There are a few websites without which this one would be only a pale shadow of itself. Here are four huge thank yous…

Hermetica.info

This is Bradford Hatcher's site, and contains much of his life's work - work that Yi described better than I can. The individual help and support he gave me - for instance by checking and providing feedback on my book, hexagram by hexagram - was extraordinary. I've referred heaven-knows-how-many people to his website over the past couple of decades to download his Yijing, both for his unique commentary (which has a distinctly oracular character of its own) and for the character-by-character 'matrix' translation. Those two blue volumes are always on my desk.

Yijing Research

The website of Harmen Mesker, fount of information on all things ancient Chinese, its language and divination practices. His scrupulously-researched articles are a rich source of imagination food, and he's unreservedly generous with his knowledge.

He's also created the world's most aptly-named Yijing video channel, Yi-tube, which is full of good things.

Chinese Etymology

Richard Sears has been providing this priceless resource online, free, since 2002: an immense database of Chinese characters, with a great array of ancient versions of each one. If one of my blog posts talks about the etymology of an ancient character, or includes an image of one, odds are it comes from Uncle Hanzi.

Yijing, Oracle of the Moon

I see that in my first newsletter - a printed one, sent in November 2000 - I recommended "a fascinating and beautifully-presented site by a lover of the I Ching from Holland." I still do.

I often recommend LiSe's site for the etymologies of the hexagram names - but there are also pages on many of Yi's most important words, and vivid trigram pages, and brilliant stuff on the layers in hexagrams without which the Yijing Foundations Course would not at all be the same. Also, don't miss the ShenShu oracle.

Just for fun...

Time is Up!

I Ching Community discussion

On 26th April, 2000, I registered the domain name onlineClarity.co.uk. (Back then, adding 'online' to your business name showed you were really up-to-the-minute with the interwebs. Or something.) So I think that makes today Clarity's 21st birthday.

I want to celebrate by doing more of what Clarity's been doing for the past 21 years: opening doors and making the Yi more accessible. Here's how…

For all members: a 'key to the door' and a free workshop

Starting today, all Clarity members have a week's free access to the Change Circle Library and WikiWing - so Change Circle membership, in effect, minus its forums (because those are private for members) and I Ching chats (because logistics). You have the key to this particular door until May 3rd: look in the top right-hand corner of each page for a 'Change Circle' link to the library, and you'll find WikiWing in the Community menu.

I'll run a Connecting to Yijing Imagery workshop on May 1st - please do sign up for that if you'd like to come:

If you're already a Clarity member, please log in before you sign up -

This is one I've run a couple of times before, now with new examples - and new readings from participants, of course.

(If we hadn't just had the year we've just had, I might've gone for a 'Zoom party' with less 'meat' to it, but… well… I think the novelty of socialising via Zoom wore off about 11 months ago, didn't it? So this will be full of good, rich, nourishing Yijing things that are worth your time. Party hats optional.)

For Change Circle members

There's a whole lot more to explore by way of Yijing Imagery than can be covered in 90 minutes or so of workshop, so I'll follow that with a mini-class on imagery for Change Circle, in early May. It'll be a chance to dive in deeper to all Yi's ways of showing us pictures, and practise and experiment with different ways of responding. No need to sign up anywhere for that - if you're a Change Circle member, I'll email you nearer the time.

Also, we can try out a new 'synchronistic conversations' feature in Change Circle - more on that next month, too.

A request

Most people haven't heard of the Yi, or don't know what it can do. There are a whole lot of people out there whose lives could be better - clearer, more aligned, calmer - if they got to know the oracle. You probably know some of them. So… please help by making some introductions!

One simple way to do that is via the 'share' buttons I've recently added to the bottom of most pages at Clarity. If you're not sure what to share, the free beginner's course might be good.

Thank you, and happy 21st :) .

I Ching Community discussion

Here at the very beginning of Not Knowing, there's a line that says,

'Sending out the ignoramus,
Fruitful to make use of punishing people,
To make use of loosening fetters and manacles.
Going on in that way is shameful.'

