Its name and nature The name of Hexagram 37 is simply 家人, jiaren, ‘Home People’ – which also means the members of a family. Here’s the old form of the character – – where you can see that a ‘home’ is an animal – a pig – under a roof. Home is where the pig is; it’s… Continue Reading
The Yijing as a whole is a rather disconcerting book. It can say things we don’t understand, or, worse, things we understand perfectly well but don’t want to know. A reading can be reassuring, can reinforce your thinking, or it can give you a real jolt. ‘I have had this truly brilliant idea, how about it?’… Continue Reading
Short review Don’t buy this one. Buy Minford and Redmond instead – or save up for Field, which I feel is worth its somewhat eye-watering price. Longer review Here’s the publisher’s blurb for Paul Fendos’ new I Ching: ‘The Book of Changes: A Modern Adaptation and Interpretation attempts to breathe new life into the Book… Continue Reading
I’ve written before about looking at groups of changing lines, and seeing how they point towards their changed hexagram – just as a single line would do. (I’ve just added all those posts to a series, so you can find them all easily.) Here’s another for the collection: Hexagram 62, Small Exceeding, changing at lines… Continue Reading
Hexagram 4 has an exceptionally clear, direct Oracle: ‘Not knowing, creating success. I do not seek the young ignoramus, the young ignoramus seeks me. The first consultation speaks clearly. The second and third pollute the waters, Polluted, and hence not speaking. Constancy bears fruit.’ It’s often the one that gives people their first sense that… Continue Reading
A short story In typical Yi style, this is a very short story: ‘Traveller in a place to stay, Gains property and an axe. My heart is not glad.’ ‘Subtly penetrating under the bed, Losing your property and axe. Constancy, pitfall.’ These are lines 56.4 and 57.6, and they have a direct textual parallel: gaining… Continue Reading
One of many interesting things I found in Richard J. Smith’s The I Ching: a biography was an account of Zhu Xi’s approach to divination. Zhu Xi (1120-1200) wrote firmly of Yi’s identity as an oracle, not just a ‘book of wisdom’. In addition to creating the yarrow method we use now, he also prescribed considerable ritual… Continue Reading
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