图·像思维理论

序

余生于晋、修于蜀、练于琼、战于桂、归于京。

观太行而势汾水，游天府而道三星，走琼崖而敛五指，冲八桂而行漓江，奔幽燕而颐京华。

遂呈势、场、道、灵、态、恒于心，贯八际，行五行；周而复始，涵养萌动；至刚至柔，至阳至阴。

甲申春分，心随形动，动而生像，像而生文，文而自化，呈圆润和谐之大象。

是以记之。

易罡撰于京城聚势斋

甲申年春分

《图·像思维》后记

甲申春分，《图·像思维》撰讫，感何如之！

《图·像思维》原名《心灵风水学》，初稿创作于上世纪八十年代末，原是为当时所供职的海南省物业发展公司的一个房地产项目提供较新的策划理念。其目的不外有三：一是给海南省海口市金融贸易区内的一块三角形土地赋予一点文化内涵，起名为“风水?八卦百金城”高级商住区；二是给当时涌进海南的“冒险家们”——购房者与所购土地、房产找到与其心灵共鸣；三是借“阴阳五行说”中的“相生、相克”原理，把五栋高层住宅依“金、水、木、火、土”相生关系布局，让购房者各居其所。经过近两年的建设，项目取得较大成功，为企业赢得可观利润，同时获得了海南省“十大杰出建筑奖”。

那么，何时萌发撰写有关“心灵风水学”——《图·像思维》念头的呢？

三十多年前，打从能够记事起，我就住在山西祁县塔寺村，这个河畔小村离今天很有名的乔家大院只有几里路。老宅是一座建于清末的三合院。在小院子里，我过着无忧无虑的童年生活。天气转暖，一到晚上我便躺在外婆怀里，听大人们聊着久远的故事，最有趣的便是从小院子的天井所围成的“方形”天际，遥望一眨一眨的满天繁星。有一天，外婆给我绘声绘色地讲述了老外公走西口的故事。在外婆眼里，比她年长三十多岁的外公是一个伟岸而高深、勇猛而刚强的人，是敢独闯大漠的“江湖高人”。据外婆讲，外公懂“江湖语”，敢和西域“黑白两道”的武林高手交锋，年轻时曾在迪化（今乌鲁木齐）经商，作过新疆大官的贴身保镖。十二岁拜师学习武术，十六岁跟着掌柜学做买卖，二十岁走西口，一走就是五年、一共走了五次。我常想，一个小院子、小村子、小县城的晋人、晋商，居然能有如此之举，好生佩服！外婆还告诉我，外公每次回家都带了好多的西域古籍和精美的工艺品送朋友。外婆在我12岁生日的时候，把她珍藏了多年的铜锁送给了我，开锁时，她贴在我的耳旁，轻轻地抚摸着我的头，说：“外公常讲：‘心大不如势大，势大不如力大，力大不如财大，财大不如道大，道大不如德大，德大不如天大’，我不解其意”。她让我长大成人后慢慢领悟其中奥妙。一日，我乘着仲秋的皎月，从小学校回家。忽然，被一幅奇特的图景所打动，眼前一亮，只见小树林旁一只黄狗正对着那轮满月“发呆”。我驻足好一阵子，似有所悟，却无以言表。仿佛感到那黄狗正和月亮“说话”。静穆的自然、静穆的乡村、狗物我同一。其形、其态、其韵、其势、其神至今仍清晰地在我的脑海中显现着，启迪着我的悟性。

小时候，我的胆子很小，怕黑、怕坏人、怕恶人、更怕鬼。以为真的有鬼存在。经常看见遇到难事的乡亲，就去求“阴阳”先生调“风水”来化解。在民间，“风水”的确神秘而玄虚，常能使人迷而信之，再加上别有用心的伪风水师贪人钱财，常常装神弄鬼，花样翻新。把人与自然、社会和谐共荣的风水本义歪曲了，把人与自然、社会和谐共生的风水精华摈弃了。风水被庸俗化、世俗化，伦为封建迷信，令人谈虎色变。二十世纪八十年代初，我考入太原工学院修建筑学专业。可惜当时过分偏重建筑设计、结构、施工、材料、设备等纯技术性的知识，对包涵着古老的东方哲学、深邃智慧的“和合”学说却无暇顾及。至今，对蕴涵于中华文化中，强调自然、人、社会和谐共荣的可持续发展思想，仍未能深入发掘。吾以为，对东方古老的“风水”学说，应抛弃糟粕，宏扬精华。

吾行于太行汾水之间，仰观五台圣境，探访云岗石窟，驻足悬空寺、游历平遥古城，解读晋祠圣母殿，参拜佛光寺、感悟天龙山。在领略三晋大地物宝天华之余亦沉醉于这片土地所承载的浑厚奇绝博大精深的文化底蕴之中……。透过对蕴藏于山水、人文之中图像的整体把握，我悟到了“物、事、理”中的位置与层次，“势、场、道”中的关系与网络，“灵、态、恒”中的互补与和谐。

