sparhawk
February 1st, 2007, 11:27 PM
A somewhat funny and sarcastic travel account that touches the I Ching in China. Matt is a layman in the Yi but see how well he can describe the way it seems to work and what he finds to be its uncannily high rate of accuracy. Also, he has an interesting take on how the I Ching is being used and restricted by the Chinese government.
PS: If the site asks you to Login to see the whole article, use username 'sparhawk' (password is 'iching') or register with your own.
PPS: hmmm, it seem the whole article was taken down for some reason...
PPPS: The link appears to be working again... 02/02/07
Anyhoo, the impetus for the journey is that Jack wishes to join a society of practitioners of the I Ching, a system of divination based on ancient Chinese texts themselves based in Taoism. It is one of the cornerstones of Chinese culture.(1) By studying the stars and tossing coins (though it gets a fair bit more complicated than ‘heads or tails’) one can use I Ching to determine the answer to a question. You can discover the contents of a mysterious box, solve a murder mystery or gain advice on a course of action. Ancient generals used it to decide whether and how to wage war and allegedly the modern day government of China still use it. I read later that ‘they’ restrict access to information on the I Ching (especially on the internet as the Chinese govt is quite fond of making certain sites unavailable through the hilariously named Great Firewall Of China) for fear that the general public might discover its power. Sounds backward but the American government supposedly does the same thing with some forms of hypnosis and cold reading. “Ah, but those are scientifically valid” you say, “I Ching is a lot of astrological Harry Potter hooey.” Perhaps it is, but its followers strenuously deny that it is magic and it becomes much more compelling when you have it explained as a mathematical system or science, though being a cynic I have to admit that the only thing that got me interested was its uncannily high rate of accuracy. According to the scientific explanation though, there is an actual energy or force, call it Qi, call it Tao, call it Barry, that exists within every particle of creation, binding everything together. The situation of any one part of existence affects its Qi and this effects all the Qi everywhere else. Therefore, if you know what you’re doing, you can use I Ching to examine the Qi right in front of you and use this information to make a correct deduction about absolutely anything else anywhere in the universe. I may write about this more fully in the future as I become impressed with how well it works, or I may one day place it in the same mental drawer I put my personal theory of retro-phrenology in (2). It’s interesting to note though that the morning of the trip, the I Ching advises Jack not to join the association. He does so anyway on Cheri’s insistence and soon has cause to regret it. (http://www.varsity.co.nz/travel/matt-in-china-the-ballad-of-wudang-mountain-part-1-of-3.html)
L
PS: If the site asks you to Login to see the whole article, use username 'sparhawk' (password is 'iching') or register with your own.
PPS: hmmm, it seem the whole article was taken down for some reason...
PPPS: The link appears to be working again... 02/02/07
Anyhoo, the impetus for the journey is that Jack wishes to join a society of practitioners of the I Ching, a system of divination based on ancient Chinese texts themselves based in Taoism. It is one of the cornerstones of Chinese culture.(1) By studying the stars and tossing coins (though it gets a fair bit more complicated than ‘heads or tails’) one can use I Ching to determine the answer to a question. You can discover the contents of a mysterious box, solve a murder mystery or gain advice on a course of action. Ancient generals used it to decide whether and how to wage war and allegedly the modern day government of China still use it. I read later that ‘they’ restrict access to information on the I Ching (especially on the internet as the Chinese govt is quite fond of making certain sites unavailable through the hilariously named Great Firewall Of China) for fear that the general public might discover its power. Sounds backward but the American government supposedly does the same thing with some forms of hypnosis and cold reading. “Ah, but those are scientifically valid” you say, “I Ching is a lot of astrological Harry Potter hooey.” Perhaps it is, but its followers strenuously deny that it is magic and it becomes much more compelling when you have it explained as a mathematical system or science, though being a cynic I have to admit that the only thing that got me interested was its uncannily high rate of accuracy. According to the scientific explanation though, there is an actual energy or force, call it Qi, call it Tao, call it Barry, that exists within every particle of creation, binding everything together. The situation of any one part of existence affects its Qi and this effects all the Qi everywhere else. Therefore, if you know what you’re doing, you can use I Ching to examine the Qi right in front of you and use this information to make a correct deduction about absolutely anything else anywhere in the universe. I may write about this more fully in the future as I become impressed with how well it works, or I may one day place it in the same mental drawer I put my personal theory of retro-phrenology in (2). It’s interesting to note though that the morning of the trip, the I Ching advises Jack not to join the association. He does so anyway on Cheri’s insistence and soon has cause to regret it. (http://www.varsity.co.nz/travel/matt-in-china-the-ballad-of-wudang-mountain-part-1-of-3.html)
L