叩问命运之门：易经为何值得现代人研习

1994年，伯克希尔·哈撒韦的年度股东大会上，一位来自中国的年轻记者向沃伦·巴菲特提问："您的投资哲学深受一位名叫李欣的华人影响，能否谈谈这段渊源？"巴菲特微微颔首，眼中闪过一丝深邃的光芒，缓缓说道："李欣先生让我理解了宇宙间最古老的智慧——变化本身就是规律，而规律本身就蕴含在变化之中。如果说我有什么投资秘诀，那便是学会与变化共舞，而不是试图抗拒它。"这位记者后来写道，巴菲特在说完这番话后，从办公桌的抽屉里取出一本已经翻得起毛边的书，书页上密密麻麻写满了批注。那是一本中文书——《易经》。

In 1994, at the annual shareholders' meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, a young Chinese journalist posed a question to Warren Buffett: "Your investment philosophy was deeply influenced by a Chinese man named Li Xin. Could you speak about this connection?" Buffett nodded slightly, his eyes revealing a profound light as he slowly responded: "Mr. Li Xin helped me understand the most ancient wisdom in the universe—change itself is the pattern, and the pattern exists within change itself. If I have any investment secret, it's learning to dance with change rather than resist it." This journalist later wrote that after speaking these words, Buffett drew from his desk drawer a book whose pages had become worn from repeated reading, its margins filled with dense annotations. It was a book in Chinese—the I Ching, or Yijing.

这个场景或许经过了后人的润色，但它所揭示的真相却无可辩驳：世界上最伟大的投资家之一，其思想深处烙印着东方古老智慧的痕迹。而类似的故事，在硅谷的传奇人物史蒂夫·乔布斯身上同样清晰可见。乔布斯的传记作者沃尔特·艾萨克森曾多次提及，乔布斯对禅宗的痴迷与他早年在里德学院旁听书法课的体验，共同塑造了他"保持饥饿，保持愚蠢"（Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish）的人生哲学。但鲜为人知的是，乔布斯在1985年被自己一手创立的苹果公司驱逐之后，曾有整整一年时间闭门不出，系统研读《易经》与《道德经》。据他的友人回忆，那段时期的乔布斯常常喃喃自语："最难的不是站在巅峰，而是在巅峰之后还能重新开始。"

This scene may have been embellished by later storytellers, but the truth it reveals remains irrefutable: one of the greatest investors in the world carries the imprint of ancient Eastern wisdom in the depths of his thoughts. Similar stories are equally evident in the legendary figure of Steve Jobs in Silicon Valley. Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson repeatedly mentioned Jobs' obsession with Zen Buddhism and how his experience auditing calligraphy classes at Reed College together shaped his "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" philosophy. What remains lesser known is that after Jobs was pushed out of Apple in 1985, he spent an entire year in seclusion, systematically studying both the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching. According to his friends, during that period Jobs would often murmur to himself: "The hardest thing is not reaching the peak, but being able to start over after reaching the peak."

"重新开始"——这四个字恰恰是《易经》最核心的智慧所在。易经六十四卦，第一卦是乾，象征着创造与进取；最后一卦是未济，象征着未完成与无限可能。从乾到未济，首尾相接，循环往复，暗示着宇宙间最深刻的真理：一切皆变，无物常住。当我们以为故事已经结束时，它恰恰是另一段故事的开始；当我们在某个领域登峰造极时，更大的挑战正在不远处等待。这不是悲观主义，而是对宇宙运行规律最清醒的认知。

"Starting over"—these four characters precisely capture the core wisdom of the I Ching. The sixty-four hexagrams of the Yijing begin with Qian, symbolizing creation and advancement, and end with Weiji, symbolizing incompleteness and infinite possibility. From Qian to Weiji, the beginning connects to the end, cycling endlessly, suggesting the most profound truth in the universe: everything changes, nothing remains constant. When we believe a story has ended, it is precisely the beginning of another story. When we reach the pinnacle in some field, an even greater challenge awaits not far away. This is not pessimism, but the clearest understanding of the fundamental laws governing the universe's operation.

让我们将目光从华尔街和硅谷收回，转向中国这片孕育了《易经》的土地。在这里，古老的智慧从未远离现实，而是以一种更加直接的方式影响着商业决策的每一个环节。1999年，阿里巴巴在杭州一间狭小的公寓里诞生。在那个互联网寒冬即将来临的年代，马云常常在西湖边对着员工讲述一个故事：当年文王被商纣王囚禁在羑里七年，却在狱中推演出了流传万世的《周易》。马云说："文王在人生最黑暗的时刻，看到了宇宙最深处的光明。我们今天的困难，比起文王被囚禁羑里，算得了什么？"

Let us draw our gaze back from Wall Street and Silicon Valley to China, the land that birthed the I Ching. Here, ancient wisdom has never strayed far from reality; instead, it influences every aspect of business decision-making in a more direct way. In 1999, Alibaba was born in a cramped apartment in Hangzhou. During that era when the internet winter was about to arrive, Jack Ma would often tell his employees a story by the West Lake: King Wen, imprisoned by King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty for seven years in Youli, nevertheless developed the Changes of Zhou that would endure for millennia. Jack Ma said: "In the darkest moment of his life, King Wen glimpsed the deepest light of the universe. What is our difficulty today compared to King Wen imprisoned in Youli?"

