Shao Yung : The Man And The Chart

Shao Yung (1011-1077) was one of the most influential and wisest men in the annals of Chinese history. This great thinker went through many hardships throughout his life and he writes about many of them in his poetry. He eventually gathered his poems and put them together in a book titled "Striking The Earth Collection". This book reads like a diary in the day to day trials and tribulations of his life. He was well respected by all and his peers considered him a true master. His thoughts, ideas, and theories still have an influence on many people to this very day. His I Ching studies were unparalleled and his studies involved the 'Image and Number Learning' school of thought. In other words, he put forth much more effort in reading the symbols, numbers, and images of the I Ching rather than the text. Some, like Chu Hsi were not pleased with Shao Yung's decision and came down on him rather harshly because they viewed his study as fortune telling and divination and they considered this as straying from true Confucian thought. In addition, Shao never served a government position and refused to take the government exams on more than one occasion, and in fact never had a job in his life. In Chu Hsi's eyes this was a double no-no since a true Confucian would serve their fellow man and take on the responsibilities necessary to fulfill their social duties, which Shao Yung neglected. Rather than getting deeply involved in the social order, Shao spent all his time deeply immersed in his I Ching studies and spent his entire life devoted to his studies. He married rather late in life and had two children (both boys) and though they didn't accumulate the deep knowledge of I Ching studies as their father, the elder one named Shao Po Wen did become fairly well known and even edited and published some of his father's work.

The amazing thing about Shao Yung was that he took the 8 trigrams of the Early Heaven sequence and turned it into a life-long philosophy. His whole learning was based on the 8 trigrams and he perceived any aspect of reality through the understanding of those 8 trigrams. Many have said that he could predict the rise and fall of anything in the phenomenal world and could give the exact year, month, day, and hour of any person's death. All this was done with the use of the 8 trigrams which is basically 8 qualities or forms of energy. Incredibly, Shao extended the 8 trigrams over a trillion-fold. That is not a misprint, and if you ever get a chance to look at some of his work you will see numbers derived from the trigrams that carry well over 30 digits. His work is too lengthy to get into here but I did post a picture of the Early Heaven Chart (top right) that he used as the prototype for understanding the realities of the phenomenal world. It is difficult to fathom that a small chart such as this could reveal all the secrets and mysteries of the world...that it could give you the answer to any question your mind is concerned with. It can be said that the Early Heaven IS the world and everything in it. If you carry the Early Heaven chart in your pocket you are carrying the universe in your pocket. If you don't believe me, then ask Shao Yung.