Yi Jing
The Yi Jing ("Book of Changes" or "Classic of Changes" (often spelled I Ching)) is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts, and is notable for describing an ancient system of cosmology, philosophy and divination that is at the heart of many Chinese cultural beliefs. While the text has existed in some form for over two thousand years, it truly entered philosophical currency when the Neo-Confucians began to use it as a source for an indigenous Chinese metaphysical system (combating the encroachment of the cosmologically-advanced Buddhist tradition).
Though the Yi Jing is often cryptic to the point of obscurity (especially when translated from the Classical Chinese), the text (and the active commentarial tradition surrounding it) is an important exemplar of the earliest cosmic and philosophical thought in the Orient. The text features passages that presage the development of many doctrines fundamental to overall Chinese worldview, including the related ideas of Qi, the five elements (wu xing), and the mutually generative opposition of yin and yang. Moreover, the text also stresses, through its emphasis on change, the fundamentally interconnected and contingent nature of material existence - a philosophical perspective that is a virtual constant in Chinese thought.
However, in addition to its evident cosmological importance, the text remains an ever present part of daily life as well, with people of all social classes having their fortunes told using the ancient hexagram method (or a variant upon it) defined in the Yi Jing.
Implications of the title
- 易 (yì), when used as an adjective, means "easy" or "simple", while as a verb it implies "to change".
- 經 (jīng) here means "classic (text)", which is derived from the character's original meaning ("regularity" or "persistency"), implying that the text describes an Ultimate Way that will not change over time.
The complex of meanings contained in this two-word title are profound. They have (at least) three implications:
- Simplicity - the root of the substance. The fundamental law underlying everything in the universe is utterly plain and simple, no matter how abstruse or complex some things may appear to be.
- Variability - the use of the substance. Everything in the universe is continually changing. By comprehending this one may realize the importance of flexibility in life and may thus cultivate the proper attitude for dealing with a multiplicity of diverse situations.
- Persistency - the essence of the substance. While everything in the universe seems to be changing, among the changing tides there is a persistent principle, a central rule, which does not vary with space and time.[1]
As evidenced by the profound ideas conveyed by the title itself, it is practically impossible to arrive at an unbiased translation that could preserve the original concepts intact - especially given the conceptual malleability inherent in the classical Chinese idiom. However, given the simplest meanings of each of these characters, it seems reasonable to follow convention and refer to the text as the "Book (or Classic) of Changes," where change is understood as a universally constant principle describing the fundamental operation of the world.
Textual History
Traditional/Mythic View
In traditional Chinese historiography, the principles of the Yi Jing were said to have originated with the mythical sage king Fu Xi(伏羲 Fú Xī). This legendary ruler, who was thought to have lived from the 2852 B.C.E.-2738 B.C.E., was reputed to have had the 8 trigrams (八卦 bā gùa) revealed to him supernaturally. For this discovery, he was (and still is) esteemed as a culture hero. By the time of the legendary King Yu (禹 Yǔ), the eight trigrams had supposedly been developed into 64 hexagrams (六十四卦 lìu shí sì gùa), a structure that corresponds with the received version of the text. However, it was not until the time of King Wu of Zhou, who toppled the Shang Dynasty, that the most perspicacious interpretation of these symbols was derived. His brother Zhou Gong Dan (the famed "Duke of Zhou") is said to have written a text entitled Yao Ci (爻辭 yáo cí, "Explanation of Horizontal Lines") to clarify the significance of each horizontal line in each hexagram. It was not until then that the whole content of I Ching was understood, which subsequently allowed the philosophically potent ideas contained therein to profoundly influence the literature and government administration of the Zhou Dynasty (1122 B.C.E. - 256 B.C.E.).
Later, during the time of Spring and Autumn (722 B.C.E. - 481 B.C.E.), Confucius is credited with the writing of the Shi Yi (十翼 shí yì, "Ten Wings"), the earliest surviving commentaries on the Yi Jing. By the time of Han Wu Di (漢武帝 Hàn Wǔ Dì) of the Western Han Dynasty (circa 200 B.C.E.), Shi Yi was often called Yi Zhuan (易傳 yì zhùan, "Commentary on the I Ching"), and together with the I Ching they composed Zhou Yi (周易 zhōu yì, "Changes of Zhou"). These combined texts became canonized, to the extent that all later views were seen as explanations only, not exhausting their fecund source material.
