Why look for the stories behind the hexagrams?

To start with something uncontentious: the people who wrote the Yi had wisdom and intelligence (as well as mind-boggling genius), and were well-informed, and had good reasons for their choices. One of the things they appear to have been well-informed about is their culture’s myth, legend and recent history – and this awareness is infused throughout the Yi, from little passing historical allusions (the ‘neighbour in the East’ of 63.5 being the Shang, for instance) to huge mythical and legendary narratives pregnant with significance.
Of course, we are a few thousand years too late to share this awareness, but every glimpse we can get opens up new meanings – and, most importantly for me, is wonderfully helpful in divination. It means the diviner isn’t limited to reading and interpreting the text, but can tell the story behind it.
Stories are a big part of how we think, especially how we think about and understand ourselves. They work in a quite different way – on a quite different level of awareness – from concepts:
‘You are hiding away for fear of getting hurt.’
‘Let me think about this. Yes, that could be right.’
‘You are like Prince Ji, who lived under a corrupt regime with a murderous tyrant; he concealed his insight by pretending to be insane.’
‘Oh…‘
The story gives us a new way to see the situation, to understand and experience it. This is not at all the same thing as merely getting a new idea about it. Concepts give us something new to think about; stories give us a new way to think, and that transforms our experience. There’s a reason why religions spring from stories not rulebooks, and why wise teachers tell parables.

How to recognise an intrinsic story?

Connecting a story with a hexagram, or using a hexagram’s unfolding line texts to tell a story, is easy. Recognising an original reference that’s truly part of the Yi, and hence part of the answer it’s giving you, is not. How to recognise the intrinsic stories and tell them apart from the noise of random association?
I can think of three criteria to look for:

1. A clear reference in the text: is it really there?
2. Resonance with the message and theme of the text: does it fit?
3. Experience in readings: how does this work, in practice, as a story-to-think-with?

1. A clear reference in the text

This is a big one. There has to be something in the words of the text that refers clearly to this story – as 36.5 identifies Prince Ji by name. Without this… well, the hexagrams are all broad and general enough to lend themselves to the telling of a whole host of stories, and many translators simply assert that this hexagram is about such-and-such a story with, frankly, no supporting evidence worth mentioning.
Two who do this constantly: Alfred Huang, in The Complete I Ching, and Joseph Yu in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the I Ching. Thus Hexagram 28…
Huang: ‘This gua tells us that after the Zhou dynasty was established, its territory was greatly expanded, and administrative work was extensive.’
Yu: ‘This hexagram describes how the Duke of Zhou handled the rebellion led by his brothers, the Three Monitors.’
Hexagram 47 for Huang is about an expedition led by Wen; for Yu, it’s about the Duke of Zhou & his troops being trapped by rebel tribes.
…and so on. Both are honourable representatives of Chinese tradition, yet they almost never agree on their choice of historical reference – which is telling.
It’s not a bad thing that they associate hexagrams with history. Hexagrams are well-adapted as tools for telling stories, and telling stories with hexagrams – whether personal anecdotes, fiction, myth or legend –* is an excellent way to relate to them more deeply. A brilliant example of this: Will Buckingham’s Sixty-Four Chance Pieces *– a short story for every hexagram, based on its imagery and language and atmosphere and tradition, capturing something of its essence. Imagination-food, inspiration for readings, new ways of seeing, sources of synchronicity, and simply beautifully written stories. Enjoy (in the UK, too).
Hexagram stories can be brilliant – including as a way into a reading. Commentators asserting without evidence that this is the*story (/history) of the hexagram – not so brilliant, especially not as a basis for a reading. You can’t say, ‘Yi says your situation is like this one…’ and make this the foundation of your understanding – not when Yi says nothing of the kind.
(For a well-grounded work associating hexagrams with Zhou history – one that’s helpful and thought-provoking in divination – I’d recommend Freeman Crouch’s Chameleon Book (which you can find at Google books as well as Amazon) It still isn’t gospel, though!)

