizing weapon, a collage/history of the people's struggle in Vietnam. That collage was made with the help of the DRV, the NLF, French Marxists, film and television friends of the Czech Democratic Republic (1967), the German Democratic Republic, U.S. deserters, antiwar veterans and the antiwar movement itself. It was made when the Movement was young, large, high on struggle and emotion, and without knowledge of what had happened in Vietnam, when it happened and why. No U.S. protest was shown in the film because it was the other addressing itself to us, frequently in our words and images. It was also the way we saw them from the mid-1930s to the Têt Offensive. It was a Marxist, historical line, not free from error.
Its audience was varied, intense, in some places even wide. It played European television but never U.S. Not even now. It played the U.S and Europe theatrically. Theaters were attacked. Screens were painted over with hammer and sickle (Los Angeles, among others); bomb threats to the theater in Houston; in Paris during a long, successful run, the cinema was systematically stink bombed. It was used as a tool by the Moratorium; it was a benefit for the Chicago Seven at the opening of their trial; the Australian antiwar movement used it as its primary film weapon; it played GI coffee houses; it played teach-ins. I still meet people who say, "Your film turned me to antiwar activity." And yes, it still plays colleges.
It was the first U.S. Marxist film to be nominated for an Academy Award. That didn't mean as much to me as the ring a DRV officer solemnly gave me in Leipzig where the film won a prize, a ring made from a plane shot down over the DRV.
If we forget history, we are only a convulsive twitch to today's media output. That output is false, bad and works to blot out yesterday's reality. The struggle is always the same; the ultimate goal is always the same; but the currents, the cast, the emphases, the disguises change. I am not a left liberal and neither is the film.
Year of the Pig1911
- Northern Territory is separated from South Australia and transferred to Commonwealth control.
- January 3 - In London, in what becomes known as the Siege of Sidney Street, the Metropolitan Police and the Scots Guards engage in a shootout with a criminal gang of Latvian anarchists held up in a building in the East End.
- March - The first installment of a serialized version of Frederick Winslow Taylor's monograph The Principles of Scientific Management (online version here) appears in American Magazine. The complete series runs in the March, April, and May issues. It is the first time that The Principles of Scientific Management is widely read. The efficiency movement, which has been simmering of late, boils over and becomes a craze.
- May 8 - Pancho Villa launches an attack against government troops in Ciudad Juarez without Madero's permission. Government troops surrender May 10.
- May 11 - Futurist exhibition in Milan was the first of efforts by the group to make its theories concrete.
- May 15 - The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.
1923
- January 1 - Grouping of all UK railway companies into four larger companies.
- January 10 - Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.
- January 11 - Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to pay its reparation payments.
- March 9 - Vladimir Lenin suffers a stroke, his third, which renders him bedridden and unable to speak; consequently he retires his position as Chairman of the Soviet government.
- July 19-20 night - Assassination of Pancho Villa.
- July 24 - The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in the First World War.
- August 2 - Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States, (1921 - 1923) dies in office and is succeeded by Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929).
1935
- January 1 - Italian colonies of Tripoli and Cyrenaica are joined together as Libya
- January 7 - Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French foreign minister Pierre Laval conclude agreement in which each power undertakes not to oppose the other's colonial claims
- January 8
- Elvis Presley is born in a two room shotgun house in Tupelo, Mississippi.
- January 11 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California
- January 16 - FBI kills Barker gang, including Ma Barker, in a shootout
- January 19 - Coopers Inc. sells the world's first briefs
- January 28 - Iceland becomes the first country to legalize abortion on medical grounds
- April 14 - Dust Bowl: The great dust storm, made famous by Woody Guthrie in his "dust bowl ballads". The hardest hit areas were in Eastern New Mexico and Colorado, and western Oklahoma.
- May 6 - New Deal: Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
- November 5 - Parker Brothers releases the board game Monopoly.
- November 8 - A dozen labor leaders come together to announce the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), an organization charged with pushing the cause for industrial unionism.
