A thoroughly useful guiding principle for both diviners and translators: this means something. For diviners with/ translators of the Yijing, the principle needs elaborating: this means something, whether or not I have the faintest glimmerings of a clue what it means. That should really be inscribed in every Yijing book and… Read more »This means something
A couple of months ago I wrote about ‘Essentials for Yijing readings‘ and included that old favourite hobby horse of mine: the commentary is not the answer, along with some examples of commentary – Wilhelm’s, Karcher’s and mine – that was decidedly not what the oracle said. All three examples I came up with were from… Read more »When Yi is neutral
Where you find the noble one We mostly come across the junzi, the ‘noble one’, in the Image Wing of the Yi. But he also features in many oracles and lines of the original text. Here’s the whole list: 1.3, 2.0, 3.3, 9.6, 12.0, 13.0, 15.0, 15.1, 15.3, 20.1, 20.5,… Read more »The noble one’s story
Hexagram 9 says, ‘Small taming, creating success. Dense clouds without rain Come from my Western altars.’ The dense clouds without rain suggest that what we need is tantalisingly close, just not quite here yet. Those ‘Western altars’ are probably a subtle reference to the Zhou, people of the West. Before… Read more »The clouds of Hexagram 9
I’ve been looking at the patterns that take shape within the ‘container’ formed by hexagrams 3 and 50, and wondering what they might mean. Here’s a bit more wondering. It looks as though hexagrams 3 and 50, living energies and vessel, form a mould, within which an individual life (or… Read more »Casting the Vessel, so… (part 2)
Browsing Allan Lian’s blog, with a New Year post offering a Confucian perspective on self-cultivation, got me thinking. What is self-cultivation – where and how does this idea show up in the Yijing? Luckily, I don’t have far to look: my guiding principle for the year for Clarity, as given… Read more »Self-cultivation?
Here’s an email I can’t resist quoting: “I logged in finally the other day and peeked at the emerging WikiWing. WOW! This is just brilliant and I agree with everyone that it is something I would happily pay for in book form! I just browsed a bit on hexagram 5… Read more »Hexagram 9 – WikiWing contribution
