I CHING CONFUSION

[jinjuujii]

The Chinese distinguished the North South East West different than us, in some of the Yi translation, are we to interpret is as today's term or the the usage of the ancient.

An example: I read a discussion earlier in this forum about which route is safer. And the YI gave him a "northen" route. are we to take it as SOUTH? or NORTH? Thankx

[peter]

North and South are the same. What has changed is direction of maps. So if Yi Jing tells North you have to read it as North.

[bradford_h]

Peter's right- All that changed was the convention of mapping. The compass needle can be sad to point either way.
But the Chinese had fixed associations to North and South. The Yi only mentions NE (02, 39), SW (02, 39), E (63), W(63) and S (46). (That's from memory, might be an error or omission in there).
The ancients "oriented" South or East because the Sun was so important to being warm.
Politically, South was the direction the king faced to give commands. Facing South meant being bold. North was the direction subjects faced when receiving orders.
Historically, NE was the direction of the old regime's power base, SW was friendlier ground.
North alone isn't mentioned in he Yi.