- January 1 - British mines nationalized
- January 1 - Nigeria gains limited autonomy
- January 1 - The Canadian Citizenship Act goes into effect
- January 3 - Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
- January 10 - United Nations takes control of the free city of Trieste
- January 15 - Elizabeth Short (the "Black Dahlia") is found murdered
- January 30 - February 8 - heavy blizzard in Canada buries towns from Winnipeg to Calgary
- January 31 - Communists take power in Poland.
- March 1 - The International Monetary Fund begins to operate.
- March 12 - The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
- April 15 - Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to be on a professional baseball diamond.
- une 5 - Secretary of State Gen George Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan for U.S. aid to Europe.
- June 10 - Saab produces its first automobile.
- June 20 - Bugsy Siegel found shot in the Beverly Hills mansion of Virginia Hill
- June 21 - A Seaman named Harold Dahl claims to have seen six UFOs near Maury Island. The next morning Dahl reports the first modern Men in Black encounter.
- June 21 - The Canadian Parliament voted unaminiously to pass several laws regarding displaced foreign refugees.
- June 23 - The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.
- July 5 - Downed UFO allegedly found in the Roswell UFO incident, written about by Stanton T. Friedman.
- July 10 - Princess Elizabeth announces engagement to Philip Mountbatten
- July 11 - Exodus (ship) departs France to Palestine with 4500 Jewish Holocaust survivor refugees
- July 18 - Following wide media and UNSCOP coverage, Exodus (ship) is captured by British troops and refused entry to Palestine in the port of Haifa
- July 18 - President Harry S. Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act into law which places the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the United States Vice President.
- July 19 - Murder of Burmese nationalist Aung San
- July 24 - 100 year anniversary of Brigham Young leading 148 Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.
- July 26 - Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
- July 29 - After being shut off on November 9, 1946 for a refurbishment, ENIAC, one of the world's first digital computers, is turned on after a memory upgrade. It will remain in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.
1959
- January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance.
- January 2 - CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Backstage Wife, Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.
- January 2 - Castro's troops approach Havana.
- January 3 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
- January 4 - In Cuba, rebel troops lead by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter the city of Havana.
- January 6 - Fidel Castro arrives in Havana.
- January 7 - The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
- January 8 - Charles De Gaulle inaugurated as the first president of French Fifth Republic.
- February 1 - A referendum in Switzerland turns down female suffrage.
- March 9 - The Barbie doll debuts.
1971
- January 7 - The British heavy metal band Black Sabbath releases their breakthrough album, Paranoid.
- January 19 - Representatives of 23 western oil companies begin negotiations with OPEC in Tehran to stabilize oil prices. February 14 they sign a treaty with 6 Persian Gulf countries.
- January 25 - In Los Angeles, Charles Manson and 3 female "family members" are found guilty of the 1969 murder of Sharon Tate and others at her house.
- February 7 - Switzerland gives women voting rights in state elections, but not in all canton-specific ones.
- February 8 - A new stock market index called the Nasdaq debuts.
- February 21 - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- February 26 - Secretary General U Thant signs the United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.
- February 27 - Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform abortus provocatus.
- March 1 - A bomb explodes in the men's room at the White House; the Weather Underground claims responsibility.
- March 1 - Bill Davis becomes premier of Ontario, replacing John Robarts
- March 4 - Prime Minister Trudeau weds Margaret Sinclair
- March 29 - U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders in the My Lai massacre and sentenced to life in prison (later pardoned).
- June 13 - Vietnam War: The New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers.
- July 3 - The Doors musician Jim Morrison is found dead in his Paris, France apartment.
- August 15 - President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system. He also imposes a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents. The Dow rallies nearly 4% the next day.
- August 28 - Canada's first gay rights demonstration, organized by George Hislop, takes place on Parliament Hill
- August 30 - The Alberta Progressive Conservatives under Peter Lougheed defeat the Social Credit government under Harry E. Strom in a general election, ending 36 years of uninterrupted power for Social Credit in Alberta.
- October 29 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The total number of American troops still in Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (the lowest since January 1966).
1983
- March 23 - Strategic Defense Initiative: U.S. President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan "Star Wars."
- May 9 - Pope John Paul II retracts the ban on Galileo Galilei.
- May 17 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
- June 9 - Conservative Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1979, wins a landslide victory (42% of the popular vote) over Michael Foot, who led a highly-divided and weakened Labour Party which earned only 28% of the vote. The much improved economy (after 2-3 years of restructuring), her victory in the Falkands, as well as shrinking unemployment rates consolidates her election victory.