Or, you know, something along those lines. It's a little too early to be certain, when the line is only just starting to learn. Let's take this one step at a time…

'Sending out the ignoramus'

The first two words of the line: fa meng, 發蒙 . Fa literally means shooting an arrow, something you can see very clearly in the old form of the character. So we get a picture of launching the ignoramus into the world where she can start to learn - very fitting for the first line of Hexagram 4.

However… fa meng is also a single phrase meaning to 'dispel ignorance' or, with the 'eye' radical added to meng, to open someone's eyes to the truth. And that also fits this moment of the hexagram. The combination of applying punishments and removing fetters should be especially eye-opening.

There are translators who follow each approach:

• 'to make a fool develop,' Wilhelm
• 'to illuminate the naïve youth,' Deng Ming Dao
• 'Enlightening an ignorant,' Huang
• 'Folly is dispelled,' Minford
• 'One sends out the Meng-beast,' Schilling (a bit odd…)

I especially like R.J. Lynn's version:

'With the opening up of Juvenile Ignorance, it is fitting both to subject him to the awareness of punishment and to remove fetters and shackles, but if he were to set out in this way, he would find it hard going.'

'Opening up' seems fitting for what the archer of fa might do to meng: jettisoning its protective cover and exposing her to the open air.

Or how about Stephen Field's 'Letting go of ignorance'? That captures the idea of loosing an arrow - and almost makes it feel as though ignorance is only maintained if we deliberately hold on to it.

'…making use of punishing people…'

'Using', yong 用, is a concept I think we as diviners can easily relate to: this line is a good moment for this; the quality of time can best be used this way. And the beginning of Not Knowing, a time for opening up ignorance, or letting it go, is a good moment for punishing people and releasing shackles and manacles.

On the face of it, that seems to be an odd combination - surely keeping people shackled is part of punishing them?

Some people resolve this with a different translation: not 'making use of punishing people', but 'using punished people' - in other words, using convict labour. Naturally, it would help to unshackle them first. Harmen Mesker translates,

Exposed ignorance.
Favourable to use prisoners (as slaves).
Remove hand- and foot shackles
As these hinder going.

This makes excellent sense in its own terms. But then I also appreciate the subtlety of the traditional view, with its tricky balance between punishing and release, and what that tells us about dispelling ignorance. First you need to learn that you don't know everything, and discover that actions have consequences. Then you also need to be free to move - to experience as many consequences as possible, in fact.

R.J. Lynn's footnotes are often a treasure-trove of insights from the interpretive tradition. For this line he has…

• Kong Yingda's explanation: the ignoramus is acting without inhibitions, so the threat of punishment is useful - but if he set out under 'the dao of punishment' then 'there would be a mean-spirited aspect to what he does.' What's needed is an internalised sense of what's right.
• Cheng Yi's idea that removing the fetters is an image for removing ignorance. (Loosing the bow, loosening the shackles?)
• Zhu Xi saying that you need first to punish, then to see what people do once freed.
• And still others who solve the whole punishing vs releasing question by saying that it's the release that means shame. (Not that I agree, but it's interesting!)

From all this, I like the idea that both punishments and freedom are teaching/learning tools, and especially the freedom to incur punishment. We need to be unshackled to experience the real world, not just learn the rules.

Not Knowing, its Decrease - and an aside about context

The same few words in the Yi can give rise to so many translations because they lack context. If this were part of a historical account of building a city wall, then we could be sure it meant 'use convict labour'; if we'd just read about some wrongdoers being captured, we'd opt for 'punishing people.' But the Yi gives us only this little vignette, thirteen words long in total, without any helpful, scene-setting context.

Except… there is context. Actually, there are two distinct kinds of context: the moment of the reading, which can always bring a different meaning to the fore, and the structure of the hexagrams.

So from the structure here, we know that this moment is the beginning of Hexagram 4 - first steps for an ignoramus - and that it's connected with Hexagram 41, Decrease.

損 Sun, 'Decrease', means harm or weaken, so there's a clear connection to punishment. But the hexagram also brings in the idea that decrease can be for the sake of something higher. That gives us the idea that 4.1's punishment might be a 'learning experience'.

(Bradford Hatcher was way ahead of me here: 'Consequences,' he says, 'can diminish the options, and still not diminish the child.')