Western ("Modernist") view
In the past fifty years, a "modernist" history of the Yi Jing has been gradually developing, based on source criticism and research into Shang and Zhou dynasty oracle bones, as well as Zhou bronze inscriptions and other sources. These reconstructions, as exemplified in S. J. Marshall's The Mandate of Heaven: Hidden History in the I Ching and Richard Rutt's Zhouyi: The Book of Changes, question the traditional chronology as improbable. Those researching the text have been helped immensely by the discovery of intact Han dynasty era tombs in Mawangdui near Changsha, Hunan province. One of the tombs contained more or less complete 2nd century B.C.E. texts of the Yi Jing, the Dao De Jing and other works, which are mostly similar, yet in some cases significantly divergent from the "received," or traditional, texts previously seen as being canonical.
The tomb texts include additional, previously unknown commentaries on the I Ching, some of which are attributed to Confucius. All of the Mawangdui texts are many centuries older than the earliest known attestations of the texts in question. When talking about the evolution of the Book of Changes, therefore, the modernists contend that it is important to distinguish between the traditional history assigned to texts such as the I Ching (felt to be anachronistic by the Modernists), ascriptions in commentaries that have themselves been canonized over the centuries along with their subjects, and the more recent scholarly history, bolstered by modern linguistic textual criticism and archaeology. Many hold that these perspectives are not necessarily mutually exclusive, though, for instance, many modernist scholars doubt the actual existence of Fuxi, think Confucius had nothing to do with the Book of Changes, and contend that the hexagrams predated the trigrams. Modern textual scholarship, comparing poetic usage and formulaic phrasing in this book with that in ancient bronze inscriptions, has shown that the text cannot be attributed to King Wen or Zhou Gong, and that it likely was not compiled until the late Western Zhou, perhaps ca. the late 9th century B.C.E. Likewise, rather than being seen as the work of one or several legendary or historical figures, the core divinatory text is now thought to be an accretion of Western Zhou divinatory concepts. As for the traditionally attribution of the Shi Yi commentaries to Confucius, scholars from the time of the 11th century C.E. scholar Ouyang Xiu onward have doubted this, based on textual analysis, and modern scholars date most of them to the late Warring States period, with the some section perhaps being as late as the Western Han period.
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Philosophy
Gradations of binary expression based on yin and yang — old yang, old yin, young yang or young yin (see the divination paragraph below) — are what the hexagrams are built from. Yin and yang, while common expressions associated with many schools known from classical Chinese culture, are especially associated with the Taoists.
Another view holds that the I Ching is primarily a Confucianist ethical or philosophical document. This view is based upon the following:
- The Wings or Appendices are attributed to Confucius.
- The study of the I Ching was required as part of the Civil Service Exams. These exams only studied Confucianist texts.
- It is one of the Five Confucian Classics.
- It does not appear in any surviving editions of the Dao Zheng.
- The major commentaries were written by Confucianists, or Neo-Confucianists.
Both views may be seen to show that the I Ching was at the heart of Chinese thought, serving as a common ground for the Confucian and Taoist schools. Partly forgotten due to the rise of Chinese Buddhism during the Tang dynasty, the I Ching returned to the attention of scholars during the Song dynasty. This was concomitant with the reassessment of Confucianism by Confucians in the light of Taoist and Buddhist metaphysics, and is known in the West as Neo-Confucianism. The book, unquestionably an ancient Chinese scripture, helped Song Confucian thinkers to synthesize Buddhist and Taoist cosmologies with Confucian and Mencian ethics. The end product was a new cosmogony that could be linked to the so-called "lost Tao" of Confucius and Mencius.
Binary sequence
In his article Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire (1703) Gottfried Leibniz writes that he has found in the hexagrams a base for claiming the universality of the binary numeral system. He takes the layout of the combinatorial exercise found in the hexagrams to represent binary sequences, so that ¦¦¦¦¦¦ would correspond to the binary sequence 000000 and ¦¦¦¦¦| would be 000001, and so forth.
The binary arrangement of hexagrams was developed by the famous Chinese scholar and philosopher Shao Yung (a neo-Confucian and Taoist) in the 11th century. He displayed it in two different formats, a circle, and a rectangular block. Thus, he clearly understood the sequence represented a logical progression of values. However, while it is true that these sequences do represent the values 0 through 63 in a binary display, there is no evidence that Shao understood that the numbers could be used in computations such as addition or subtraction.
Structure
The text of the I Ching is a set of predictions represented by a set of 64 abstract line arrangements called hexagrams (卦 guà). Although just the numbers 1 to 64 could have been used, the ancient Chinese instead used a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines (爻 yáo). Each line is either Yang (an unbroken, or solid line), or Yin (broken, an open line with a gap in the centre). With six such lines stacked from bottom to top there are 26 or 64 possible combinations, and thus 64 hexagrams represented.
