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Da Zhuang • Great Strength
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NAME AND STRUCTURE
Da is great. Zhuang means strength. Both Wilhelm and Blofeld translate Da Zhuang as The Power of the Great. This book adopts its literal meaning, Great Strength. The name consists of two ideographs.
The first one, da, looks like a person standing upright with arms and legs wide open. The attribute of greatness was associated with Heaven, Earth, and human beings.
The second ideograph, zhuang, consists of two parts. On the left is an ideograph from antiquity. It looks like a weapon. In ancient times a weapon was made of bamboo or wood. On the right is another ideograph, shi. In ancient times shi was the lowest class of feudal subordinate. Later on, it came to represent an intellectual. At the very beginning, people of robust strength were selected as guards to protect the royalty. They were as stout and strong as the trunks of trees. The ideograph employs a picture of a strong man with arms stretching out like a cross standing on the ground. When these two pictures are put together, zhuang has the meaning of strength. [Huang: Complete I Ching]
Another Yi Geopolitical Reading, this one arising out of a conversation with a family member about how safe they are living near a US Air Base in Germany (!).
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