- July 25 - Anti-Tamil riots break out in Sri Lanka, leaving over 3,000 Tamils massacred and millions of dollars worth of their property destroyed. This genocide is the beginning of a deadly civil war and ethnic cleansing in Sri Lanka.
- August 21 - Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippines opposition leader, is assassinated in Manila just as he returns from exile.
- September 1 - Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board are killed.
- September 25-September 26 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war.
- October 19 - Maurice Bishop, the Prime Minister of Grenada, and 40 others are executed in a military coup.
- October 25 - United States troops invade Grenada at the behest of Eugenia Charles of Dominica, a member of the Organization of American States.
- October 25 - Microsoft Word is first released.
- November 2 - Martin Luther King Day: At the White House Rose Garden, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January to honor American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
- November 17 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded.
1995
- The World Trade Organization is established to replace GATT.
- January 4 - The 104th Congress convenes, the first controlled by Republicans in both houses since 1953.
- January 31 - U.S. President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 billion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.
- February 23 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33 -- The Dow's first ever close above 4,000.
- February 26 - The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank, collapses after securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
- March 3 - In Somalia, the United Nations peacekeeping mission ends.
- March 20 - Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult release sarin gas on 5 separate railway trains in Tokyo, killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
- March 24 - For the first time in 26 years, no British soldiers patrol the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- May 11 - In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
- May 25 - Egan v. Canada: The Supreme Court of Canada rules that sexual orientation is a prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- Summer - Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, the unity of the UN Security Council begins to fray, as a few countries, particularly France and Russia, are starting to become increasingly more interested in making financial deals with Iraq than disarming the country.
- July 1 - Iraq disarmament crisis: In response to UNSCOM's evidence, Iraq admits for first time the existence of an offensive biological weapons program, but denies weaponization.
- July 11 - Bosnian Serbs march into Srebrenica while UN Dutch peacekeepers leave. Large numbers of Bosniak men and boys are killed in the Srebrenica massacre.
- Iraq disarmament crisis: Following the defection of his son-in-law, Hussein Kamel al Majid, minister of industry and military industrialisation, Saddam Hussein makes new revelations about the full extent of Iraq's biological and nuclear weapons programs. Iraq also withdraws its last UN declaration of prohibited biological weapons and turns over a large amount of new documents on its WMD programs.
- August 30 - The NATO bombing campaign against Serb artillery positions begins in Bosnia, continuing into October. At the same time ARBiH forces begin an offensive against the Serb Army around Sarajevo, central Bosnia and Bosnian Krajina.
- September 4 - The Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
- September 17 - The Weekly Standard, an influential American conservative magazine, makes its debut.
- September 22 - American millionaire Steve Forbes announces his candidacy for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination .
- October 1 - Ten people are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in 1993.
- October 3 - O.J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. (He will be found liable in a second civil trial in 1997).
- October 16 - The Million Man March is held in Washington, D.C. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
- November 10 In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with 8 others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), are hanged by government forces.
- November 14 - A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the Congress of the United States, forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums, and run most government offices with skeleton staff.
- December 1 -Strikes paralyzed France's public sector.
- December 30 - The lowest ever United Kingdom temperature of -27.2°C is recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equals the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire in 1895 and 1982.
HEXAGRAM 31:
Some that marry young women get fortunes through it.
Although China's gender system was in many respects very different from that (or those) of medieval Europe, China clearly had a gender system, and like those elsewhere in the world it was fundamentally premised on a hierarchy of male over female. And in China as elsewhere, the image of male-female hierarchy was frequently deployed as a symbol or metaphor for political and other types of power relations,
An orthodox marriage in the Chinese traditional system was marked by a complex negotiation between the two families concerning the dowry the bride took with her on marriage and the bride price paid by the groom to the bride's natal family. This protracted form of gift-giving posed a considerable economic burden on both families. For this reason, throughout the imperial period, considerable flexibility was exercised in interpreting what constituted an orthodox marriage in order to allow impecunious families to marry off a daughter or obtain a bride for a son. This study will focus on one such form of marriage, one so ‘deviant’ and ‘primitive’ that it is usually relegated to the dawn of the history of the Han Chinese race or placed in the category of ‘objectionable customs’ (lousu) of the imperial past. I am referring to a form of marriage by abduction, commonly known as qiangqin (seizing the bride), which was prevalent in many areas of China until the 1940s. It is argued here that marriage by abduction should be considered less a ‘primitive’ remnant from China's ancient past than a socially acceptable response to the irrationalities of the dowry/bride-price system, in other words, a local ‘institution’.
