Comments on whole hexagrams, individual lines and so on
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
Just for fun… 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… Read more »Hexagram 4, line 1
Two more hexagrams with mountains on top, two more intriguing trigram pictures… Hexagram 26, Great Taming Hexagram 26 is ‘Great Taming’; ‘taming’, chu, originally means simply to rear domestic animals. Great Taming – rearing big animals, like the horse, bullock and boar in the moving line texts. By extension, it… Read more »Mountain above: hexagrams 26 and 27