Huang's example

One more possibility for the xing ren, 'punished people'. Xing is an old word for severe punishment, but it also meant 'be a model, example, imitate.' Alfred Huang uses this meaning:

'Enlightening an ignorant. Favorable to set examples. Operating with shackles, going forward: humiliation.'

Maybe there are only positive examples here, no punishment at all?

What's shameful?

Not all translators see any 'shame' here at all. 'Lin' can also be read as 'hindrance' or 'distress', and then 'going on, shame' turns into 'hinder walking'. But at least tradition, common sense and reading experience all agree that any problems with this line come from leaving the shackles on. Wilhelm - not for the first time - put it best:

'Discipline should not degenerate into drill. Continuous drill has a humiliating effect and cripples a man's powers.'

We might add that anything that keeps us in line mindlessly, without the need to think or make a choice, is shameful.

Interestingly, practically all the different translations of this line come round to this same basic idea. 'Remove the manacles and shackles so they can walk,' says Field, re-punctuating; 'punish with loosened manacles and shackles. Severity brings distress,' says Minford. 'While penalties are useful to illuminate the naïve youth, take off the fetters - to go too far leads to sorrow,' says Deng Ming Dao.

The ins and outs of translation make surprisingly little difference to this: to dispel ignorance, we need freedom of movement, so we're available for new experience.

I Ching Community discussion

There are just two 'outer mountain' hexagrams in the Upper Canon: 41, Decreasing, and 52, Stilling.

Hexagram 41, Decreasing

The Oracle

Hexagram 41 is Sun 損: decrease, damage, harm, weakening. So the words of the oracle that define it are startling -

'Decreasing has truth and confidence.
From the source, good fortune.
Not a mistake, there can be constancy.
Fruitful to have somewhere to go.
How to use this?
Two gui-bowls may be used for the offering.'

Hexagram 41, Oracle

損有孚 - decrease has - or is - fu, truth and confidence, the state of rapport and spiritual connection. That's quite a radical assertion. It brings good fortune from the source; it does not mean anything is wrong or broken; with this open channel to the spirits, it supports the enduring connection of zhen, constancy.

All this is possible because this decrease also means offering up. It's a kind of emptying out that clears the channel. (LiSe says succinctly that Decreasing's space is what makes the book better than the film, because it leaves room for your imagination.)

It opens a space for future developments, too. It's fruitful to have somewhere to go - to have a reason for the offering, and to be outward-looking: focussed not on what you're giving up, but on what's next.

This attitude is the perfect opposite of Hexagram 23, where it's 'fruitless to have somewhere to go.' Stripping Away is not the time to think about why this is happening or where it might lead - you just have to undergo the loss completely, and then may come a time to think about moving on. (With 24, Returning - which is the nuclear hexagram of 41.)

The offering needs only two gui. These are bronze bowls, probably originally modelled on a bamboo basket, used for grain offerings. All the examples I've found online, including those with inscriptions marking their importance, are less than a foot tall. In other words, this is a modest, undramatic, affordable offering.

Where's the mountain?

It's not so hard to see the lake in Hexagram 41. Its name, to begin with, shows a round vessel -

- that we could say is like a lake. Though of course, there are hexagrams (18, 42, 50) with vessels in their names but no lakes attached; Yi is a lot more than the sum of its trigrams.

And then there are those gui tureens in the Oracle text, also somewhat lake-like. And since dui means not only lake but also a fertile marsh or even a rice paddy, vessels specifically for grain offerings are a very good fit.

So where's the mountain? I think it's in the idea of offering up, a destination for our offering - really, just the sense that there is another dimension beyond the decrease and weakening, a 'somewhere to go'. Mountains are sacred, after all. And then fu, 'truth and confidence', lies in the relationship between lake and mountain - which makes me imagine the mountain reflected in the lake.

The Image

The Image authors have a very clear sense of what this mountain does:

'Below the mountain is the lake. Decreasing.
A noble one curbs anger and restrains desires.'

