Dear Subscriber,
Since the launch of the new Flash I Ching a couple of weeks ago, I don't have any big changes to the website to report. What with early-autumn viruses (the micro-organism, that is, not the computer program!), reading for customers, some urgently needed 'cello practice, and a day spent searching Oxford for my Mum's birthday present, somehow the weeks have disappeared. (But she does like her present!)

Hopefully before the next issue there will be a new guest article at the site: a very friendly and readable dream interpretation tutorial from Mick Frankel. I'll put a link to it in the home page 'news' section as soon as it's online.

Enjoy the newsletter - and let me know what you think of it!
I hope to hear from you :)

Warm wishes,
Hilary

Back to table of contents

™DIY Corner: The Learner—

Very many thanks to Marcos, who has sent me a whole stream of 'DIY' questions - far too many for a single newsletter. For someone who describes himself as 'as new-born as a mountain spring' when it comes to the I Ching, he's found some remarkably difficult and thought-provoking questions...

It is indescribably appropriate that the reading Marcos asks about should have begun with Hexagram 4, the Learner!

Q1. How might I have better phrased my question?
I asked the Yi Jing to 'please give me insight into my optimum role as traveller/ pilgrim.' I acknowledge now that the question is unclear. I might have asked instead: What is the purpose of my travelling (Hilary: this is 'travel' as in extended stays abroad) and How should I ideally act? Do you agree?

In fact, I think you're being too harsh on yourself here. The original question was clear and avoids all of the common pitfalls of poorly thought-out questions:

• It doesn't expect the I Ching to answer 'yes' or 'no'
• It deals explicitly with you and what you do, rather than asking what will happen to you (as if you had nothing to do with this!)
• It has the potential to change what you do - actually to make a difference to your life in practice.

Q2. Is the way in front, or behind?
I was pleased to receive the above hexagram. Using the parts of the body associated with the trigrams, I read this as a suggestion that the role of my travelling is to give me a handle (hand) on dealing with the outside world, and a sense of balance (inner ear) on my inner world. (I also thought about the rootlessness of the parasite in the Chinese word Meng and the idea that travelling played a role in delaying any responsibilities of maturity.)

Yi Jing (via Wilhelm) says 'Stopping on the brink of a dangerous abyss...'. As I see it now, this applies well to Hex 39, Jian, Obstruction. Since the direction of movement is from bottom going upwards this seems to relate to where the inner trigram stops (keeps still) in the face of the outer trigram of an abyss (danger). In Meng, danger is not 'in face', rather 'at the back'. Why is the text of Meng apparently reflecting this image? Is the danger perhaps internal? Or does 'stopping' means 'living or staying' (but then it loses its meaning of being calm)?
Also it says '...is a symbol of the folly of youth.' How is stopping on the brink of a dangerous abyss a folly, of youth or otherwise?

Hexagram 4: Mountain over Water	Hexagram 39: Water over Mountain

There are many ways of understanding the inner and outer trigrams, so this is just one suggestion. If they represent inner and outer worlds, then the Learner (an interesting alternative translation for Hexagram 4) is a fluid, changing personality confronted with something solid and immovable. Will this mountain be only an obstacle reducing the inner 'stream' to pointless turbulence, as repeated questions 'muddy the waters', or will the learner be able to use it as a sacred mountain, a meeting-place with truth and a pivot of change?

By contrast, in Hexagram 39 an inwardly self-reliant and possibly obstinate person (the mountain) confronts an outer world fraught with change and struggle (the stream). Both Judgement and Daxiang go beyond the idea of merely stopping and suggest that what you need could be a radical rethink and change of direction.

One of my favourite translations of the Wing that gives this idea of stopping, the Tuanzhuan, is in Alfred Huang's Complete I Ching. For Hexagram 4 he has:

'Unenlightened ignorant.
At the foot of a mountain lies difficulty;
Difficulty makes him stand still.
It is ignorant behaviour.'

'Seeing the danger and knowing to stand still,
Being conscious and wise'

Two final suggestions on the use of trigrams in interpretation. In all likelihood, they were discovered within the Yijing centuries after it was first written. They are certainly a brilliant discovery, and a beautifully simple way to elucidate the hexagrams' inner dynamics, but they're not the primary source of meaning.

