As far as I remember, Newton’s First Law of Motion said an object will remain where it is or will remain with constant velocity if there is no external force applies onto it. I found Yi-shi similar. Change would definitely alter the status quo, but it would be either good or bad.
The conservative would say why change if things are already good, but the reformer would say you have to change in order to cope with the evolving world. The latter sounds logical, but you just don’t want to make change for the sake of changing. There should always be a target for change.
Conficius said the following in “Xi-ci” (繫辭), another commentary of Zhou-yi:
“吉凶悔吝者，生乎動者也。”
Literally, “Ji” (吉) means good luck, “Xiong” (凶) means bad luck, both “Hui” (悔) and “Lin” (吝) means regret. When you regret, there are two alternatives you can do: 1) taking corrective measure which will lead you towards good luck, or 2) not taking any corrective measure which will eventually lead you to bad luck. The former is Hui and the latter is Lin. “Sheng” (生) could mean initiated, and “Dong” (動) means action or movement.
In other word, matters related to good luck, bad luck or even the two stages of regrets, are the direct result of change.
In Yi-shi, we focus on the interactions among the changed, which are the Lao Yang and Lao Yin. The hexagram of Qian was used as an example in the last blog. There are 6 lines all together and each of them associates to one specific Yao-ci. Like “乾．初九”, or the initial line of Qian, it means the initial line of Qian is a Lao Yang and is going to change from Yang to Yin, whereas the inner trigram of Qian changed into Xun (巽), and hence from Qian to “Heaven-Wind Gou” (天風姤). The Yao-ci “潛龍勿用” is actually describing the changed.
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