I Ching Chart: Princeton University Press

[sparhawk]

Wow, I am humbled and flattered by Adele Aldridge (http://www.ichingmeditations.com/). One never knows what a casual comment can do. The merit is all her's. I wish I had that artistic aptitude.

A little over a year ago I posted a circular chart of the Hexagrams. I was inspired to do this by a comment Luis Andrade made regarding a question about the Hexagrams in a previous post. Well I have to thank Luis again. I received a request from Princeton University Press to include this chart in a book on math to be published in October, 2011. The book is by Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham, titled Magical Mathematics: Revealing the Secrets behind Great Card Tricks of the World. In this book, the authors include a section on the I Ching and its relation to mathematics. (http://www.ichingmeditations.com/?p=1986)

[peterg]

I wonder is there a correct way to portray the light and dark of the yin yang symbol or does it matter?

[sparhawk]

I wonder is there a correct way to portray the light and dark of the yin yang symbol or does it matter?

Not really, IMHO. My personal taste is to interpret yin/yang as spin and direction, no colors.

BTW Peter, in the spirit of full disclosure and honesty, I passed your probability charts to Adele a while back (she was asking me about that precise issue and your charts were hot from the oven... :) ) with a subtle hint to "beautify" them. She replied:

I opened the file - see that it was in Acrobat.

OHMYGOD! No wonder you mentioned beautification.

The data is perfect though... :rofl:

Who knows, she may find the time to do so someday. :)

[peterg]

I'm glad you passed them on. I like the idea of beautification.I have no skill in that area myself.

On the subject of probability ,it's worth mentioning that the probability of the Relating Hexagram is quite easy to work out :
Asymmetry. 1357 over 16. It's 10 over 16 for a yin line
and 6 over 16 for a yang line.
Symmetry. 2266 over 16 or 1133 over 8. It's 1 over 2 for both yin and yang lines.
There is a long way to do this and the answer is the same.

This means that for the relating hexagram there is a heavy bias towards yin lines in the case of asymmetry, and in symmetry all lines and hexagrams are equally probable.
In yarrow , symmetry is easily achieved by making the working bundle 48 instead of 49.

All the best
pg

[sparhawk]

Hi Peter,

It would be good to note that you call "symmetric" the coins method and "asymmetric" the yarrow method.

[peterg]

I wonder is there a correct way to portray the light and dark of the yin yang symbol or does it matter?

What I really meant was ' which way is up ' This link adresses the question :http://www.fengshui-magazine.com/taichi.htm