Secondly - Bradford Hatcher, who would disagree with me about the history of the trigrams, has a wonderful chapter on them in his huge and scholarly I Ching book. He will still give this away for free to anyone genuinely interested in the subject (and also prepared to give him some feedback for his trouble). If you're interested, send me your email address to pass on to Bradford.

Back to table of contents

™Book Review: Kerson and Rosemary Huang, I Ching—

The introduction
The opening pages of this translation explain the authors' approach. Basically, they seek to recapture the 'original', and have a thoroughly pugnacious attitude to the Wings and the commentary tradition they gave rise to, labelling them 'parasitic' and 'gobbledegook'. Somewhat harsh, IMHO, but at least we know where we stand…

The substantial introduction includes instructions in the three coin and yarrow stalk methods, and sections on the I Ching as poetry, the I Ching as philosophy, oracle bone discoveries, the I Ching and physics, and - the real core of this book's contribution - the myth and legend behind the I Ching. It doesn't just re-iterate the familiar stories of Fu Hsi, King Wen and Confucius, but introduces a host of new characters: Yu the Great, Prince Hai, the beautiful Taisi… And all are illustrated by possible allusions from the I Ching itself. I say 'possible' because, while all the suggestions are intriguing, some are considerably better authenticated than others.

Other sections I particularly enjoyed -
The Huangs' effort to depict a basic philosophy of change present in the I Ching when stripped of its Wings. Parts of this are familiar - others, like the idea that the 'great man' versus 'small man' lines contain ironic social comment - are utterly new to me.

And Kerson's section on the I Ching and physics, with its insight into the role of the I Ching in the life of very secular, scientific modern Chinese people. Physics measures and predicts, Huang says, through idealisation - deciding what isn't relevant to a question, and measuring only what is. I Ching reading is for those times when nothing can be discounted - which he calls 'real life'. Huang also makes it quite clear that he regards physics and the I Ching as fitting in utterly separate categories, and robustly dismisses the pseudo-science that springs up around so much of the 'New Age'.

And yet, the introduction also contains the assertion that the hexagrams made from doubled trigrams are the same when inverted (top to bottom). It's a minor error, true, but not exactly hard to spot. In a book written by a senior physicist, however did it slip through? In this as in some of the textual and interpretative changes, I have the impression that Huang doesn't feel that the standards of rigour he would apply in physics have any place in I Ching scholarship - which is a shame.

The translation
There are many vigorous new ideas here: the Army (7) as a necessity to realise change; the story of the official who came late to Yu's meeting and was executed (the 'latecomer' of Hexagram 8); Hexagram 9 as a new career… What sets it apart, though, are the references to legend and history.

Rediscovering the I Ching as a source of stories to identify with, rather than isolated pieces of moral advice, is a tremendous way to revitalise divination. Whether we'll ever find the legend that each hexagram is 'about' is another matter, of course - the other translations that look for these stories tend very often to find different ones!

The translation is plain, immediate and vivid, the commentary almost equally succinct. No words are wasted on interpretative speculation or subtleties of meaning, but the book's unapologetically radical nature liberates many new possibilities.

Another thing I very much appreciate: the Huangs go back to the early meanings insofar as they can reconstruct them, but still find a basic morality and good sense there that's entirely lacking from, say, Rutt's version. This firmly quashes the idea that the 'original' oracle is somehow unsuitable for modern divination.

I find I've started referring to this book to get a different point of view (secure in the knowledge that it will likely be very different indeed!) - but then comparing it with a more rigorous and scrupulous translation. I've seen too many ideas here that are plain odd ever to use it as my only source for a reading, but it's a very welcome addition to my creaking bookshelf nonetheless.

Is this for you?
The most exciting aspect of this book by far is its discovery of the specific stories behind the text. In the hundreds of I Ching books available, such information is not easy to come by. If you already own Richard Rutt's splendid Zhouyi, you already have almost all of it, tucked away in that book's treasure-trove of notes. If you prefer your I Ching profound and complex rather than simple and snappy, Stephen Karcher has a vastly better, more detailed and imaginative translation full of the myths of the I Ching coming out next year. (I'll keep you informed!) But if you want a slim, manageable and affordable source for the I Ching's hidden stories, along with a very punchy translation, this is the one to buy.

The Huangs' I Ching is available in

• the USA (where you can get it with Stephen Karcher's excellent How to Use the I Ching for under $20!)
• Canada (where the combination offer is with Alfred Huang's Complete I Ching)
• and the UK

Back to table of contents

™Letters to the Editor—