Changes of the Zhou (B) Hexagram 31. Xian (Influence)
Swamp (above) Mountain is Influence; the Trigram Dui above, and Gen below.
Xian indicates, that there will be free course and success. Its advantageousness will depend on the being firm and correct, as in marrying a young lady. There will be good fortune.
The Tuan Commentary says: Xian is here used in the sense of gan (xian plus heart), meaning influencing. The weak trigram above, and the strong one below; their two influences moving and responding to each ofther, and thereby forming a union; the repression of the one and the satisfaction of the other; where the male is placed below the female; all these things convey the notion of a free and successful course, while the advantage will depend on being firm an correct, as in marrying a young lady, and there will be good fortune. Heaven and earth exert their influences, and there ensue the transformation and production of all things. The sages influence the minds of men, and the result is harmony and peace under all the sky. If we look at those influences, the true character of heaven and earth and of all things can be seen.
The Great Symbolism says: A mountain and above the marsh form xian. The superior man, in accordance with this, keeps his mind free from preoccupation, and open to receive others.
The first (lowest) line, divided (yin), shows one moving his great toes. The Small Symbolism says: "He moves his great toe": his mind is set on what is beyond.
The second line, divided (yin), shows one moving the calves of his leg. There will be evil. If he abide, there will be good fortune. The Small Symbolism says: Though there "would be evil"; yet, "if he abide quiet in his place, there will be good fortune"; through compliance there will be no injury.
The third line, undivided (yang), shows one moving his thighs, and keeping close hold of those whom he follows. Going forward will cause regret. The Small Symbolism says: "He moves his thighs", he still does not rest in his place. His will is set on following others; what he holds in his grasp is low.
The fourth line, undivided (yang), shows that firm correctness which will lead to good fortune, and prevent all occasion for repentance. If its subject be unsettled in his movements, his friends will follow his purpose. The Small Symbolism says: "Firm correctness will lead to good fortune, and prevent all occasion for repentance"; there has not yet been any harm from influence. "He is unsettled in his movements", is not yet either brilliant or great.
The fifth line, undivided (yang), shows one moving the flesh along the spine above the heart. There will be no occasion for repentance. The Small Symbolism says: "He moves the flesh along the spine above the heart", his aim is trivial.
The sixth line (the highest line), divided (yin), shows one moving his jaws and tongue. The Small Symbolism says: "He moves his jaws and tongue", he talks with loquacious mouth.
When King Wu had conquered the Shang, he could not sleep at night. He was worried and full of fear, because he had 'not yet ascertained Heaven's protection'. He decided to build a new city in which the sacrifices to Heaven would be valid again, and entrusted Tan, the duke of Zhou, with the planning and execution of this work. Tan asked the tortoise-oracle and found a site for the new city at the river Luo. The new city was called Luo-Yi. King Wu died and his successor, king Cheng, built the city, and so another name for this city is Cheng-Zhou. Cheng and Xian, the name of hexagram 31, are written almost the same, and are interchangeable.
This city was never used as capital by Cheng, it was only a place for sacrifices, a home for the ancestors. Here, the sacrifices to the ancestors could be brought, in new temples, where all the wrongs of the past no longer existed. If Wu only conquered the Shang, without honouring the goodness and greatness they had also brought in the past, the spirits would not help him. New life relies on the benevolence and support of all spirits involved, of past and present. And being a descendant of a Shang daughter, they were his ancestors too.
Xian is also the personal name of Tang the Completer, the founder of the dynasty of Shang. Tang the completer: the one who brought all together.
