「서괘전」에 함의된 공부의 관점 - 태괘(泰卦)에서 이괘(離卦)까지를 중심으로 -

Abstract

The paper has focused on the 20 Iching-hexagrams from the eleventh t’ai[泰] to the final one of the Upper Book li[離] to examine the principles of learning and education involved in Xugua zhuan[序卦傳], the Ordinal Sequence of the Hexagrams as one among Ten Wings in I Ching. Some implications involved in this part of the Book of Change provides us with numerous teachings and educational principles. I try to concisely note the three teachings of the major argument as shown in the paper. Firstly, we should take the process of learning as the circular system of thought[環相型], not as the linear system assuming the final destination like the Final Cause in the Aristotelian teleology. In the same token, the process of learning should be regarded as ‘initiation’, which has been initially adopted to justify the concept of education by R. S. Peters. As a circular system, there are two kinds of initiation. The one sense is ‘crossing the threshold of illiteracy’ seen as ‘small initiation’, which apprehends the points of argument in the previous paper, namely, on hexagrams from ch’ien[乾] to t’ai[泰]. The other sense is ‘getting on the inside of the worthwhile activities’, seen as ‘Grand Initiation’, which apprehend the present points of argument. Secondly, as shown in the paper, the Book enables us to recognize the process of learning as ‘Seeing What Is There’. This requires us the Principles of Mean and Perfection, which are to be taken differently from the Western ones. For this a learner should always hold the endless self-reflection and attitude to re-examine the original intention of one’s own, whilst he is involved in the task of learning. Finally, we should take the Principles of Change seriously, such as extremity-reversibility[物極必反] and the sense of conformity, in order that we can establish the proper educational principles to tackle the social domains of learning as well as the personal ones.