十多年前，我在海南儋县华南热带作物学院工作。一天，台风刚过，忽尔飘雨，我匆匆走向图书馆，看见一只老青蛙正背着一只幼小的青蛙，在光滑油亮的公路上向水塘艰难地爬行着。我怦然心动，便弯腰用双手轻轻地捧起青蛙“母子”，小心翼翼地把它们放在水中……。不一会耳际传来“母子”和谐而优扬的鸣叫声，这声音是那样的美妙而动听！我不禁由蛙鸣而悟启。

二十世纪九十年代初，我在广西钦州工作。初夏，艳阳高照，我独自在钦江畔散步。只见远处一只白猫，正在水边端详着自己的影子，是那样的专注而入神，对旁边的一切全然未在意。在实像与虚像、充实与空灵之间，形成物我同一的美景。余由灵猫而得象。易罡曰：图为像之显，象为形之底,观像而忘形，忘形而得势。无图之像，则无力、无势，也无神。无形之象，则无态、无能，也无道。图像同构、形象共生。然，世人重物而轻形、重理而轻像、重能而轻势、重机械累积而轻精练积淀。不亦惑乎？

善观形者，感天地之动；善察势者，怀仁爱之心；善悟道者，藏忠义之旨。故曰：“形定则态生，态生则场呈，场呈则灵应，灵应则势呈，势呈则道生”。

百年春来早，沉积数十载；一朝得颖悟，尽在图像中。遂呈一百单八像于脑海，应一百单八字于心田，手神相通，形意比合，一气呵成！

天地有道，大象无形。乐者喜之、善者化之、慧者悟之。对图像的整体感悟，需在融合中超越、共生中扬弃、聚合中升华。

学栋识于聚势斋

农历甲申（公元2004年）闰二月初九

Postscript

It was with great pleasure that I finally finished writing Thinking in Graphics on the Spring Equinox day of the traditional Chinese Lunar Year of Jiashen ( 2004).

This book was originally titled Mental Fengshui, with its first draft written in the late 1980s, with the purpose of providing relatively new ideas for a real estate project of the Hainan Provincial Real Estate Development Corporation where I worked then. My intentions for it were threefold: First, to infuse some cultural content into a patch of triangular land, I named that high class office building compound “City of Hundred Golds of Fengshui and Bagua (Eight Diagrams)” ; second, to establish some mental resonance between the property owners, those adventurers who flocked into Hainan at that time, and the properties they purchased; and finally, to tap into the Theory of Mutual Begetting and Counter Contradicting of Yin, Yang and the Five Primary Elements (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth), I laid out the five residential high buildings into a mutually begetting structure as “Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth” and allowed the buyers to live in wherever best suited their desires. After two years of construction, the project turned out to be a success and generated considerable profits for the corporation. It was also awarded as one of the Best Ten Architectures in Hainan Province.

Why and when did I hit upon the idea of writing such a book on “mental Fengshui” and finally start to “think in graphics”?

More than three decades ago, since I started to remember things, I lived in Pagoda Temple Village of the Qi County of Shanxi Province, a small village on a river bank, which was about one mile away from the well known Qiao Family Grand Courtyard. Our old residence was a courtyard house built in late Qing Dynasty, where I enjoyed my carefree childhood. When the weather was warm, every evening, I would lie in my grandmother’s arms and listen to those age old stories told by the adults. The most interesting part was staring up into the “square” of sky full of twinkling stars through what we called “sky well”, an opening formed by the eaves of the courtyard. One day, my grandmother vividly told me the story of my grandfather’s adventures beyond the Great Wall as a refugee. As my grandmother described, my grandfather, more than 30 years older than my grandmother, was a tall, heavily built, valiant, and tough guy, an itinerant kung fu master who dared to break into the vast dessert single-handed. According to grandmother’s story, grandfather understood the underworld argot and had challenged top martial arts masters both good and evil in the Western Regions. When he was young, he used to do business in Dihua (today’s Urumqi), and served as the close bodyguard of a high-ranking official of Xinjiang. He was bound apprentice to a kung fu master at the age of 12, and started to learn business from his master at 16. He went beyond the Great Wall when he was 20, and for 5 times in 5 years. Quite often, I would think that it was so admirable that a businessman, a commoner from a little courtyard house in a small village of a small town of Shanxi, could have had such an adventure! Grandma also told me that every time grandpa returned home, he would bring loads of ancient scrolls and exquisite handicrafts from the Western Regions to give out to friends as gifts. On my 12th birthday, grandma gave me a copper lock which she cherished and kept for many years. When she unlocked it, she gently stroked my head, and talked to me in my ear: “Your grandpa often said: ‘Rather be powerful than ambitious; forceful than powerful; wealthy than forceful; resourceful than wealthy; virtuous than resourceful; and heavenly than virtuous.’ I couldn’t quite figure it out myself.” So she told me to gradually grasp the meaning as I grew up.