2) Resonance with the message and theme of the text

This might be even more significant than #1. A reference that isn’t in harmony with the basic message of the reading is nothing but an academic curiosity – interesting, of course, but not something that will help anyone. It also raises questions about its validity. This book was written as an oracle; each hexagram and line has a message to convey. Usually there are many layers of text, structural connection and allusion combining to convey it. If a reference is clearly present, then it’s worth spending time trying to understand why it is part of the oracle – how it fits, what it adds. But if it doesn’t resonate with the overall meaning… then I would consider that to be evidence that it isn’t real.
An example of a reference that doesn’t seem to fit the message: those lines in hexagram 7 that talk about ‘carrying the corpse’. Wu is said, in one version of the conquest story, to have carried his father’s corpse into battle rather than delay the conquest for the required three years of mourning. This is a fairly clear textual reference to the Yi’s central story – but what are we to make of it in readings? Wu was criticised for his choice, true, but he triumphed in battle and founded a great dynasty – and yet ‘carrying the corpse’ is, in both 7.3 and 7.5, ill-omened. So what’s happening here?
In fact, I think the authors were using this story subtly to make a point about something that used to be full of vitality and meaning, but has now become dead weight. Human bodies can do that, and so too can legendary stories. But if someone’s received 7.3, simply saying, ‘You are like King Wu marching out to conquer the Shang and found a great dynasty…’ is not going to help; 7.3 is not the way to conquer or found anything. The historical reference is just one part of how the reading works and speaks to you.
Which brings me to the third important quality of a good identification:

3) Experience in readings

A good reference will work as part of the oracle: it will transform your perception.
There’s a fine example of this in the Sorrells’ The I Ching Made Easy,* in their sample reading for Hexagram 36. They describe a woman who was being abused by her husband, but made to feel as if she were the one with something wrong with her. “When the caller heard the title of the hexagram and the story of Prince Chi, who had to pretend to be insane in order to survive, she burst into tears.”
You can recognise that as an oracle at work.

An example: Hexagram 55 and the city of Feng

A less widely-known reference that has the same power: Hexagram 55 as the city of Feng. This was, as far as I know, first identified by SJ Marshall in his Mandate of Heaven in 2001, and it isn’t nearly as well-known as it should be.
The story is of King Wu, the ‘martial king’ of the Zhou: how at the garrison city of Feng, with his father Wen recently dead, he had to assume the military and spiritual leadership and determine whether he yet had Heaven’s Mandate to march on the Shang – or whether he should retreat into the three years of mourning required by tradition. He looked to the skies and received portents that justified his decision to march out. (Marshall thought the lines described a total solar eclipse, but in fact they speak of reading patterns of sunspots.)
Textual fit? Yes. The name of the hexagram is the name of the garrison city Feng; the oracle speaks of ‘not mourning’ and line 6 refers to the mourning hut. Also, the personal name of King Wu, Fa, is at line 2, and in a context that makes sense in translation – ‘to have truth and confidence like Fa is good fortune.’ (Which is important, as Chinese has plenty of multi-purpose words, so just because a character is also a proper noun doesn’t necessarily mean any reference is intended.)
Thematic fit? Absolutely. The theme of the hexagram is such Abundance as to become overwhelming; the Image speaks of the importance of swift decision, like thunder and lightning coming together; the Sequence is from Hexagram 54, the story of someone who is ‘landed’ in a new (and more adult) role without having any choice in the matter; the nuclear hexagram is 28, speaking of such overwhelming pressure that something must be done. Everything resonates with the story.
Usefulness in readings? Yes – unfailingly – the story of overwhelming pressure and unsought responsibility speaks to people who receive Hexagram 55. (It’s also surprisingly often true that a literal bereavement has brought that responsibility.)

Word play

This doesn’t mean that Hexagram 36 is about Jizi or Hexagram 55 is named after the city. Finding a reference doesn’t mean you know ‘what it’s about’ and can say, “Feng here means the name of the citadel, not ‘abundance’ after all.” It’s better to think of it as word-play – part of Yi’s fabric of meaning, with its grand abundance of allusions, nudges and reminders. You can’t say ‘this is about that’ any more than you would say that since ‘crossing the great river’ refers to the Zhou crossing into Shang territory, it has nothing to do with how dangerous river-crossing was in general, or about brides crossing rivers to their husbands or young men swimming across to their young women. Yi is not much like a history book, and much more like poetry. It has layers.

