What is the I Ching?
I = Change
Ching = Important Book
The I Ching is the Book of Change.
This spelling is from the old Western way of spelling Chinese characters in English.
The official Chinese spelling is Yi Jing.
What is it?
The I Ching (Yi Jing) is made up of 64 Hexagrams.
Hex = 6
Gram = an image.
An image of six lines:
䷀
A hexagram is made up of two Trigrams - images with three lines:
☷
A line can be solid, or divided:
⚊
⚋
A solid line represents Yang-ness (something with energy).
A divided line represents Yin-ness (something with capacity).
Change comes about when energy and capacity interact.
The two come from one source.
The solid and divided lines were an evolution - they used to be drawn differently.
They used numbers that looked similar to this, and evolved as solid and broken over time.
The full meaning of what the numbers represented is not entirely clear.
There are 8 possible Trigrams.
They represent Elemental Forces:
- Heaven ☰ Pure energy.
- Earth ☷ Pure capacity.
- Marsh ☱ Open, fertile receptivity of energy.
- Mountain ☶ Containment of capacity.
- Thunder ☳ Active movement of energy through capacity. Vibration through time.
- Wind ☴ Receptive capacity that allows energy to equalize through space.
- Fire ☲ Expansion of energy from a clear center. Light.
- Water ☵ Gathering of energy as though into a pit. Mass.
When two of these Elemental Forces relate, different types of Change results.
There are 64 combinations of these 8 Elemental Forces.
These are the 64 Hexagrams:
䷀䷁䷂䷃䷄䷅䷆䷇䷈䷉䷊䷋䷌䷍䷎䷏
䷐䷑䷒䷓䷔䷕䷖䷗䷘䷙䷚䷛䷜䷝䷞䷟
䷠䷡䷢䷣䷤䷥䷦䷧䷨䷩䷪䷫䷬䷭䷮䷯
䷰䷱䷲䷳䷴䷵䷶䷷䷸䷹䷺䷻䷼䷽䷾䷿
They represent 64 types of change.
The I Ching, or Book of Change, has an entry for each Hexagram, and advice for each of the six lines.
Each line has a relationship to change. When its role in change activates, advice is given for this by the I Ching. To help the reader make a decision about how to navigate change.
There are two main schools of thought:
The Classical School, which treats the lines as activating from stillness, and suggests we have agency over change. Lines relate to each other up and down the hexagram, such that energy and capacity try to meet and create changes.
The Changing Line School, which treats the lines as changing from yang to yin, or yin to yang. This means that when a line changes, a new hexagram is created. More than one line can change at once, so one hexagram can change to any of the other 63 hexagrams.
In both schools, the first hexagram shows the overall type of change. And the active or changing lines show the type of change we should pay attention to within it. In the Classical School, we then look at how those lines are positioned in relationship to change, to determine the meaning. In the Changing Line School, we can also look at what the lines represent to us, for this is where the change is. But we can also look at the new hexagram that is created, and see it as some sort of overall result. A 'future' hexagram that shows what this change leads to in the future.
The Classical School tends to show up in the original Zhou Yi text, and the 10 Commentaries, or "Ten Wings" that were added in the early Han period, circa ~300-0 BCE. It is used in the commentaries of Wang Bi, Cheng Yi, and Ouyi Zhuxi.
The Changing Line School began showing up in the late Han period in various forms and evolved into mainstream use over time, making significant progress with Gao Heng's popular theories in the 1900's. Today it is the practice that is found in most books.
Which is correct? It is a matter of perspective. Wang Bi's introduction has a criticism of the Changing Hexagram method that was emerging in his time. Saying that when people could not understand the words of the text, they would invent new methods and ideas for understanding them. However, the words of the text are deliberately cryptic and it is not easy to understand them. So it is natural for people to try to work out other ways to explore the principle of change.
Thus, in addition to these main schools of thought, there are many branches.
How is it used?
The I Ching represents a measured way of looking at the totality of change.
So it can be used to study the nature of change, in any way that it applies to us.
We can look at it to study the lines that relate to a particular phenomena of change, to see how that change is created from different parts coming together.
