What is meant with ‘chance’ in the context in which it used on this website is found in the several synonyms of it as well as in words related to the concept:
- coincidental
- unintended
- venture
- probability
- opening
- opportunity
- prospect
- destiny
- spontaneous
- random
- unconscious
With these definitions in mind we could describe ‘chance’ as ‘the spontaneous opening of an opportunity, a prospect of a destiny that lies unconsciously hidden in the situation that one is facing.’ This may appear like a silly play with words, and yet it does show the potential as well as the limits that ‘chance’ has when you actively use it: it can show you gateways to new options that you had not considered before, revealing paths to goals that were not visible when you faced the situation with your will and rational thoughts. But it does not make changes or do the hard work for you, all it does is facilitate awareness and make breakthroughs possible.
The relevance of chance in culture and history
There is not one culture in which chance, the meaning and significance of unintentional incidents, accidents and other a-causal events did not have a bearing on its foundation. The importance that was given to heavenly and earthly signs in cultures that originated in Babylonia, Mesopotamia, China, India, Africa, Egypt, Africa, North and South-America etc. is documented by many historians and anthropologists (see for instance A. Annus (ed.), Divination and interpretation of signs in the ancient world). Signs and portents shaped countries, dynasties and the lives of families and individuals: collapsing walls, birds flying astray from their normal path, animals with strange patterns or other remarkable outer features, a drunken traveler speaking in riddles – this all had meanings that needed to be unveiled:
If the Mottled Flying-Fish is seen by people, it is an omen of a bountiful harvest throughout the world.
The Eminent River flows forth from Willow Mountain southwest into the Red River. In it can be found much white jade and fine grains of cinnabar. There is a beast here whose form resembles a pig with spurs on its feet. It makes a sound like a dog barking. It is called the Lili. If seen by people, it is an omen that there will be much public earthwork construction in the district.
- Richard E. Strassberg, A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from ‘The Guideways Through Mountains And Seas’, p. 51; 90
Most often these signs were understood through a religious context, associated with one or more divinities or departed ancestors that used chance as a mediator between them and their adherents or descendants. But the ancestors did not act haphazardly. Their influence was nothing more but a response to the deeds of mankind, and mankind was solely responsible for the occurrence of omens and portents:
Lord Li asked Shen Xu, “Could it be that bad omens exist?” Shen Xu responded, “When a man resents something, his life-force flares up and seizes upon it. Bad omens arise from people. When there are no rifts among people, such omens will not arise on their own. When people reject the constant principles, bad omens arise. And that is why there are bad omens.”
- Durrant (tr.), Zuozhuan, p. 173. See also Mu-Chou Poo, In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion, p. 44-48
Man creates chance and chance acts through uncontrolled incidents that we can experience and give meaning. The most important factor for the effect of chance is the human part: we not only determine the value of chance but also create it and react on it:
On the 5th Jan., 29 B. C. there was an eclipse of the sun and an earthquake in the Wei-yang Palace. An imperial edict said: “When the prince of men is not virtuous, a reproach appears in Heaven or Earth, and visitations and prodigies happen frequently, in order to inform him that he is not governing rightly. Our experience in governing has been only for a brief time, so that we have not been correct in our acts, hence on the day mou-shen (i.e. 5th Jan.) there was an eclipse of the sun and an earthquake. We are greatly dismayed.”
– Hans Bielenstein: The Portents In The Ts’ien-Han-Shu, in Bulletin of the Museum of Far
Eastern Antiquities 22, p. 135.
Omens and portents acted as agents for chance and change. No event was meaningless, every incident that jumped out of the ordinary causal string of events contained a message that wanted to be noticed. It is this principle of chance and change that forms the engine which puts the Book of Changes into action. Through chance you obtain the most objective view of your situation or process, a view untainted by prejudice, experience or opinions. The more than two-thousand five-hundred year old symbols of the Yijing are the most unbiased teachers that you will ever meet.