Stephen Field’s new book

…The Duke of Zhou Changes, is what prompted this post. I will try to give it a full review soon! It’s a treasure trove for these ‘stories to think in': more and more accurate information about the ones I knew already (including Wu at Feng), and whole new possible connections to explore. Here it is at Amazon UK and US.

I am not opposing your important point here, Hilary. I must point out, though, that the historical stories, myths or legends you refer to, though they were inspirations for the creation of the I Ching, were but the local example of acts of the ways of nature, which predate those historical folk myths from as far back as can be recorded in time. As authors of the 'psychic unity of mankind', Adolf Bastian, Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, for example, all observed the same Elementargedanke existing among the thousands of folk myths, all which can illustrate each and every hexagram and change line with the same fundamentally larger meaning, within which our own local stories can be illustrated.

If the subject of 'mythology as it applies to the Yijing' is going to be looked at, it seems a shame to encapsulate all of those natural and human experiences with just one cultural Völkergedanken.

This is not to say that directly related stories behind some of the text should be ignored or shouldn't be taught and studied, just that it's anything but limited to them. I really think so many specialty scholars tend to live in their chosen box, and fail to look at the same stories told, over and again, in various times and cultures.

This is not at all the same thing as merely getting a new idea about it. Concepts give us something new to think about; stories give us a new way to think, and that transforms our experience. There’s a reason why religions spring from stories not rulebooks, and why wise teachers tell parables.

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I think it is very much the same elementary ideas, just a current one.

The way to study the past is not to confine
oneself to mere knowledge of history but, through application of this
knowledge, to give actuality to the past. - Wilhelm commentary, hex. 26

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The past treasures within the mountain are broader and deeper than the period of time and place that the Yijing was written. So are the parables of wise teachers.

We have a number of historical references that have entered English as words in their own right.
Two good examples used in phrases might be "met his waterloo" and "crossed his rubicon."

sooo said:

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The past treasures within the mountain are broader and deeper than the period of time and place that the Yijing was written. So are the parables of wise teachers.

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Yes, indeed. And... how are we to reach those treasures and understand what the hexagrams are about, so that we can tell good, resonant stories about/with them? The first stories told with the hexagrams, the ones used to create their meaning, seem a good place to start mining.

Other good, rich veins: our own divination experiences (that's the thought behind WikiWing), and conversations with Yi about great stories. I once asked about the meaning of the Incarnation and received 11.3.5 to 60. And I asked recently about how Yi was created and received 11 unchanging.

It is not a question of where or when these 'monomyths' exist but whether they can be recognized. The I Ching is said to include every possible aspect of the human and natural experience (not always the same, those two). Surely, then, all myths, stories and legends are to be found within the mountain.

No historical background of the Yijing is being challenged (have I emphasized that enough?), only the call to recognize the same stories, told with different actors and costumes, whether Peter Rabbit or the King's New Clothes, or something from the Hindu, or Greek, or Navajo myths, legends and stories, for starters. I have to believe the IC would encourage such relationships, not only of our own divination experiences but the story of man and his experiences, as well as those outside the realm of the human experience altogether. The Yi is after all constructed first of natural elements. But ones own personal experience is, of course, not to be overlooked. Every life should have a mythology.

The story is of King Wu, the ‘martial king’ of the Zhou: how at the garrison city of Feng, with his father Wen recently dead, he had to assume the military and spiritual leadership and determine whether he yet had Heaven’s Mandate to march on the Shang – or whether he should retreat into the three years of mourning required by tradition. He looked to the skies and received portents that justified his decision to march out. (Marshall thought the lines described a total solar eclipse, but in fact they speak of reading patterns of sunspots.)

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I understand, because of his background, Field's word is certainly to be taken here that the lines in 55 describe sunspots not eclipse. How do you think this difference between sunspots and eclipse,( as we have so far thought), changes interpretations of 55 in readings ? Maybe not so different just less dramatic ?

I now realize my error, as Hilary's blog is entitled: Myth and legend in hexagrams, and I am speaking of I Ching as being but one folk myth, containing fundamentally all stories, which I have no problem with. It is my own enthusiasm for the connections between elementary ideas and folk ideas that prompt my involvement. So I'll begin a thread in Open Space where I can discuss these things with any who are interested. I ask that we can see the symbolism and meaning even within hexagrams with these stories, unless the grapes wither on the vine, in which case maybe the seeds will fall to the ground and some day bear fruit.