Because there are many cycles of change found in nature, we can start looking at how these changes flow through natural cycles with regularity. Thus the I Ching is found used in many calendar systems.
And the I Ching is often used to help people determine their way forward through change. This is done via divination.
Divination with the I Ching is similar to divination with a deck of Tarot cards.
There are various ways that people use.
An ancient way looked at the cracks formed in bones.
Yarrow Stalks
The way used most often in the Zhou Dynasty era used 50 small sticks. This is called Yarrow Stalk Divination. Its method was lost until Zhu Xi rediscovered it from the writings in one of the 10 Commentaries.
- In Yarrow Stalk Divination, the stalks are divided 3 times and counted.
- The result shows if a line is yang, yin, active/changing yang, or active/changing yin.
- This is repeated 6 times, to create the six lines of a hexagram.
Coins
A way that became more common than the Yarrow Stalk Method is the Coin Method.
The Coin Method flips 3 coins to determine each line. 6 times, for 6 lines.
How the Lines Come Together in a Divination
- The first line is the bottom line, which represents the beginning.
- Then the second, third, fourth, fifth, and top line.
- The top line represents the end, or limit.
Probability
Sometimes all of the lines are inactive, or unchanging.
And sometimes one or more line is active, or changing.
In both Yarrow Stalk and Coin methods, there is a higher chance of getting an inactive/unchanging line, than an active/changing line.
With the Yarrow Stalk Method, it is more probable to get an active/changing yang line, than an active/changing yin line.
This is because in fertility, yang energy activates/changes more quickly than yin energy. Yin energy takes longer to be able to be open to receive.
With the coin method, active/changing lines have an equal probability.
There are other ways of doing divination as well.
Marbles
A bag of marbles, stones, etc that have four different colors can also be used. This way one can set the desired probability, to match either the Coin or Yarrow Stalk Methods, and then draw a marble and put it back six times, for six lines.
Cards
Some people use decks of cards.
Drawing two cards allows one to arrive at a set of changing lines. However this means that it is not possible to arrive at an unchanging hexagram. And the probability of getting many changing lines is much higher than with the other methods.
One could also only draw one card, for an unchanging hexagram. Perhaps an overall image of change. However, often it is not the overall hexagram that is important to look at, but the lines within it. For they show what specific type of change is being highlighted for us in an overall situation.
Apps
Computer Applications can be used to make things quick and easy. They can be programmed to use many different calculations to create a hexagram. Some just use one click. Others use six, but match to the coin or yarrow stalk probabilities. Others can be designed to mimic the act of tossing the coins or dividing the yarrow stalks.
The nice thing about apps is that they often have a text box to write a question in. And a way to save that question in a journal. Then one can refer to it later.
Whatever the method one chooses to use, it is nice to write down both the question and the answer, so that one remembers exactly what was asked, and what was answered.
Interpretation
When it comes to interpretation, there are many schools of thought.
Often the lines themselves are difficult for people to understand.
So some will focus instead on the energies of the trigrams and how they are coming together.
Over the millennia, many many ways have been created.
About the Text
The Zhou Yi is generally what is referred to as the original core text.
It contains a statement about each hexagram. This is referred to as the Tuan, or Judgement.
And a statement about each line. Called a Line Statement. Yao Ci.
Most translations will have this. But they also add in some lines from the 10 Commentaries, as well as adding their own commentaries. Often one will need to read the introduction carefully to understand what part is what.
Sometimes people want to only work with the original text, however this is difficult. The original Zhou Yi is cryptic, and the commentaries exist to help explain it. It can be very difficult to work just from the original text without having first studied the whole system for a long time. Often people will work from several different translations and commentaries to get different ideas and understandings. Every person has a slightly different take.
It is also important to understand that this is an old and partially lost language that is being translated. Many of the core characters are not well understood, and they are written in something like a code. We figure out the meaning of the words, by coming to understand the principles of change. We come to understand the principles of change, by studying change.
And finally, the Zhou Yi itself was but one of several texts now lost that were used in the ancient period that stretched from the Zhou Dynasty through to the early Han Dynasty.
In the Shang Dynasty, it is likely that a completely different text, or way of understanding change, was used.
So can we even truly say what the origin of this study of change was?
Change is the only constant.
