11 replies to this topic

[General_Zhaoyun]

For those who know chinese, you might often heard of the chinese emperor being referred to as the "Jiu Wu Zhi Zun 九五之尊", which seems to be translated as "the respected of the Nine Five".

["Jiu Wu 九五" refers to the emperor's position, and is literally translated as "Nine Five"

"Zhi Zun 之尊" means "of the respected"]

Now, why is the Emperor referred to as the "Nine Five" (Jiu Wu 九五)? What does "Jiu Wu" actually mean? What is the more appropriate translation for this idiom?

Edited by General_Zhaoyun, 16 June 2005 - 10:06 PM.

[General_Zhaoyun]

After checking my chinese dictionary, I found that this idiom originated from the classic I-Ching or Yi Jing [Book of Change]

《易·乾》：“九五，飞龙在天，利见大人。”
Yi-Qian : Nine-Five, The flying dragon in heaven, at its disposal to meet the great person. (uhm.... not sure if my translation is correct)

[Yun]

The translation should be something like:

"The hexagram Qian: the Nine-Five line represents the dragon in flight; an advantageous divination for meeting important persons."

'Qian' is the first of the 64 hexagrams in the Yijing, represented by six horizontal unbroken lines and reflecting the strongest yang energy among the 64. Hence it is used to symbolise heaven and the emperor. The fifth (middle) line is called the Nine-Five line, because nine is the largest odd number within the first ten numbers, and the odd numbers are considered to be yang. As the Nine-Five line is the most auspicious line in the Qian hexagram, the emperor is referred to as the Lord of the Nine-Five.

This Chinese-language article is my source for the above: http://www.huaxia.co...c/00264856.html

Since I'm hardly versed in the complexities of the Yijing, I'd welcome clarifications or corrections from our Yijing experts here.

[Klamath]

《易·乾》：“九五，飞龙在天，利见大人。”
Yi-Qian : Nine-Five, The flying dragon in heaven, at its disposal to meet the great person. (uhm.... not sure if my translation is correct)

见=现， 古文通假字

It also can be translated like this:
Nine-Five(The name of the bo 驳）, The dragon is flying in heaven, it's time to see a great person appear (born).

[General_Zhaoyun]

The translation should be something like:

"The hexagram Qian: the Nine-Five line represents the dragon in flight; an advantageous divination for meeting important persons."

'Qian' is the first of the 64 hexagrams in the Yijing, represented by six horizontal unbroken lines and reflecting the strongest yang energy among the 64. Hence it is used to symbolise heaven and the emperor. The fifth (middle) line is called the Nine-Five line, because nine is the largest odd number within the first ten numbers, and the odd numbers are considered to be yang. As the Nine-Five line is the most auspicious line in the Qian hexagram, the emperor is referred to as the Lord of the Nine-Five.

This Chinese-language article is my source for the above: http://www.huaxia.co...c/00264856.html

Since I'm hardly versed in the complexities of the Yijing, I'd welcome clarifications or corrections from our Yijing experts here.

Thanks Yun for the explanation and the link to the chinese article. It really answers my query. Basically I should put forth again what's exactly explained in that article.

Why is the Emperor referred to as the 'Jiu Wu Zhi Zun" (the respected nine-five)?
And what does nine-five (Jiu Wu) mean?

There are two explanations:

Explanation 1 - Basic Ancient Chinese Number Interpretation

In ancient chinese number system, those odd numbers are referred to as the Yang numbers while those even numbers are referred to as the Yin numbers. "Nine" is the highest odd number and "Five" is the middle of the Yang Number series, so naturally, "nine-five" is used to referred to the 'highest", if not, the most power person, the Emperor.

Explanation 2 - Yi-Jing's interpretation

In I-Ching or Yi-Jing (book of change), there existed the so-called "8 Diagrams (more specifically Trigrams )" known in chinese as Bagua 八卦. Each Diagram has a particular name and is represented by 6 lines (known in chinese as Yao 爻). There are altogether 8 diagrams with different 6-lines combination (some broken and some unbroken).

