Comments on whole hexagrams, individual lines and so on
Here’s Wikipedia’s definition of a ‘culture hero’: A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group (cultural, ethnic, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or discovery. Chinese mythology seems to be especially full of these: people who are recognised as heroic because they invented millet farming,… Read more »Hexagrams as culture heroes
In my last post, I talked about how the Daxiang paints pictures of individual hexagrams, as a whole. In this one, I’d like to try a change of perspective, zooming in and zooming out, to see what comes into focus. Commentary on the lines The Image builds on and humanises… Read more »The genius of the Daxiang (part 2)
Introducing the Image Sometimes we explain things to ourselves by comparing and contrasting – like the Zagua. Sometimes we tell stories, like the Xugua (Sequence of Hexagrams). And often, we paint mental pictures. The Yi is overflowing with pictures, of course – not least the ones created by its component… Read more »The genius of the Daxiang (part 1)
The Yijing mentions rain several times – in Hexagram 9, and then in 38.6, 43.3, 50.3 and 62.5. What does it represent? Wilhelm, writing about 50.3, has a succinct answer: ‘The fall of rain symbolizes here, as in other instances, release of tension.’ Wilhelm is (here, as in other instances)… Read more »Rain
It’s a not-unfamiliar experience with readings: the oracle text of the hexagram says one thing, and then a moving line says something quite different. You probably know the basic principle: the moving line text takes precedence. It’s the ‘You Are Here’ sign to the hexagram’s overall scene-setting. Still, it’s worth… Read more »Puzzling over 54, line 1
The second line of Hexagram 11 generates some of the most strangely varied translations. Here are two from the same book – John Minford’s I Ching, which contains two incarnations of the Yi, as ‘Book of Wisdom’ and ‘Bronze Age Oracle’: ‘Embrace the wilderness, ford the river. Do not forsake… Read more »Fording the river: Hexagram 11, line 2
This isn’t one of those posts where I explore many different experts’ translations and interpretations of a line. Instead, it’s just things I’ve learned from a combination of reading experiences and a line pathway. What’s a line pathway? A line pathway is what LiSe calls ‘mirrors’: a group of four… Read more »Walking round the pathway of 42.6