Xian2: together, all, unite, case or cover, complete, fully, generally, act together, union, harmony, universal, continual, everywhere, to move, to touch, influence, transform, (dissatisfied, resent ?). Name of the music of certain emperors, salt, salty. Xiang you (unite have): have under control (the 9 provinces).
Cheng2: to become, turn into, to bring to completion, succeed.
In the Mawangdui Yi Jing this hexagram is called qin1: respect; obey with respect, imperial.
When respect is missing, then the other meaning of xian emerges: wounding with the mouth.
It is only permitted to influence (in order to make someone do something, or to make a connection), if the influence is aimed at building a city with a temple. Or in order to found a state, a solid lasting structure together. Influence for personal ends, for selfish wishes, to take advantage: these are all evil.
31 / 14 Influence (wooing)
Restrained joining
(58->31->52->41)
"HSIEN : come into contact with, influence; reach, join together; put together; put together as parts of a previously seperated whole; come into conjunction, as the celestial bodies; totally, completely; lit: broken pieces of pottery, the halfs of which join to identify partners." ERANOS p362
Image :
"[With self restraint comes intensity]
Above mountain there is marsh. Influence (Come into contact with).
One uses emptiness to make peace with people."
In a context of self-restraint we utilise intensity.
Commentary
In hexagram 31, The seeking of satisfaction has become concentrated in that one has found what one wants or fits with. By initially putting oneself in a giving position one can thus stimulate the other. The line text is partially a step by step description of one rising to speak. The emphasis is on the intent and purpose of the act, putting it all together to make a whole. Contextually, we develop from a loose associating (13) through a stronger degree of loyalty but at a distance (56) to a refined, but restrained, degree of joining.
(All four hexagrams (58,31,52,41) deal with attaining satisfaction as implied by their base trigrams associated with submission/self-restraint. There is thus an overall bias to concentration in a literal and metaphoric senses; concentration allowed 'outwards' comes across as intenseness)
The Traditional Single Changing Line Comments:
- Line 1
- "Influencing one's big toe. [In humans, the intention to move is betrayed by the movement of one piece of anatomy before anything else - the big toe of one's dominant foot. To begin anything we start with the big toe.]"
- Line 2
- "Influencing one's calves. Danger. Sit. [Apparent strength hides inner weakness (weak foundations), if you 'stand' now you will fall]."
- Line 3
- "Influencing one's thighs, Keeping to one's course. A regrettable move. [The power of the thighs pushes us up, ready to 'say our piece'. In this situation though, a certain level of deference is required.]"
- Line 4
- "Although in testing times, one's problems will be gone. A level of Indecisiveness (hesitation, coming and going) suggests one should consider joining with others. [Hesitation and coming and going can be associated with erratic breathing; influencing the middrift.]"
- Line 5
- "Influencing one's neck. [Lifting one's head and stretching the neck implies purpose and preparedness.]"
- Line 6
- "Influencing [through speech. (The power of the word.)]"
Extended Commentary
The raw context from which the situation derives is described by hexagram 13 grouping/associating. It passes through hexagram 56 restrained journeying before reaching here.
Transformative methods
By introducing this hexagram as context, you can change a state described by any other hexagram into a state described by hexagram 33. To make a state associated with another hexagram transform into this state, introduce hexagram 33 as context.
It is important to remember that, when using transformative methods, the more lines requiring change, the more energy required when attempting to introduce a different context. It may therefore be of benefit to work on existing changing lines and achieve your goal in steps rather than attempt, for example, a six-line change all at once.
THE HSIEN HEXAGRAM
XXXI.
Hsien indicates that, (on the fulfilment of the conditions implied in it), there will be free course and success. Its advantageousness will depend on the being firm and correct, (as) in marrying a young lady. There will be good fortune.
1. The first six, divided, shows one moving his great toes.
2. The second SIX, divided, shows one moving the calves of his leg. There will be evil. If he abide (quiet in his place), there will be good fortune.
3. The third NINE, undivided, shows one moving his thighs, and keeping close hold of those whom he follows. Going forward (in this way) will cause regret.
4. The fourth NINE, undivided, shows that firm correctness whi.ch will lead to good fortune, and prevent all occasion for repentance. If its subject be unsettled in his movements, (only) his friends will follow his purpose.