One evening, when I was going home from school bathed in the mid-autumn moonlight, I was suddenly touched by a unique picture and my eyes opened wide at a yellow dog at the edge of a grove blankly staring at the full moon. I stood there for quite a while and seemed to have caught some inexplicable message from the picture. I felt as though that yellow dog were talking to the moon. Serene was the nature; serene was the village. And the dog and I were at one with the surroundings. The image, the stance, the charm, the force and the spirit can still be re-visualized in my mind’s eye and inspire me.

When I was a little boy, I was very timid. I was afraid of darkness, afraid of bad guys, afraid of evil people, and the worst thing I was afraid of was ghosts, for I really thought they existed. I often saw villagers visit Yin Yang masters (wizards) to help them adjust their Fengshui to solve their problems. Among the folks, Fengshui is indeed mysterious and deceitful, often misleading people to superstition as a result of those fake Fengshui masters’ deceitful maneuvers with ulterior motives for material gains. The truth of Fengshui as a harmonious co-prosperity of man, nature and society is thus misinterpreted, and the essence of Fengshui as a harmonious co-existence of man, nature and society is also ruined. As a result, Fengshui is vulgarized and secularized as feudal dross of superstition, becoming a taboo for people to even mention.

In the early 1980s, I entered the Taiyuan College of Polytechnics, majoring in architecture. At that time, purely technical knowledge such as architectural design, structure, construction, materials and equipment were overestimated; nobody cared about the theory of Harmonious Integration as part of the ancient oriental philosophy. Even today, the thought of sustainable development contained in the Chinese Culture, which emphasizes harmonious co-prosperity of man, nature, and society, has not been studied in depth. I think that the essence of the ancient oriental Fengshui theory should be greatly assimilated with its dross discarded.

I traveled between the Taihang Mountains and the Fen River, paid respects to the holy spots in the Wutai Mountains, visited the Yungang Grotto, stayed in the Suspended Temple, toured the ancient city of Pingyao, studied the Hall of the Holy Mother of Jin Shrine, worshiped the Temple of the Aureole of Buddha, and was inspired by the Tianlong Mountain (Dragon in Heaven). By traversing through the historical relics and natural treasures of the Shanxi Province, I became fascinated in the rich and deep cultural foundations laid in this vast land. Through integrated understanding of the imagery lying hidden in the mountains and waters, the humanity and culture, I have figured out the positions and layers among “the Matter, the Happening, and the Reason”; the relationship and network among “the Force, the Environment and the Resource”; as well as the complementarity and harmony among “the Spirit, the Stance and the Constancy”.

More than 10 years ago, I worked in the South China Institute of Tropical Crops, Zhan County, Hainan Province. One day after a typhoon, when I was hurriedly walking towards the library in a sudden rain, I saw an old frog with a baby frog on her back difficultly crawling across the glistening driveway towards a pond. I was moved immediately and bent down to pick up the mother frog and son with both hands and carefully put them in the water. In a while, I heard a harmonious duet sung by the frog mother and son. How beautiful and lovely the voice was! I surely learned something from it.

In the early 1990s, I worked in Qinzhou, Guangxi Autonomous Region. It was a sunny day in early summer. I was taking a walk alone along the bank of the Qin River. I saw in distance a white cat staring at his own reflection in the water. He was so concentrated and fascinated that he ignored everything around him. It formed a beautiful picture, a unity of self and nature, something between the real image and the virtual image, between the full and the vain. I visualized my graphic from this cat. The Book of Changes says: Graphics are display of Images; Images are foundations of Forms; Observing the Images, you forget the Forms; Only by forgetting the Forms can you obtain the Power; Images without Graphics are void of either Force, Power or Spirit; Images without Forms are void of Stance, Energy or Resource. Graphics and Images are isomorphic, while Forms and Images are symbiotic. But the world stresses the Materials and neglects the Forms, stresses the Reason and neglects the Images, stresses the Energy and neglects the Power, stresses the mechanical accumulation and neglects the empirical summary. Isn’t it an error?

A good observer of the Forms feels the movements of Heaven and Earth; a good judge of the Power harbors benevolence; a good meditator of the Truth is loyal and righteous. So, as the saying goes, “As long as the Form is settled, the Stance is generated; as long as the Stance is generated, the Environment is displayed; as long as the Environment is displayed, the Spirit echoes; as long as the Spirit echoes, the Power emerges; as long as the Power emerges, the Resource comes. ”

In the earliest spring of a century, with an accumulation of several decades, I suddenly realized that it was all about graphics. With 108 graphics displayed in my mind and 108 characters printed in my heart, I finished this book as a coherent whole as if my hand and mind were one, perfectly matching its text and meaning.

Heaven and Earth have their ways, but extreme graphics are without forms. Those who love them may be able to enjoy them; those who are righteous may be able to assimilate them; those who are intelligent may be able to decode them. The overall apprehension of the graphics calls for a transcendence through the amalgamation, an abstraction of the symbiosis and a sublimation from the polymerization.

Xuedong

9th of Intercalary February of the Lunar Chinese Year of Jiashen (2004)