Reading sunspots without filters would render the viewer blind in short order. Maybe there's a lesson there. Myths allow us to see the blinding light by observing the shadows.

I'm also wondering (and surprised) about the sunspots vs. eclipse. Did that part come from Stephen Field's book? You said your post was based on the book, but I don't want to make assumptions that everything in it is from there.

I've never paid the slightest attention to sunspots. According to Wikipedia:

"Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear visibly as dark spots compared to surrounding regions. They correspond to concentrations of magnetic field that inhibit convection and result in reduced surface temperature compared to the surrounding photosphere."

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Here is an account of the history of sunspot observations:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/formal/icecore/The_Historical_Sunspot_Record.pdf

The first sentence says:

"Chinese astronomers recorded solar activity around 800 B.C. and astronomers in both China and Korea frequently observed sunspots."

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It describes one fairly dramatic event possibly related to sunspots (underlining is mine):

[...] "This description of sunspots, and the earliest known drawing of sunspots, appears in John of Worcester’s Chronicle recorded in 1128.

On the night of 13 December 1128, astronomers in Songdo, Korea, witnessed a red vapour that “soared and filled the sky” from the northwest to the southwest. A delay of five days is the average delay between the occurrence of a large sunspot group near the center of the Sun – exactly as witnessed by John of Worcester – and the appearance of the aurora borealis in the night sky at relatively low latitudes. Chinese accounts state “there was a Black spot within the Sun” on March 22, 1129, which “died away” on April 14th. This may well have been one of the sunspots Worcester had observed 104 days earlier, on the other side of the world."

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So can they cause the sorts of things described in hexagram 55, darkness such that the stars can be seen at noon? Does it matter for divination?

Trojina said:

I understand, because of his background, Field's word is certainly to be taken here that the lines in 55 describe sunspots not eclipse. How do you think this difference between sunspots and eclipse ( as we have so far thought) changes interpretations of 55 in readings ? Maybe not so different just less dramatic ?

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Yes - Field and his sources, Pankenier and other scholars with redoubtable backgrounds. Much as it would simplify my life to keep the eclipse, I don't think we can.

I'm not sure yet, but I think mostly just less dramatic. Apparently there wasn't a clear understanding back then of what sunspots were, and they were thought of as foreign bodies passing across the face of the sun - like mini-eclipses, in other words. And in subsequent centuries there was a written record of sunspot observations and their significance - generally to do with kings and their legitimacy, funnily enough. So the basic idea - we are at Feng, observing the skies for portents, deciding whether it's time to march out - isn't changed.

The difference seems to be one of atmosphere. An eclipse is unmissable, dramatic and frightening on a visceral level (whether you understand what it is or not). Seeing a pattern of sunspots shaped specifically like the Dipper might be deeply significant, but it seems more likely to provoke a studious, 'Aha! How interesting!' than a mass panic. Most people aren't going to notice it, after all.

I need to look at the lines and their zhi gu and pathways (etc, etc) all over again, and mull.

sooo said:

Reading sunspots without filters would render the viewer blind in short order. Maybe there's a lesson there. Myths allow us to see the blinding light by observing the shadows.

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When I first read about this, I wondered about naked eye observation of sunspots. Could you see them, and wouldn't you go blind shortly afterwards if you did? The answer seems to be that you can observe them at dusk when the sun's low, and you can observe them through mist or dust, as for instance sandstorms (Field suggests one blowing in from the Gobi desert). They're also clearly visible with a simple camera obscura - a dark chamber with a small hole in one wall will project a clear inverted image on the opposite wall. Same principle as a pinhole camera, but on a larger scale. Goodness knows if these existed in Zhou times, but Mozi wrote about them. The lines refer to different kinds of screen or filter at Feng.

Maybe part of the point in 55 is that only a skilled observer can read these signs and not be blinded.

lisa said:

I'm also wondering (and surprised) about the sunspots vs. eclipse. Did that part come from Stephen Field's book? You said your post was based on the book, but I don't want to make assumptions that everything in it is from there...

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Yes - and from chasing up the references in his bibliography. See the links in WikiWing!

