Tao Te Ching
Fu Xi 伏羲
c. 2852–2737 BCE
Emperor/shaman progenitor of civilization symbol
Considered the most important primogenitor of Chinese civilization, Fu Xi reigned after his sister/wife Nü Wa during the transition from matriarchal to patriarchal society when people first learned of the link between sex and children. Credited with inventing the I Ching hexagrams, hunting, fishing, cooking, the calendar, marriage, the original 100 Chinese surnames, and a system for writing characters; Fu Xi was an emperor/shaman who could tame wild animals as well as the wild, primitive humans of the time establishing the union of opposites and cosmic harmony.
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Quotes by Fu Xi (24 quotes)
“A man may fail in his education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and remain fixed in convention. A partial education of this sort is as bad as none.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
18. The Sick Society
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“The heart thinks constantly. This cannot be changed, but the movements of the heart – that is, a man’s thoughts – should restrict themselves to the immediate situation. All thinking that goes beyond this only makes the heart sore”
from I Ching
Chapters:
26. The Still Rule the Restless
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“Return to the way. How could there be blame in this?”
from I Ching
Chapters:
28. Turning Back
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“Forward and backward, abyss on abyss, in danger like this pause at first and wait, otherwise you will fall into a pit.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
30. No War
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“war is always a dangerous thing and brings with it destruction and devastation. Therefore it should not be resorted to rashly but, like a poisonous drug, should be used only as a last resort”
from I Ching
Chapters:
31. Victory Funeral
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“Visible effects of the invisible manifest themselves… a heart free of prejudices and therefore open to truth… An egg is hollow. The light-giving power must work to quicken it from outside, but there must be a germ of life within, if life it to be awakened.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
32. Uncontrived Awareness
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“The receptive brings about sublime success… If the wise undertake something and try to lead, they go astray; but if they follow, they find guidance.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
40. Returning
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“The weak progresses and goes upward. (Hexagram 35) The yielding pushes upward with the time.. However, the pushing up certainly begins at the bottom… At the top is decrease and not wealth.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
42. Children of the Way
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“‘Perseverance furthers,’ for it is perseverance that make the difference between seduction and courtship.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
43. No Effort, No Trace
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“It is only when we have the courage to face things exactly as they are, without any sort of self deception or illusion, that a light will develop out of events by which the path to success may be recognized.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
44. Fame and Fortune
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“When yang has reached its greatest strength, the dark power of yin is born within its depths; night begins at midday when yang breaks up and begins to change into yin.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
45. Complete Perfection
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“A man who halts at the beginning, so long as he has not yet abandoned truth, finds the right way… the beginning is the time of few mistakes… not yet influenced by obscuring interests and desires, one sees things intuitively as they really are.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
48. Unlearning
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“Words have influence only when they are pertinent and clearly related to definite circumstances… If words and conduct are not in accord and not consistent, they will have no effect.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
48. Unlearning
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“Danger arises when a man feels secure in his positon. Destruction threatens when a man seeks to preserve his worldly estate. Confusion develops when a man has put everything in order.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
50. Claws and Swords
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“The town may be changed but the well cannot be changed. It neither decreases nor increases… Thus the well is the symbol of that social structure which is independent of all political forms… Life is also inexhaustible. It grows neither less nor more; it exists for one and for all.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
51. Mysterious Goodness
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“When it is a man’s fate to undertake new beginnings, everything is still unformed, dark. Therefore he must hold back because any premature move might bring disaster.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
52. Cultivating the Changeless
12. Never finish
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“The family is society in embryo; it is the native soil… so that within a small circle a basis of moral practice is created, and this is later widened to include human relationships in general.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
54. Planting Well
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“Yin, the receptive, earth above; Yang, the creative, heaven below: This hexagram denotes a time in nature when heaven seems to be on earth. Heaven has placed itself beneath the earth and so their powers unite in deep harmony. Then peace and blessings descend upon all living things.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
68. Joining Heaven & Earth
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“A man brings about real increase by producing in himself the conditions for it that is, through receptivity to and love of the good. Thus the thing for which he strives comes of itself, with the inevitability of natural law.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
77. Stringing a Bow
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“Water reaches its goal by flowing continuously. It fills up every depression before it flows on… So likewise in teaching others everything depends on consistency, for it is only through repetition that the pupil makes the material his own.”
from I Ching
Chapters:
78. Water
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“All that is visible must grow beyond itself, extend into the realm of the invisible. Thereby it receives its true consecration and clarity and takes firm room in the cosmic order. (#50, The Cauldron)”
from I Ching
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“It is true he does not fit in with his environment, inasmuch as he is too brusque and pays too little attention to form. But as he is upright in character, he meets with response...”
from I Ching
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“When two people are at one in their inmost hearts, they shatter even the strength of iron or of bronze.”
from I Ching
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“When two people are at one in their inmost hearts, they shatter even the strength of iron or of bronze.”
from I Ching
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Quotes about Fu Xi (3 quotes)
“Fu Xi was only concerned with fundamental principles which govern our life... For him, the main things were light and dark, or the cosmic principles of the creative and receptive, the male and female—in the sense of two mutually dependent powers compensating each other.”
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“Emperor Fu Xi—with the help of his enlightened Queen—taught his people marriage, music, writing, painting, fishing with nets, the domestication of animals, and the feeding of silkworms for the secretion of silk.”
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“Sage ruler of ancient times and the reputed inventor of the system of hexagrams on which the I Ching is based.”
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