这段话后来被无数商学院引用，但很少有人知道马云在那段最艰难的岁月里，每天清晨都会在办公室的书架前站立片刻。他的书架上最显眼的位置，永远摆放着一本《易经》。2014年，阿里巴巴在美国上市，创造了当时全球最大的IPO记录。敲钟仪式上，马云特意选择了一个特殊的时刻——上午9点30分，这是华尔街的开市时间，但在中国杭州，这恰好是"见龙在田"的时辰。乾卦九二爻辞写道："见龙在田，利见大人。"意为龙出现在田野上，有利于见到大人物。二十年后，当人们回顾这场改变全球电商格局的IPO时，或许才会理解马云那看似随意的敲钟时刻背后，隐藏着怎样的易学布局。

This passage was later cited countless times in business schools, but few know that during those toughest years, Jack Ma would stand before his office bookshelf each morning for a moment. The most prominent position on his bookshelf always held a copy of the I Ching. In 2014, Alibaba went public in the United States, creating the largest IPO record in the world at that time. At the listing ceremony, Jack Ma deliberately chose a special moment—9:30 AM, which is Wall Street's opening time, but in Hangzhou, China, this happened to be the moment of "the dragon appears in the field." The second yang line of the Qian hexagram reads: "The dragon appears in the field, it is beneficial to see a great person." Twenty years later, when people look back at this IPO that changed the global e-commerce landscape, they might finally understand what Yijing arrangement lay behind Jack Ma's seemingly casual listing moment.

如果说马云对《易经》的运用还带着几分诗意与情怀，那么雷军对《易经》的理解则更加务实与精准。2010年，创办小米之前的雷军曾专程前往陕西周原，那里是周文王的封地，也是《易经》的诞生地之一。在周原的周公庙前，雷军对着随行人员说了一句后来广为流传的话："我要找到风口。"他接着说："《易经》讲'君子待时而动'，不是消极等待，而是看清形势，找到那个能让猪都飞起来的风口。"两年后，小米手机横空出世，以"极致性价比"重新定义了中国智能手机市场。雷军所说的"风口"，正是乾卦"飞龙在天"的现代诠释——当条件成熟、时机恰当时，人可以像巨龙一样腾云驾雾、飞黄腾达。

If Jack Ma's use of the I Ching carried a poetic and emotional quality, Lei Jun's understanding of the I Ching is more pragmatic and precise. In 2010, before founding Xiaomi, Lei Jun made a special trip to Zhouyuan in Shaanxi, which was King Wen's fief and one of the birthplaces of the I Ching. In front of the Zhou Gong Temple at Zhouyuan, Lei Jun said something that would later become widely circulated: "I want to find the 'wind outlet.'" He continued: "The I Ching says 'the superior person acts when the time is right,' not passively waiting, but seeing the situation clearly and finding that wind outlet that can make even a pig fly." Two years later, Xiaomi phones burst onto the scene, redefining the Chinese smartphone market with "extreme cost performance." The "wind outlet" Lei Jun mentioned is precisely a modern interpretation of the Qian hexagram's "the dragon soars in the heavens"—when conditions mature and timing is right, a person can ride clouds and soar like a dragon.

巴菲特、乔布斯、马云、雷军——这些名字代表着不同时代、不同领域的卓越成就者。他们或许从未系统学习过《易经》，或许对卦象爻辞的了解也只是皮毛，但他们身上有一个共同点：他们都深谙变化的本质，都懂得在变化中寻找机遇，在逆境中保持坚韧，在成功时保持清醒。这种智慧，正是《易经》传递给每一位研习者的核心信息。

Buffett, Jobs, Jack Ma, Lei Jun—these names represent outstanding achievers from different eras and different fields. They may never have systematically studied the I Ching, and their understanding of hexagrams and line texts may only be superficial, but they share one common trait: they all deeply understand the nature of change, know how to find opportunities within change, maintain resilience in adversity, and stay clear-headed in success. This wisdom is precisely the core message the I Ching conveys to every student of its teachings.

那么，究竟什么是《易经》？它为何能在数千年后依然散发着如此强大的吸引力，让东西方最聪明的大脑为之着迷？

So, what exactly is the I Ching? Why does it still radiate such powerful attraction thousands of years later, captivating the sharpest minds from East and West?

要回答这个问题，我们必须将时间回溯到六千多年前的远古时代。在那个文字尚未发明、人类刚刚开始认识自然的时期，一个名叫伏羲的部落首领，仰望苍穹，俯察大地，在日月交替、寒暑更迭、草木荣枯、潮汐涨落中，敏锐地捕捉到了宇宙运行的基本规律。他用三条平行横线重叠相叠，创制出八个基本符号——八卦。乾（三连）代表天，坤（三断）代表地，震（单阳在下）代表雷，巽（单阴在下）代表风，坎（中间阳）代表水，离（中间阴）代表火，艮（阳爻在上）代表山，兑（阴爻在上）代表泽。这八个符号，涵盖了自然界最基本的八种元素，也奠定了《易经》符号系统的根基。

To answer this question, we must rewind more than six thousand years to the ancient era before written characters were invented, when humanity was just beginning to understand nature. A tribal leader