I've never paid the slightest attention to sunspots...could they cause the sorts of things described in hexagram 55, darkness such that the stars can be seen at noon?

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No, but the translation is not what we thought it was! The formula for the relevant lines is

'Feng its [some kind of screen thingy]. Sun centre see [something to do with stars].'

Marshall pointed out that 'sun centre' means 'noon', which it does. However, 'sun centre see [constellation]' turns out to be a standard way of describing sunspot observations - literally seeing something in the centre of the sun. So it isn't necessarily noon, and we are not seeing stars, but constellation-patterns. But it is dark because of the screen-things. Field translates them as 'in shadow' (lines 2 and 4) and 'under a veil' (line 3), and suggests a dust cloud from the Gobi desert.

(Incidentally, even a total solar eclipse almost certainly doesn't make it dark enough to see any of the Dipper, and definitely not fainter stars like the Milky Way.)

Okay. Will await developments.

hilary said:

(Incidentally, even a total solar eclipse almost certainly doesn't make it dark enough to see any of the Dipper, and definitely not fainter stars like the Milky Way.)

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I didn't know that, either. Thanks, Hilary.

hilary said:

When I first read about this, I wondered about naked eye observation of sunspots. Could you see them, and wouldn't you go blind shortly afterwards if you did? The answer seems to be that you can observe them at dusk when the sun's low, and you can observe them through mist or dust, as for instance sandstorms (Field suggests one blowing in from the Gobi desert). They're also clearly visible with a simple camera obscura - a dark chamber with a small hole in one wall will project a clear inverted image on the opposite wall. Same principle as a pinhole camera, but on a larger scale. Goodness knows if these existed in Zhou times, but Mozi wrote about them. The lines refer to different kinds of screen or filter at Feng.

Maybe part of the point in 55 is that only a skilled observer can read these signs and not be blinded.

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Interesting idea. I've been sternly warned since a tot not to look directly at the sun. It seems any culture would arrive at that conclusion. Even in fog or sandstorm I'd be highly wary.

This is where I can't help but wonder, how much of this story really happened and how much was figurative, symbolic, metaphor or mythological from the start? Yet, a pinhole method isn't all that sophisticated. In any case, a solar eclipse seems to be, as you said, a more dramatic form of omen. It probably has always been. I think some might even consider it so today. I know my granny would! I can hear her whispering, "make a wish!"

I'm sorry, this isn't really worthy of a comment, but after several days I continue to find it hilarious that you announced this huge upending of hexagram 55 to us in parentheses. Picayune detail...

(I mean, I hear you saying that the basic idea probably isn't changed, but still.)

hilary said:

Yes - Field and his sources, Pankenier and other scholars with redoubtable backgrounds. Much as it would simplify my life to keep the eclipse, I don't think we can.
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Hi, Hilary:

David Pankenier, harsh critic of the steve marshall's eclipse theory, has a number of pdf available in the web:

The Cosmo-political Background of Heaven's Mandate:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dwp0/Assets/images/cosmopolbackground.pdf

Marshall's Review:
www.lehigh.edu/~dwp0/Assets/images/marshallreview.pdf

Popular Astrology (Sino-Platonic):
www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp104_chinese_astrology.pdf

More documents available clicking the links of Pankenier's curriculum:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dwp0/Curriculum_vitae.html

Of course that I still have in high esteem Steve's book, although I believe that there is no clear reference in the received text supporting eclipse or sunspots. In the recived text the only clear is the darkness, and maybe it´s better so. The more the applicable stories, the better.

Sunspots must have been early noticed in chinese history, ancient characters for sun (日 ri) had a central dot or stroke that remains till now.

All the best,

Charly

Thanks for the links! There are some full articles available there, not just links to stupendously-priced books, so this is great.

Here is one more, from a professor at an observatory:
The basic forms of ancient Chinese sunspot records
http://www.eastm.org/index.php/journal/article/viewFile/503/434
- which begins with hexagram 55.

I find it extraordinary that - to the best of my knowledge - no-one before Marshall thought it worth mentioning that Feng was the name of the city. The thematic links - mourning, portent-watching (whichever portent!), decision, kingship - seem (with benefit of hindsight) to jump out.