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 the Oracle text, but it’s… Continue Reading
...life can be translucent
Tag Archives: trigrams
The genius of the Daxiang (part 1)
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 trigrams. This is where the… Continue Reading
Rain
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) spot on. But can we… Continue Reading
Out of the gate
This is by way of a follow-up to my ‘Dispersing Nourishment‘ reading. I thought I’d share as it’s another reading that shows how Yi helps with the small stuff, and on multiple levels. Besides, I appreciate the eloquence of the trigrams in this one. Background, reading… My joints ache – not a lot, but more… Continue Reading
Mountain above: hexagrams 41 and 52
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… Continue Reading
Mountain above: hexagrams 26 and 27
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 comes to mean nurturing, providing… Continue Reading
Mountain above: Hexagrams 22 and 23
I talked in a previous post about gen, mountain, as the outer trigram of Hexagrams 4 and 18. There, it ‘nurtures de‘, with a dual obstructing and protecting function that feels something like mentorship. The next appearances of mountain outside come in the 20s, a series of hexagram pairs with inner thunder, outer mountain. Hexagram… Continue Reading
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