The hexagram diagram is conceptually subdivided into two three-line arrangements called trigrams (卦 guà). There are 23, hence 8, possible trigrams. The traditional view was that the hexagrams were a later development and resulted from combining the two trigrams. However, in the earliest relevant archaeological evidence, groups of numerical symbols on many Western Zhou bronzes and a very few Shang oracle bones, such groups already usually appear in sets of six. A few have been found in sets of three numbers, but these are somewhat later. Note also that these numerical sets greatly predate the groups of broken and unbroken lines, leading modern scholars to doubt the mythical early attributions of the hexagram system (see, e.g., Shaugnessy 1993).
Each hexagram represents a description of a state or process. When a hexagram is cast using one of the traditional processes of divination with I Ching, each of the yin or yang lines will be indicated as either moving (that is, changing), or fixed (that is, unchanging). Moving (also sometimes called "old", or "unstable") lines will change to their opposites, that is "young" lines of the other type — old yang becoming young yin, and old yin becoming young yang.
The oldest method for casting the hexagrams, using yarrow stalks, is a biased random number generator, so the possible answers are not equiprobable. While the probability of getting young yin or young yang is equal, the probability of getting old yang is three times greater than old yin. The yarrow stalk method was gradually replaced during the Han Dynasty by the three coins method. Using this method, the imbalance in generating old ying and old yang was eliminated. However, there is no theoretical basis for indicating what should be the optimal probability basis of the old lines versus the young lines. Of course, the whole idea behind this system of divination is that the oracle will select the appropriate answer anyway, regardless of the probabilities.
There have been several arrangements of the trigrams and hexagrams over the ages. The bā gùa is a circular arrangement of the trigrams, traditionally printed on a mirror, or disk. According to legend, Fu Hsi found the bā gùa on the scales of a tortoise's back. They function rather like a magic square, with the four axes summing to the same value (e.g., using 0 and 1 to represent yin and yang, 000 + 111 = 111, 101 + 010 = 111, etc.).
The King Wen sequence is the traditional sequence of the hexagrams used in most contemporary editions of the book.
Trigrams
The solid line represents yang, the creative principle. The open line represents yin, the receptive principle. These principles are also represented in a common circular symbol (☯), known as taijitu (太極圖), but more commonly known in the west as the yin-yang (陰陽) diagram, expressing the idea of complementarity of changes: when Yang is at top, Yin is increasing, and the reverse.
In the following lists, the trigrams and hexagrams are represented using a common textual convention, horizontally from left-to-right, using '|' for yang and '¦' for yin, rather than the traditional bottom-to-top. In a more modern usage, the numbers 0 and 1 can also be used to represent yin and yang, being read left-to-right.
There are eight possible trigrams (八卦 bāguà):
| Trigram Figure | Binary Value | Name | Nature | Direction | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||| (☰) | 111 | Force (乾 qián) | heaven (天) | northwest |
| 2 | ||¦ (☱) | 110 | Open (兌 duì) | swamp (澤) | west |
| 3 | |¦| (☲) | 101 | Radiance (離 lí) | fire (火) | south |
| 4 | |¦¦ (☳) | 100 | Shake (震 zhèn) | thunder (雷) | east |
| 5 | ¦|| (☴) | 011 | Ground (巽 xùn) | wind (風) | southeast |
| 6 | ¦|¦ (☵) | 010 | Gorge (坎 kǎn) | water (水) | north |
| 7 | ¦¦| (☶) | 001 | Bound (艮 gèn) | mountain (山) | northeast |
| 8 | ¦¦¦ (☷) | 000 | Field (坤 kūn) | earth (地) | southwest |
The first three lines of the hexagram, called the lower trigram, are seen as the inner aspect of the change that is occurring. The upper trigram (the last three lines of the hexagram), is the outer aspect. The change described is thus the dynamic of the inner (personal) aspect relating to the outer (external) situation. Thus, hexagram 04 ¦|¦¦¦| Enveloping, is composed of the inner trigram ¦|¦ Gorge, relating to the outer trigram ¦¦| Bound.
Hexagram Lookup Table
|
Upper → Lower ↓ |
☰ Ch'ien Heaven |
☳ Chên Thunder |
☵ K'an Water |
☶ Kên Mountain |
☷ K'un Earth |
☴ Sun Wind |
☲ Li Flame |
☱ Tui Swamp |
| ||| Ch'ien Heaven |
1 | 34 | 5 | 26 | 11 | 9 | 14 | 43 |
| |¦¦ Chên Thunder |
25 | 51 | 3 | 27 | 24 | 42 | 21 | 17 |
| ¦|¦ K'an Water |
6 | 40 | 29 | 4 | 7 | 59 | 64 | 47 |
| ¦¦| Kên Mountain |
33 | 62 | 39 | 52 | 15 | 53 | 56 | 31 |
| ¦¦¦ K'un Earth |
12 | 16 | 8 | 23 | 2 | 20 | 35 | 45 |
|
¦|| |
44 | 32 | 48 | 18 | 46 | 57 | 50 | 28 |
|
|¦| |
13 | 55 | 63 | 22 | 36 | 37 | 30 | 49 |
|
||¦ |
10 | 54 | 60 | 41 | 19 | 61 | 38 | 58 |
The hexagrams
The text of the I Ching describes each of the 64 hexagrams, and later scholars added commentaries and analyses of each one; these have been subsumed into the text comprising the I Ching.
