The I Ching is one of the oldest books in the world. It is a book of divination that has been used throughout Chinese history. It is important to Taoists and Confucians especially. The book embodies a traditional wisdom and has an uncanny ability to reflect human situations in ways that convey wise advice.
Hexagrams
The book is arranged as a catalogue of hexagrams. Each hexagram consists of a mixture of broken and unbroken lines. The unbroken lines represent yang energy and the broken lines represent yin energy. With six lines, any of which can be either yin or yang, there are sixty four possible permutations of line combinations, hence sixty four hexagrams.
Each hexagram has a name and a meaning. Over the centuries more meanings and commentaries have been added. The book is thus a stimulus to ongoing development as well as being a repository of age old lore.
Yin-Yang Dynamic Balance
The basic idea is that each hexagram represents the balance and configuration of yin-yang in a given human situation. It is, therefore, a way of accessing the will of the gods - the tao of Heaven. Part of the sophistication of the oracle is that when one consults it one gets not just one hexagram, but two, one representing the present situation and the other suggesting where this is heading. This is not deterministic. Even if things are heading in a certain direction wise/skilful or unwise/unskilful action will still modify how it actually turns out. The oracle is simply saying, “This is how it is and if you keep going like this, such and such is where you will end up,” which might or might not be a good place.
Another important dynamic is that which exists within each hexagram itself. The lines build from the bottom. Every situation is itself in this instant, but it is also a pattern of layers relating to different points in time, a bit like strata in rock which each relate to different prehistorical epochs. This means that each hexagram is just about to turn into another as a new line enters at the bottom and the top line disappears. Further, the more lines there are of one type in a hexagram, the more likely it becomes that the next line entering is going to be of the other kind. So, at the extreme, a hexagram of all yang lines is on the point of turning into one with one yin line at the bottom. An all yang hexagram looks very strong, but when there is a yin line entering it looks weak. There is, therefore, a moral something like “Pride comes before a fall” built in. Similarly, “The meek shall inherit the Earth” can be seen in the fact that an all yin hexagram is just about to suck in a series of yang lines.
Consulting the Oracle
You can probably already discern that there is an almost infinite amount that one could say about the I Ching and its philosophy, but nothing really substitutes for making use of it in one’s life. When one does so one should adopt a particular right attitude.
There are various ways of consulting the oracle. The two most commonly used are a complicated traditional method involving the use of yarrow stalks and a simpler method using the heads and tails of coins. However a person deeply versed in the I Ching can “see” hexagrams in natural phenomena or in contingent situations.
Firstly, one should treat the work with a reverence appropriate to its antiquity and status. Consulting the book is consulting the gods. One should not do so lightly or frivolously. Also, the oracle is no use unless one has a real question. By “real” i mean that it is a question that is important in one’s life and to which one genuinely does not have an answer. The gods are not going to co-operate with somebody who is trying to trick them or who has already made his mind up.
Best results come from questions that are not too vague. Sometimes the answer received is clearly “favourable” or “not favourable”, but sometimes a favourable outcome is conditional upon some form of right action. However, sometimes the oracle advises one to make a prudent retreat.
Trigrams
Each hexagram can be considered as consisting of two trigrams. The complete set of trigrams only has eight members, being the eight possible permutations of yin and yang lines in a set of three. There are thus a number of thought systems built up upon the trigram set. In a way these are mini versions of the I Ching.
The trigrams can, however, also add a dimension of meaning in the interpretation of a hexagram. Not only is there a lower and an upper trigram in each hexagram, but one can also “see” four successive trigrams “moving through” the hexagram from the bottom to the top.
Relation to the Tao Te Ching
The I Ching, or some version of it, is certainly older than the Tao te Ching and we can sense connections between the philosophies implicit in the two books, notwithstanding the rather cryptic style of each of them.
In chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching we find the passage
“Tao begets unity. Unity begets duality, duality begets trinity and trinity begets the myriad creatures.”
One might, based on Western thinking, or even on a basic idea of yin and yang, suppose that establishing duality would be sufficient to provide a basis for multiplicity, so why does the verse say that it is three that begets myriad? This is surely a reference to the trigrams that then give rise to the hexagrams. In duality there is still a balance, that can be paralysing. In a threesome, however, there is always a deciding vote and a shifting dynamic. Duality presents a rather static state, but once there is three things are going to happen. Change is afoot. We can see from this that the Chinese system is one in which change and dynamism are inherent in all situations.
To Western eyes it may seem that one has to be active because nothing will happen unless you do something. That might seem obvious, as when King Lear says, “Nothing comes of nothing.” However, it is Lear who ends up the tragic figure. His failure to appreciate the “nothing” of Cordelia, the only figure in the play who really exhibits the Taoist straight-heartedness, leads to his loss of everything, madness and broken heart. To the Chinese of old this would seem more obvious. Patience brings its own reward and those who too stongly seek for something end up with nothing. Things do not change because we make them do so. They change in their own way. They follow the way of the gods. The wise person who finds himself in an adverse situation, wanders and waits. Times will change. The I Ching throws light upon this process of change and helps to impart the wisdom to know when to go forward and when to retire, when to seize the day and when to show forbearance and be self-effacing.
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Replies
No, David, I didn't play around with it long enough to see if it could be done for free.
David Brazier said:
Thanks, Steve. But have you managed to download it without signing up and paying money? I think that I have most of the information in a different work, but it would be nice to see Govinda's book. On Amazon it costs about 80 euro! Reading it in the small print on the site is quite difficult.
I google'd the book and the link (which I copied and pasted here) is:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/213968649/The-Inner-Structure-of-the-I-Ch...
It seems the initial "de" (at least in the U.S.) was the problem.
Not at all David: You have two options, for members and for people who are not. I am sorry that it is so difficult...
Hope You feel much better! I wish You a very nice weekend!
Looks like you have to be a subscribing member.
In my case it always works
I've just tried it again and this is what i got... "Sorry, that page doesn't exist. Please check the link and try again."
Francoise Guillot said:
David Brazier said:
Thanks, Juan - yes, he evidently had great respect for it.
Juan de Dios López-Rienda said:
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