I agree with Western thinking that any number of answers to myquestion were possible, and I certainly cannot assert that anotheranswer would not have been equally significant. However, theanswer received was the first and only one; we know nothing ofother possible answers. It pleased and satisfied me. To askthe same question a second time would have been tactless and soI did not do it: "the master speaks but once." Theheavy-handed pedagogic approach that attempts to fit irrationalphenomena into a preconceived rational pattern is anathema tome. Indeed, such things as this answer should remain as theywere when they first emerged to view, for only then do we knowwhat nature does when left to herself undisturbed by the meddlesomenessof man. One ought not to go to cadavers to study life. Moreover,a repetition of the experiment is impossible, for the simple reasonthat the original situation cannot be reconstructed. Thereforein each instance there is only a first and single answer. The Chinese word ‘I‘ normally translates as ‘change‘ and the book is all about change: exploring and defining the changes that you’re presented with, which may be beyond your current understanding, as well as revealing possibilities for future change, action, or indeed inaction (the latter relating to the Taoist teaching of ‘Wu Wei’). Letting go and embracing choice

To that end, Hinton occasionally translates according to a pictographic reading of the oldest characters, a technique first used by Ezra Pound in his idiosyncratic and wonderful version of the earliest Chinese poetry anthology, the Book of Songs, which he titled The Confucian Odes. For example, Hinton calls Hexagram 32—usually translated as “Endurance” or “Duration” or “Perseverance”—“Moondrift Constancy,” because the character portrays a half-moon fixed in place with a line above and below it. The character for “Observation” becomes “Heron’s-Eye Gaze,” for indeed it has a heron and an eye in it, and nothing watches more closely than a waterbird. Hinton doesn’t do this kind of pictographic reading often, but no doubt Sinologists will be scandalized. By the 11th century, the I Ching was being read as a work of intricate philosophy, as a jumping-off point for examining great metaphysical questions and ethical issues. [65] Cheng Yi, patriarch of the Neo-Confucian Cheng–Zhu school, read the I Ching as a guide to moral perfection. He described the text as a way to for ministers to form honest political factions, root out corruption, and solve problems in government. [66] Reading service – Individual help through Yijing readings: a month of calls for in-depth exploration and insight. I open for readings three or four times per year; you can sign up here to be notified when readings are next available. But how has this reaction come about? Because I threw three smallcoins into the air and let them fall, roll, and come to rest,heads up or tails up as the case might be. This odd fact thata reaction that makes sense arises out of a technique seeminglyexcluding all sense from the outset, is the great achievementof the I Ching. The instance I have just given is notunique; meaningful answers are the rule. Western sinologues anddistinguished Chinese scholars have been at pains to inform methat the I Ching is a collection of obsolete "magicspells." In the course of these conversations my informanthas sometimes admitted having consulted the oracle through a fortuneteller, usually a Taoist priest. This could be "only nonsense"of course. But oddly enough, the answer received apparently coincidedwith the questioner's psychological blind spot remarkably well.Kern, Martin (2010). "Early Chinese literature, Beginnings through Western Han". In Owen, Stephen (ed.). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1: To 1375. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp.1–115. ISBN 978-0-521-11677-0. Professionally appalled by what he considered its idolatry and superstition, Legge nevertheless found himself “gradually brought under a powerful fascination,” and it led him to devise a novel theory of translation. Since Chinese characters were not, he claimed, “representations of words, but symbols of ideas,” therefore “the combination of them in composition is not a representation of what the writer would say, but of what he thinks.” The translator, then, must become “ en rapport” with the author, and enter into a “seeing of mind to mind,” a “participation” in the thoughts of the author that goes beyond what the author merely said. Although the I Ching has no author, Legge’s version is flooded with explanations and clarifications parenthetically inserted into an otherwise literal translation of the text.