Hexagram 41, the Image

It 'curbs and restrains'. This is definitely one of those 'lid'-like mountains, containing and blocking - only now, the noble one is using it himself, for deliberate self-control. The great distance between mountain and lake lets the noble one separate his sense of himself from his emotions - a development from the 'place to stand' of 27's mountain.

(In the context of the Sequence, this isn't just a picture of repression, though: it's practice to deepen emotional capacity. The lake that forms under the mountain in 41 will be put to good use out in the world in hexagrams 43, 45 and 49.)

How is this a picture of decrease? Tradition says that what is below is diminished to the benefit of what's above (following the idea that Hexagram 41 is formed when the yang third line of 11 moves up to the sixth place): the lake evaporate and enriches the mountain.

Only… I can't help thinking that in practice, surely, if there's a lake at the foot of the mountain, the mountain is probably feeding the lake, not diminishing it. It might be fed by mountain streams, or prevailing winds may mean this is the rainy side of the mountain. As I suggested in my book, this could be a picture of mutuality: evaporating water from the lake greens the mountain; the mountain creates the lake basin.

What is decreased, in this picture, is movement. Water naturally flows, but here it's gathered and contained. The noble one's emotional volatility is decreased. Social interaction might be diminished, too - shrunk down to essentials.

Instead of movement, we get space for reflection: a 'lid' mountain containing and creating the lake below.

Hexagram 52, Stilling

The final outer mountain comes joined with an inner mountain, in Hexagram 52, Stilling. Mountain is the opposite of lake, so this is not about separating and reflecting - it's exactly not an inner dialogue.

'Stilling your back,
Not grasping your self.
Moving in your courtyard,
Not seeing your people.
Not a mistake.'

Hexagram 52, the Oracle

You're not 'grasping' or not catching yourself - the same verb that would be used for catching game in a hunt, or capturing a fugitive. The character contains a dog for hunting, and a hand catching a bird -

You don't catch yourself like a hunted animal, and you don't see your people in your courtyard. The perfect parallelism of this text evokes the hexagram's two mountains: inside, your back and your body, not captured; outside, the space where you live, without connection or conversation. Inner and outer worlds are both Stilled and quiet - and, the oracle says, this is no mistake.

The Image -

'Joined mountains. Stilling.
A noble one in his thoughts does not leave his place.'

Hexagram 52, the Image

- says that the mountains are 兼 jian: combined, joined, concurrent, doubled. The noble one is thinking, not acting, and his thoughts are like the mountain - contained, secure, within the outer mountain that defines 'his place'.

So there is joined stillness, inside and out. The contrast with 41, where the outer mountain puts a lid on roiling inner emotions, is emphatic: the noble one now is joined, not split.

Does this tell a story?

We've come a long way from Hexagram 4, where the mountain covered, protected and mentored the young fool. Is there a story we could tell with these hexagrams? Probably there are many… but one that occurs to me is a journey from separation towards unity. There's the young fool and the sage, and 'nurturing character' (in hexagrams 4 and 18); then mountain-mindset lets the noble one see the limits of enlightened government in 22, and by 26 he's teaching himself. From there, 27's mountain can be a standpoint for self-awareness; 41's, a means of self-control. And it culminates at 52, with inner and outer selves joined together.

…and in readings?

When your reading has an outer mountain, it may help to think about…

A lid - what there is in the situation that stops/hinders you, and whether that might not also be protecting, nurturing or teaching you.

And along similar lines, a container - how the situation that limits you also defines your scope, delineates your field of action.

Whether the situation with its demands offers you a teacher, or mentor, or just a place to stand and see from.

How the trigrams work together. (Always the key!) Can you see how the mountain, the solid reality of the situation, is infused with the qualities of the inner trigram, so its nature is changed? Or how it lends form to the inner trigram, giving it solid presence?

…or maybe something completely different, because each trigram relationship is unique, and each one contains many possible trigram pictures…

I Ching Community discussion

CJ Liu kindly invited me to be interviewed on her show, and here's the result.

(I just want to reassure you that CJ did get a better reading from me than you see here! We talked about her reading for an extra half-hour or so in private, when she didn't have to split her focus between it and the demands of constructing an interview, and I sent her my notes afterwards. Reading fully delivered, I hope.)

I Ching Community discussion