Clarity,
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PO Box 6945,
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W1A 6US
United Kingdom
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confucius
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Etymology of the ideograms Ming Yi.36
The first ideogram of the thirty-sixth hexagram is composed from the ideograms Sun and Moon. It is one of these symbols that helps to explain the formation of Chinese ideograms: the association of these two celestial lights easily explains its common definitions: To Glow, To Enlighten, Clarity…However, since the discovery of these characters on tortoise shells, it is now acknowledged that the symbol used for Sun was originally a different ideogram depicting a Fenced Window.
It is no more the theoretical combination of two stars sharing their light but a completely different scene: it is the Moon entering through a window and lighting-up the inside of a room. The nuance is important for it allows the differentiation in the context of the Yi Jing of two kinds of light, according to their nature. There is the Yang light, towards the outside, produced by a warm source, as, for instance, a torch, as can be understood in the judgment of Xu.5, lighting all around its source. There is also the Yin light, produced by a cool source as, for example, the Moon, lighting-up the inside of a room, or a heart, from the outside.
It is from this idea of lighting the inside that Ming has adopted its meaning To Be Enlighten, To Be Lucid…
The second ideogram used to illustrate Ming Yi.36. is composed with two overlapping characters: Great and Bow. It is the name of a non-Chinese culture which used to occupy the province of Shandong. It was spread all over the northern frontier of China and Japan (the Ainous, on the on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, also wrote their name using this ideogram). This tribe was brutally exterminated by the Chinese, where the meaning of this ideogram: A Destructive Method, Leaving No Stones Unturned…
These Ainous, also a shamanic culture, were Siberian distant cousins of the Chinese. They had a tight relationship with the world of birds, which they revered and also hunted with a large Bow, whence the composition of this ideogram. While hunting them, they were able to get really close to their target by wearing coats made of feathers.
Together, these two ideograms have the meaning of Injured Light (description of the situation) and Hiding our own Light as a strategy to be adopted in such circumstances.
During the Han period the trigram analysis was established and the Great Images composed, based on the trigram Li on top of the hexagram, the Bird was replaced by the Light (as can be seen in Li.30). This modification has been confirmed in the name of the hexagram as well as in its texts on the lines. Visible traces of this late change are noticeable at the first level.
Confucius
36
The first ideogram of the thirty-sixth hexagram is composed from the ideograms Sun and Moon. It is one of these symbols that helps to explain the formation of Chinese ideograms: the association of these two celestial lights easily explains its common definitions: To Glow, To Enlighten, Clarity…However, since the discovery of these characters on tortoise shells, it is now acknowledged that the symbol used for Sun was originally a different ideogram depicting a Fenced Window.
It is no more the theoretical combination of two stars sharing their light but a completely different scene: it is the Moon entering through a window and lighting-up the inside of a room. The nuance is important for it allows the differentiation in the context of the Yi Jing of two kinds of light, according to their nature. There is the Yang light, towards the outside, produced by a warm source, as, for instance, a torch, as can be understood in the judgment of Xu.5, lighting all around its source. There is also the Yin light, produced by a cool source as, for example, the Moon, lighting-up the inside of a room, or a heart, from the outside.
It is from this idea of lighting the inside that Ming has adopted its meaning To Be Enlighten, To Be Lucid…
The second ideogram used to illustrate Ming Yi.36. is composed with two overlapping characters: Great and Bow. It is the name of a non-Chinese culture which used to occupy the province of Shandong. It was spread all over the northern frontier of China and Japan (the Ainous, on the on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, also wrote their name using this ideogram). This tribe was brutally exterminated by the Chinese, where the meaning of this ideogram: A Destructive Method, Leaving No Stones Unturned…
These Ainous, also a shamanic culture, were Siberian distant cousins of the Chinese. They had a tight relationship with the world of birds, which they revered and also hunted with a large Bow, whence the composition of this ideogram. While hunting them, they were able to get really close to their target by wearing coats made of feathers.
Together, these two ideograms have the meaning of Injured Light (description of the situation) and Hiding our own Light as a strategy to be adopted in such circumstances.
During the Han period the trigram analysis was established and the Great Images composed, based on the trigram Li on top of the hexagram, the Bird was replaced by the Light (as can be seen in Li.30). This modification has been confirmed in the name of the hexagram as well as in its texts on the lines. Visible traces of this late change are noticeable at the first level.
Confucius
36