| The I Ching Or Book of Changes |
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The I Ching is written from the viewpoint of the enlightened sage who needs to re-find the Tao flow in his life. The Book uses the yin and yang idea in the form of 2 types of lines. The yang line is solid, while the yin line is broken. Traditionally, Fu Xi (pronounced foo shee) is considered the originator of the I Ching (also known as the Yi Jing or Zhou Yi). According to this tradition, Fu Xi had the arrangement of the kua (or “trigrams”) of the I Ching revealed to him supernaturally. This arrangement precedes the compilation of the I Ching during the Zhou dynasty. He is said to have discovered the arrangement in the form of markings on the back of a mythical dragon-horse (sometimes said to be a turtle) that emerged from the river Luo. He constructed his answers in the form of sixty-four figures. Following the law of eternal change, the lines are always in motion, always moving upward. As a new line enters from the bottom, it pushes the five lines above it upward, thereby displacing the line at the top. The movement is always in time to the rhythm of the universal heartbeat, always mirroring the universe itself. The kua and their lines represent every conceivable condition in heaven and on earth with all their states of change. Each of the sixty-four kua can change into one another through the movement of one or more of the six lines that form the kua. The transformation of the changing line to its opposite results in a supplementary reading to the original kua formed. |
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There are 4,096 possible combinations (64 x 64), which are said to represent every possible condition in heaven and on earth. Each of the sixty-four kua, with their combined total of 384 lines, represent a situation or condition. Each situation or condition contains the six stages of its own evolution: About to come into being |
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The kua not only represent every conceivable situation and condition possible, but also include all their states of change. |
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The eight trigrams are: ☰ ”Heaven” ☱ ”Lake/Marsh” ☲ ”Fire” ☳ ”Thunder” ☴ ”Wind” ☵ ”Water” ☶ ”Mountain” ☷ ”Earth” “In the beginning there was as yet no moral or social order. Men knew their mothers only, not their fathers. When hungry, they searched for food; when satisfied, they threw away the remnants. They devoured their food hide and hair, drank the blood, and clad themselves in skins and rushes. Then came Fu Xi and looked upward and contemplated the images in the heavens, and looked downward and contemplated the occurrences on earth. He united man and wife, regulated the five stages of change, and laid down the laws of humanity. He devised the eight trigrams, in order to gain mastery over the world.” – Ban Gu, Baihu tongyi
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