5. The fifth NINE, undivided, shows one moving the flesh along the spine above the heart. There will be no occasion for repentance.
6. The sixth six, divided, shows one moving his jaws and tongue.
Footnotes
124:XXXI With the 31st hexagram commences the Second Section of the Text. It is difficult to say why any division of the hexagrams should be made here, for the student tries in vain to discover any continuity in the thoughts of the author that is now broken. The First Section does not contain a class of subjects different from those which we find in the Second. That the division was made, however, at a very early time, appears from the sixth Appendix on the Sequence of the Hexagrams, where the writer sets forth an analogy between the first and second figures, representing heaven and earth, as the originators of all things, and this figure and the next, representing (each of them) husband and wife, as the originators of all the social relations. This, however, is far from carrying conviction to my mind. The division of the Text of the Yî into two sections is a fact of which I am unable to give a satisfactory account.
Hsien, as explained in the treatise on the Thwan, has here the meaning of mutual influence, and the duke of Kâu, on the various lines, always uses Kan for it in the sense of 'moving' or 'influencing to movement or action.' This is to my mind the subject of the hexagram considered as an essay,--'Influence; the different ways of bringing it to bear, and their issues.'
The Chinese character called hsien is 
, the graphic symbol for 'all, together, jointly.' Kan, the symbol for 'influencing,' has hsien in it as its phonetic constituent (though the changes in pronunciation make it hard for an English reader to appreciate this), with the addition of hsin, the symbol for the heart.' Thus 
kan, 'to affect or influence,' = + 
; and it may have been that while the name or word was used with the significance of 'influencing,' the was purposely dropt from it, to indicate the most important element in the thing,--the absence of all purpose or motive. I venture to think that this would have been a device worthy of a diviner.
With regard to the idea of husband and wife being in the teaching of the hexagram, it is derived from the more recent symbolism of the eight trigrams ascribed to king Wăn, and exhibited on p. 33 and plate III. The more ancient usage of them is given in the paragraph on the Great Symbolism of Appendix II. The figure consists of Kăn 
'the youngest son,' and over it Tui ( 
), 'the youngest daughter.' These are in 'happy union.' p. 125 No influence, it is said, is so powerful and constant as that between husband and wife; and where these are young, it is especially active. Hence it is that Hsien is made up of Kăn and Tui. All this is to me very doubtful. I can dimly apprehend why the whole line ( 
) was assumed as the symbol of strength and authority, and the broken line as that of weakness and submission. Beyond this I cannot follow Fû-hsî in his formation of the trigrams; and still less can I assent to the more recent symbolism of them ascribed to king Wăn.
Coming now to the figure, and its lines, the subject is that of mutual influence; and the author teaches that that influence, correct in itself, and for correct ends, is sure to be effective. He gives an instance,--the case of a man marrying a young lady, the regulations for which have been laid down in China from the earliest times with great strictness and particularity. Such influence will be effective and fortunate.
Line 1 is weak, and at the bottom of the hexagram. Though 4 be a proper correlate, yet the influence indicated by it must be ineffective. However much a man's great toes may be moved, that will not enable him to walk.
The calves cannot move of themselves. They follow the moving of the feet. The moving of them indicates too much anxiety to move. Line 2, moreover, is weak. But it is also the central line, and if its subject abide quiet, till he is acted on from above, there will be good fortune.
Neither can the thighs move of themselves. The attempt to p. 126 move them is inauspicious. Its subject, however, the line being strong, and in an odd place, will wish to move, and follows the subject of 4, which is understood to be the seat of the mind. He exercises his influence therefore with a mind and purpose, which is not good.
Line 4 is strong, but in an even place. It is the seat of the mind. Its subject therefore is warned to be firm and correct in order to a good issue. If he be wavering and uncertain, his influence will not extend beyond the circle of his friends.
The symbolism of line 5 refers to a part of the body behind the heart, and is supposed therefore to indicate an influence, ineffective indeed, but free from selfish motive, and not needing to be repented of.
Line 6 is weak, and in an even place. It is the topmost line also of the trigram of satisfaction. Its influence by means of speech will only be that of loquacity and flattery, the evil of which needs not to be pointed out.
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