Each hexagram's common translation is accompanied by the corresponding R. Wilhelm translation, which is the source for the Unicode names.
|
|
The hexagrams, though, are mere mnemonics for the philosophical concepts embodied in each one. The philosophy centres around the ideas of balance through opposites and acceptance of change.
Divination
The I Ching has long been used as an oracle and many different ways coexist to "cast" a reading, i.e., a hexagram, with its dynamic relationship to others.
Influence on Western culture
The I Ching has influenced countless Chinese philosophers, artists and even businessmen throughout history. In more recent times, several Western artists and thinkers have used it.
Translations
- Anthony, Carol K. & Moog, Hanna. I Ching: The Oracle of the Cosmic Way. Stow, Massachusetts: Anthony Publishing Company, Inc., 2002. ISBN 1-890764-00-0. The publisher's internet address is www.ichingoracle.com.
- Benson, Robert G. 2003. I Ching for a New Age: The Book of Answers for Changing Times. New York: Square One Publishers.
- Blofeld, J. 1965. The Book of Changes: A New Translation of the Ancient Chinese I Ching. New York: E. P. Dutton.
- Huang, A. 1998. The Complete I Ching: the Definitive Translation From the Taoist Master Alfred Huang. Rochester, N.Y: Inner Traditions.
- Hua-Ching Ni. 1999. I Ching: The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth. (2nd edition). Los Angeles: Seven Star Communications.
- Legge, J. 1964. I Ching: Book of Changes. With introduction and study guide by Ch'u Chai and Winberg Chai. New York: Citadel Press.
- I Ching, The Classic of Changes, The first English translation of the newly discovered second-century B.C.E. Mawangdui texts by Edward L. Shaughnessy, Ballantine, 1996. ISBN 0-345-36243-8.
- Wilhelm, R. & Baynes, C., 1967. The I Ching or Book of Changes, With forward by Carl Jung. 3rd. ed., Bollingen Series XIX. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press (1st ed. 1950).
- Lynn, Richard J. 1994, The Classic of Changes, A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08294-0
- Wei, Wu 2005. "I Ching, The Book Of Answers" Power Press ISBN 0-943015-41-3 New revised edition, interpreted by Wu Wei. Appears to follow the Wilhelm and Baynes translation real well, leaving out the sometimes confusing mechanics. Would be handy to use in conjunction with Wilhelm and Baynes when divining for the lay person.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Herbie Brennan, 1973. The Syncronistic Barometer, Analog, August 1973.
- Marshall, S. 2001. The Mandate of Heaven: Hidden History in the I Ching. Columbia University Press
- Rutt, R. 1996. Zhouyi: The Book of Changes. Curzon Press.
- Reifler, Samuel. 1974. "I Ching: A New Interpretation for Modern Times." Bantam New Age Books. ISBN 0-553-27873-8
- Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1993). “I ching 易經 (Chou I 周易)”, pp.216-228 in Loewe, Michael (ed.). Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, (Early China Special Monograph Series No. 2), Society for the Study of Early China, and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
External links
- I CHING Bookmarks - Directory of I Ching sites
- The I Ching on the Net includes full text translations of the I Ching, commentaries and other links.
- I Ching at the Open Directory Project
- The Key to the I Ching - An article about understanding hexagrams through schema theory.
- Text of Book I of Wilhelm/Baynes translation 3rd. ed., Bollingen Series XIX (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967, 1st ed. 1950)
- History of Chue Style Six Kinships Hexagram Yi Jing
- Dedicated website to study I Ching (en and fr)
Template:I Ching
| The Four Books and Five Classics (四書五經) | |
|---|---|
| The Four Books: |
The Great Learning (大學) | The Doctrine of the Mean (中庸) | The Analects (論語) | The Mencius (孟子) |
| The Five Classics: |
Classic of Changes (易經) | Classic of Poetry (詩經) | Classic of Rites (禮記) | Classic of History (書經) | Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋) |
|
This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. |
Catregory: Religion
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- ↑ (易一名而含三義：易簡一也；變易二也；不易三也。 commented on by Zheng Xuan (鄭玄 zhèng xúan) in his writings Critique of I Ching (易贊 yì zàn) and Commentary on I Ching (易論 yì lùn) of Eastern Han Dynasty).