The song Chapter 24 from Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, written by Syd Barrett, features lyrics adapted from the I Ching. Nelson, Eric S. (2011). "The Yijing and Philosophy: From Leibniz to Derrida". Journal of Chinese Philosophy. 38 (3): 377–396. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-6253.2011.01661.x.The word zhēn ( 貞, ancient form ) was also used for the verb "divine" in the oracle bones of the late Shang dynasty, which preceded the Zhou. It also carried meanings of being or making upright or correct, and was defined by the Eastern Han scholar Zheng Xuan as "to enquire into the correctness" of a proposed activity. [18] Smith, Richard J. (2012). The "I Ching": A Biography. Princeton University Press. p.200. ISBN 978-1400841622 . Retrieved 17 August 2014. It symbolises the cyclical interconnections of the Universe and is a guide to a personal path of balance and harmony (Wu Wei) that follows natural laws which Western scientific endeavour are slowly awakening to. a b Adler, Joseph A. (April 2017). "Zhu Xi's Commentary on the Xicizhuan 繫辭傳 (Treatise on the Appended Remarks) Appendix of the Yijing 易經 (Scripture of Change)" (PDF).

In the example shown above the particular upper and lower trigrams shown are called ‘Sun’ and ‘Li’ respectively. Together they make up hexagram 37, called ‘Chia Jen’, translated as ‘The Family’. Shifting energy and the importance of changing lines Quantum physics and cosmological research are now driving forward Western theories of ‘interconnection’ and ‘co-existence’ at an exciting pace. I’m heartened to read that ‘unscientific’ Taoist hypotheses on such matters, which were dismissed only a few years ago, are now receiving approval from earlier doubters! Paradoxically there’s no need to study or even understand Taoist philosophy to appreciate or benefit from the teachings of the I Ching. All that’s necessary is the sincerity and aptitude to explore the concept of aligning with natural and Universal laws and the energetic polarities of Yin and Yang.Adler, Joseph A. (2020). The Original Meaning of the Yijing: Commentary on the Scripture of Change [by Zhu Xi]. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-19124-1. In this article I’ve covered the basics of my philosophical interpretation and practice of consulting the I Ching. I intend to expand upon both these aspects in much greater detail in future posts, but for now I hope this introduction has whetted your appetite sufficiently that you seek out and dust off that old copy of the I Ching that may have been sitting neglected on your bookshelf or that of a nearby bookstore! I.G. Bearden (17 May 2010). "Bohr family crest". Niels Bohr Institute (University of Copenhagen). Archived from the original on 29 October 2016 . Retrieved 7 June 2010.

To highlight the danger of hubris, the authors of Tuan zhuan彖傳 (Commentary on the Decision, one of the Ten Wings), Archaeological evidence shows that Zhou dynasty divination was grounded in cleromancy, the production of seemingly random numbers to determine divine intent. [24] The Zhou yi provided a guide to cleromancy that used the stalks of the yarrow plant, but it is not known how the yarrow stalks became numbers, or how specific lines were chosen from the line readings. [25] In the hexagrams, broken lines were used as shorthand for the numbers 6 ( 六) and 8 ( 八), and solid lines were shorthand for values of 7 ( 七) and 9 ( 九). The Great Commentary contains a late classic description of a process where various numerological operations are performed on a bundle of 50 stalks, leaving remainders of 6 to 9. [26] Like the Zhou yi itself, yarrow stalk divination dates to the Western Zhou period, although its modern form is a reconstruction. [27] True quiet means keeping still when the time has come to keep still, and going forward when the time has come to go forward. In this way rest and movement are in agreement with the demands of the time, and thus there is light in life. The film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra uses a red hexagram tattoo on the right forearm for the Storm Shadow ninja clan.

The name Zhou yi literally means the "changes" ( 易; Yì) of the Zhou dynasty. The "changes" involved have been interpreted as the transformations of hexagrams, of their lines, or of the numbers obtained from the divination. [8] Feng Youlan proposed that the word for "changes" originally meant "easy", as in a form of divination easier than the oracle bones, but there is little evidence for this. There is also an ancient folk etymology that sees the character for "changes" as containing the sun and moon, the cycle of the day. Modern Sinologists believe the character to be derived either from an image of the sun emerging from clouds, or from the content of a vessel being changed into another. [9]