These 8 diagrams can be combined with one another to form new different hexagrams. 8 x 8 = 64 different combinations = 64 hexagrams. Each of these 64 hexagrams represent a phenomenon and meaning in the world and is used for divinations.

Now, "Qian 乾" hexagram is the 1st of the 64 hexagrams and it happens to be a symbol of heaven, thus it is used to represent the "Emperor". The Qian hexagram is made up of 6 lines, and the 5th line (counting from bottom to top) is called "Nine-Five" line ("Nine" represents Yang as in the "Yang" number series, while "Five" represents the "fifth" line). The "Nine-Five" line is the best and most auspicious line in the Qian hexagram, and Qian hexagram is the 1st in the 64 hexagrams. This would mean the "Nine-Five" line is the "no. 1 line" in the 384 lines of the 64 hexagrams, and is thus a representation of the highest person, the Emperor.

[Klamath]

Here is an link that hold different explanation about it:

http://cul.sina.com....9-10/81019.html

........
或问：既然“上九”最高，“九五”次之，那么以帝王之尊，为何不称“上九之尊”，而谓之 “九五之尊”？盖吾国思想，谓“满招损，谦受益”(《尚书》)，“知雄守雌，知白守黑”(《老子》)，“过犹不及”(《论语》)，“虚则剞，中则正，满则覆”(《荀子》)，“全则必缺，极则必反，盈则必亏”(《吕氏春秋》)，“盛之有衰，生之有死”(《晏子春秋》)，“昌必有衰，兴必有废”(《论衡》)。以《易》言之，则是“复极必剥”、“泰极必否”。故《易·乾》“上九”之爻辞曰“亢龙有悔”，《易·文言》曰：“亢龙有悔，穷之灾也。亢之为言也，知进而不知退，知存而不知亡，知得而不知丧。知进退存亡，而不失其正者，其唯圣人乎？”用俗话来说，就是“爬得越高，跌得越惨”。

　　“九五”本非示尊之意，而是示退之意。“天子”者，天之子也。天最高，可居上九之位，即使贵为天子，也只能屈居九五之位。
.......

It's hard to translate.

[Yun]

Essentially, this version says that the topmost line in the Qian hexagram (called the Upper-Nine 上九 line) is actually the most prestigious, but the interpretation of the hexagram is "亢龙有悔", which means "the haughty dragon will have regrets" (i.e. pride goes before a fall). Hence the emperor chose to be identified with the second-best Nine-Five line to show his humility, letting Heaven take the Upper-Nine position since he is only the Son of Heaven.

BTW, I wonder if everyone noticed that the 18 Dragon-subduing Palms (降龙十八掌) martial arts moves in Jin Yong's novels are each named after one of these hexagram interpretations? E.g. 亢龙有悔, 飞龙在天.

[Klamath]

BTW, I wonder if everyone noticed that the 18 Dragon-subduing Palms (降龙十八掌) martial arts moves in Jin Yong's novels are each named after one of these hexagram interpretations? E.g. 亢龙有悔, 飞龙在天.

It seems there are like "龙战于野(坤），鸿渐于陆（渐），“， Jin Yong had pick so many out from <<Yijing>>. Funny to see that the movie of Stephen Chou had invented a “龙的传人” into the Dragon-subduing Palms.

[Yun]

Another interesting thing is that Singapore TV is currently screening a rather silly Hong Kong comedy series about the Yongzheng emperor getting transported forward in time and having to switch to a life as an office employee in the early 21st century. Silly, but the title of the show is a stroke of genius: 九五之尊, a play on the phrase to mean "Lord of the 9 to 5"

[ahbian]

Silly, but the title of the show is a stroke of genius: 九五之尊, a play on the phrase to mean "Lord of the 9 to 5" 

heh, i didn't realize that. it was silly how they protrayed luu si niang and her relationship with yongzheng.

[青文景武剑]

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

5=center
9=greatest

[青文景武剑]

i saw the cover of that movie, it looks pretty funny and stupid