I Ching
- Alternative meaning: I Ching (monk)
The I Ching (易經 pinyin yì jīng) is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. Alternative romanizations of the name include I Jing, Yi Ching, Yi King. Translations of its name into English include the "Book of Changes" or more accurately "Classic of Change".
It describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy which is at the heart of Chinese cultural beliefs. The philosophy centres around the ideas of balance through opposites and acceptance of change. See the Philosophy section below for more.
The book - or a part of it - is also known as Zhou Yi (周易 zhōu yì; alternately Chou I), the "Changes of Zhou", in ancient Chinese literature which indicates the book was based on work from Zhou Dynasty. See the History section below for more.
In the Western cultures, it is known mostly as a system of divination.
Structure The I Ching symbolism is embodied in a set of 64 abstract line arrangements called hexagrams (卦 guà). These are each composed of six stacked horizontal lines (爻 yáo); each line is either Yang (unbroken, a solid line), or Yin (broken, an open line with a gap in the centre). With six such lines stacked from bottom to top in each hexagram, there are 26 or sixty-four possible combinations and thus sixty-four hexagrams.
Each hexagram is considered to be composed of two three-line arrangement called trigrams (卦 guà). There are 23, hence 8, possible trigrams.
Each hexagram represents a state, a process, a change happening at the present moment. When an hexagram is cast using one of the processes of Divination with I Ching, each of the lines may be indicated as moving or unmoving. Moving ("old", or "unstable") lines have a polarity in the process of reversal; a full divination will consider the hexagram that would result from the lines changing polarity.
The traditional methods for casting the hexagrams use biased random number generation procedures, so the 64 hexagrams are not equiprobable.
There are a few formal arrangements of the trigrams and hexagrams with a traditional context. The bā gùa is a circular arrangement of the trigrams, traditionally printed on a mirror, or disk. Legend states that Fu Hsi found the bā gùa on the scales of a tortoise's back.
The King Wen sequence is considered the authoritative arrangement of the hexagrams.
Components of Hexagrams The solid line represents yang, the masculine, creative principle. The open line represents yin, the feminine, 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. Note, though, that the normal diagrammatic representation is to show the lines stacked vertically, from bottom to top (i.e. to visualize the actual trigrams or hexagrams, rotate the text counterclockwise 90°).
There are eight possible trigrams (八卦 bā guà).
- ||| Force (☰ 乾 qián) = heaven (天)
- ::: Field (☷ 坤 kūn) = earth (地)
- |:: Shake (☳ 震 zhèn) = thunder (雷)
- :|: Gorge (☵ 坎 kǎn) = water (水)
- ::| Bound (☶ 艮 gèn) = mountain (山)
- :|| Ground (☴ 巽 xùn) = wind (風)
- |:| Radiance (☲ 離 lí) = fire (火)
- ||: Open (☱ 兌 duì) = swamp (澤)
The first three lines, the lower trigram, are seen as the inner aspect of the change that is occurring. The upper trigram, the last three lines, are 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.
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.
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.
UnicodeThe hexagram symbols range from U+4DC0 – U+4DFF (19904 – 19967) in Unicode.
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 it 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 have been written by Confucianists, or Neo-Confucianists.
Both views may be seen to show that I Ching was at the heart of Chinese thought, serving as a common ground for the Confucian and Taoist schools. Partly forgotten because of the rise of Chinese Buddhism during the Tang dynasty, the I Ching came back to the attention of many scholars during the Song dynasty, concomitant with the reassessment of Confucianism by Confucians in the light of Taoist and Buddhist metaphysics, 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 into a new kind of cosmogony that could be linked to the so-called "lost Tao" of Confucius and Mencius.
History Traditionally it was believed that the principles of the I Ching originated with the legendary Fu Hsi. In this respect he is seen as an early culture hero, one of earliest legendary rulers of China (traditional dates 2852 BC-2738 BC), reputed to have had the trigrams (八卦 bā gùa) revealed to him supernaturally. Before the Zhou Dynasty, there was other literature on the "Change" philosophy, e.g. Lian Shan Yi (『連山易』 Lián Shān Yì) and Gui Cang Yi (『歸藏易』 Gūi Cáng Yì). The philosophy heavily influenced the literature and government administration of the Zhou Dynasty. It was refined over time and I Ching was completed around the time of Han Wu Di (漢武帝 Hàn Wǔ Dì) during the Han Dynasty (circa 200 BC).
In the past 50 years a "Modernist" history of the I Ching has been emerging, based on context criticism and research into Shang and Zhou dynasty oracle bones, as well as Zhou bronze inscriptions and other sources (see below). These reconstructions are dealt with in growing number of books, such as "The Mandate of Heaven: Hidden History in the I Ching", by S J Marshall, Columbia University Press, 2001, and Richard Rutt's "Zhouyi: The Book of Changes" from Curzon Press, 1996. Scholarly PhDs dealing with the new view of the Book of Changes include the dissertations by Richard Kunst and Edward Shaughnessy. These and other scholars have been helped immensely by the discovery in the 1970s by Chinese archaeologists of intact Han dynasty era tombs in Mawangdui near Changsha, Hunan province. One of the tombs contained more or less complete 2nd century BC texts of the I Ching, the Dao De Jing and other works, which are mostly similar yet in some ways diverge significantly from the "received" or traditional texts preserved by the chances of history. The tomb texts include additional commentaries on the I Ching, previously unknown, and apparently written as if they were meant to be 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 therefore of the Book of Changes 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), assignations in commentaries which have themselves been canonized over the centuries along with their subjects, and the more recent scholarly history aided by modern linguistic textual criticism and archaeology. Many feel that the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but, for instance, many Modernist scholars doubt the actual existence of Fuxi, think Confucius had nothing to do with the Book of Changes, and that the hexagrams came before the trigrams.
Divination
The I Ching has long been used as an oracle and many different ways coexist to "cast" an hexagram with its dynamic relationship to others.
See main article : Divination with I Ching.
Symbolism The Flag of South Korea contains the T'ai Chi symbol (yin and yang circling and merging into one another) surrounded by four of the eight trigrams, representing all the various states of existence.
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 have used it.
- John Cage - experimental musician who used the I Ching to decide the arrangements of many of his compositions.
- Philip K. Dick - science fiction writer who used the I Ching to decide some of the plot movements in The Man in the High Castle. Furthermore, the I Ching is referenced several times through the plot of the book, and is consulted by certain characters at key plot points in the book.
External links and references
- I CHING Bookmarks Includes full text translations of the I Ching
- Text Links: I Ching readings Includes full text translations of the I Ching and more
- Is your web browser capable of displaying the trigram symbols used on this page? Check out this Unicode test page.
- Yijing Dao: Calling Crane in the Shade A website by S J Marshall, author of "The Mandate of Heaven: Hidden History in the I Ching". Reviews of books on the Yijing (I Ching), a complete 'Introduction to Yijing' for beginners, an accurate transcription of the 1935 Harvard-Yenching Zhouyi in pinyin and Chinese, original work on hexagram sequences including many animations, and an archive of scans of I Ching diagrams from old Chinese books.
- Yijing in vertical traditional Chinese with English or French translation and ability to cast an hexagram.
- I Ching, The Classic of Changes, The first English translation of the newly discovered second-century B.C. Mawangdui texts by Edward L. Shaughnessy, Ballantine, 1996. ISBN 0345362438
- I Ching discussion forum A discussion group on I ching.
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