"What are the affairs of the world themselves?" he asked himself.
"How does the platform on which I stand age? When will the clothes I wear decay? Exposed to this cold wind now, will my body fall ill? Among you ministers, who lies and embezzles?" Nan Xiu said slowly and solemnly. "And further: in the fields south of the city, can a blade of grass survive this bitter winter? At the bottom of West Pool, how many fish are dying at this moment? Myriad matters, minute and immense, great and small, each undergo myriad changes, twisting together into what we call 'World Fortune.' These are the affairs of the world themselves."
"The Book of Changes observes the changes in the affairs of the world themselves."
"Over several thousand years, countless worthy scholars have studied the Book of Changes. Yet not one in ten has crossed its threshold. Those who master a single section become worthies remembered in history; those who comprehend the whole of it, apart from a few ancient sages, have not appeared once in a thousand years. Today, however, His Fourth Highness understands it."
There was no need to elaborate. Everyone present had read the books of the sages; none failed to understand what this supreme Confucian scripture, the Book of Changes, meant.
The overwhelming majority of scholars in the world were not even qualified to touch it.
It was the highest and deepest understanding of this world attained by Confucianism over several thousand years of transmission. It represented the possibility of mastering the changes of worldly affairs as one mastered spears and fire. The lofty reach of its intended goal made its contents abstruse, leaving countless Confucian scholars unable to scale its peak.
Throughout the human world, this was perhaps the most difficult book of the Way