The Lines and Who They Represent

[richlovejoy]

Just a general question - In one of the posts I read that the 5th line of a hexagram refers to the king (or nowadays) the boss. Is this correct? And if so, does anyone know who the other lines in a hexagram represent?

Thank you!

[lightofdarkness]

6 - sage
5 - king
4 - minister
3 - local lord
2 - supervisor
1 - worker

You can also get a generic feel in reading the hexagrams:

6 - 23
5 - 08
4 - 16
3 - 15
2 - 07
1 - 24

Thus line position 5 maps to hex 08. Hex 08 represents passive, unconditional attraction - as someone who comes to the court, the court does not go to them.

Lines 2 and 5 deal with 'control' issues and so hex 07 and hex 08 - and when we focus on BOTH (and so yang lines in positions 2 AND 5) reflect the containment/control nature of hexagram 29.

[lightofdarkness]

We can interpret each line as a wave form and each hexagram as a sum, a superposition, of those waves to elicit 'meaning' - see:

http://members.iimetro.com.au/~lofting/myweb/icstruct.html

Chris.

[lightofdarkness]

... or the direct link:

http://members.iimetro.com.au/~lofting/myweb/WaveInterpret.html

[heylise]

http://www.anton-heyboer.org/i_ching/structures/index.html
Here you can find the meanings of lines from several sources.

LiSe

[richlovejoy]

Thank you all very much!

[peter]

I also found a "cosmological" Chinese scheme:

6. God-spirits (shen) (like devas, I suppose).
5. Immortals (xian) (holy men).
4. Wise men (sheng) (culture heroes).
3. Genii (founders of traditions).
2. Common people.
1. Demons, imps (gui) (unsettled souls).

[hilary]

Wow - hadn't heard that one. Where did you find it?

[peter]

You'll laugh - in my Russian translation of "Understanding the Zhou Yi" by Richard Wilhelm (I'm not sure if it is full; with 2 articles by Helmut Wilhelm in the second part), more specifically - in translator's comments to the explanation of the Li trigram. I'll try to know where did translator find it.

[lightofdarkness]

Also note commonly used line relationships in TWO forms:

Form A:

1-6
2-5
3-4

1-6 - brings out a focus on 27 where we combined 'beginning' of something with quality control (mountain in TOP position - discernment aka blockage doubled) Change these two lines in ANY hexagram will give you a hexagram describing the 'skeletal' form of the original hexagram.
(this is called XOR-ing of hexagrams - see the discussion in:

http://members.iimetro.com.au/~lofting/myweb/icstruct.html )

2-5 - brings out a focus on 29 and so issues of containment/control. Change these two lines in any hexagram will give you how the original hexagram expresses containment/control.

3-4 - brings out a focus on 62 and so a focus on issues of unconditional loyalty, promote traditions etc Change these two lines in any hexagram will bring out the '62-ness' of the original hexagram.

Form B:

1-4 - brings out issues of 51
2-5 - see above
3-6 - brings out issues of 52

etc
etc

There are 'traditional' perspectives on line relationships, the more common with the last set of associations above.

Your cosmic associations still reflect the flow from 'general' to 'particular' or from 'beginning to end' or from 'darkness to light', raw to refined, vague to crisp etc etc
IOW there are LOTS of labels possible that tie the general meanings to some local context.

If you review the generic meanings of the hexagrams associated with each line (as in my previous post) you can get the generic 'vibe' of the line position in general.

E.g. 07 maps to line 2 and deals with uniformity, be it a formal army or some collective. In your list this associated with the 'common people'. In the list of line 2 being 'supervisor' the association is to the methodology of the army (rank etc ensures order)
..and so on.

(07 shares space with hexagram 04 and reflects an overall focus on socialisation etc. 07 is unconditional and reflects the imposition from external sources some 'standards' of some form. 04 is conditional and the analogy is to socialisation of the young etc and so issues of teaching etc - here education is to socialise to 'mask' (and so the opposite of 04, 49, is about unmasking - note the opposite of 07 is 13 where the collective is on like-minded people rather than of thinking being imposed from outside a la the 'army' way etc)

Chris.

[lightofdarkness]

BTW, based on your cosmological mappings,

The core architecture of things, of establishing moral perspectives, of taking in 'good' vs 'evil', is determined by 1 and 6 and so the dynamics of gods and demons.

The core containment/control issues are determined by 2 and 5 and so the dynamic of immortals vs common people.

The core loyalties to the collective etc are determined by 3 and 4 - the wise men vs the founders of traditions (where 62 is about exaggerating traditions to try and hold the collective together unconditionally - as compared to the loyalty issues of 56 that are more conditional in perspective)

Chris.