Withdrawal of the seal from the treasury of the world»: the meaning of the eighth line in Yi Jīng

Dictionary entry of the hieroglyph Ш in the second line of the Book of Changes includes following meanings: «tremble, shudder, shake, thunder, to anger, strike (thunderstruck), make tremble, earthquake, grandeur, power, epicentre, trap». All these meanings are hard to interpret taking into account the general meaning of the second line with one exception. If we take all the meanings of that hieroglyph and try to find an analogue which combines itself a storm, thunderstorm, anger, power but also have the meaning of an epicentre and a trap, then the most probable candidate for that role is proto-Indian deity Rudra. Thus in the beginning of the manuscript “southwest” geographical direction is mentioned so we dare to say that facts described in that chronicle are related to Ancient China as well as Ancient India areas, the witness of which Ancient China was. Let us refer to the exact description of Rudra in the book by Dandekar R.N. «From Vedas to Hinduism»: «Indisputable relation to the certain ancient religious cults enables us to understand the authentic nature and the image of that deity better. In the Rig-Veda is mentioned orgiastic cult of Munis who drank narcotic potion and possessed extraordinary abilities comparable with ones achievable by yoga practice. Rudra was depicted in this hymn almost like the leader of the cult. The cult of brahmacharis is close to this cult. They gave themselves to austere penitence that resulting in gaining of power enabling them to make actions of the cosmic scale. Among features of Rudra his connection with the world of demons and snakes should be indicated. It should be noted that these ideas were alien to Vedic culture therefore Rudra did not get exact definition in Vedas but only certain aspects of his image were described». Referring to works of the founder of the World society of Ancient Indian culture researchers Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar (1909-2001) to additional information about image of this deity it is important to mention the following fact written in his book: «There are evidences in favour of the fact that religion of Indus valley was connected with proto-Shiva religion. Names of Rudra and proto-Indian Shiva were used as the names of one and the same deity. Both religions knew phallic cult, in both of them the cult of buffalo (ox) was important. The famous seal from Mohenjo-Daro depicts three-faced deity in a yogi posture, the head of whom is decorated with a couple of horns contents features found in Rudra and proto-Shiva images». According to Dandekar the followers of these proto-Indian religious cults were enemies of Vedic Aryans. There is another interpretation connected with the attempt of decoding Indus valley written language where horned creatures drawn in form of proto-Shiva (Rudra) in iconography of seals of Indus valley designate demons causing diseases (a possession). These interpretations are considered to be right in the frame of parallels with the Book of Changes that cannot be blamed for preconception or pragmatic manipulation with the context.

In the line eight the order of hieroglyphs № 4-9:with the small number of meanings that do not contradict but supplement each other can be translated as follows: “...to stop (to hold back) venomous creature (the last one and accumulated the venom of the rest devoured by it: detrimental, corrupting influence), covering, deceiving and disinforming uneducated and ignorant ones, reducing and killing sacral essence, inmost recesses of the soul, damaging its nature”(literally “ stripping off and damaging the cover of the core”). If we take into consideration the fact that the sacral essence is a concept being close to the concept of “Inherent truth” (Zhong fu 中孚) then we come to conclusion that the process of breaking the seal is described in the Book of Changes.

Coming back to the sense of “seal” we must say about the term in Islam theology called “barzakh” (a border). In the meaning “watershed” the term “barzakh” is mentioned in the following ayah of Quran: “ He has set free the two seas meeting together. There is a barrier (“barzakh”) between them. They do not transgress. “Barzakh” is also a place where the souls of the dead are placed till the Judgement day. The same meaning is used when we meet this concept in other ayah of Quran: “ Until, when death comes to one of them, he says: ‘O my Lord. Send me back to life (on earth) in order that I may do good deeds in the things that I neglected.’ By no means! It is only an utterance that he says. And before them is a border (barzakh) until the Day they are resurrected. ” Paronyms to the word «barzakh» have the following meaning: «make, create, justify, recover, save, free, cure, forgive, have clear conscience, to forgive a debt, to be exonerated, to set in order, recovery, forgiveness, maker, creator, creation». Remembering Ibn Arabi saying: «God contemplates his creation and sends him His grace», we can say that the meaning of the last ayah is that even after death a man has possibility for confession and consequently to be forgiven and be free from sins. For a true believer who sees the grace with his heart there is no necessity to come back to commit righteous deeds if he did not do it in time. The heart being “the seal which preserved the treasury” is at the same time the border («barzakh») and the grace for a believer in the fullness of life, which becomes the barrier even after death for those who attempt to break this seal.

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