Chinese astrology and I ching

[noxlux]

A couple of months back I had a brief conversation regarding I ching with the most experienced user of the book whom I know. He in turn learned it from one of the earlier translators of the book into english during a personal apprenticeship.

(I think he is the only person whom I know who, whenever he talks I think that he is applying the I ching way of thinking to the subject. At least I start thinking in I ching terms whenever I hear him talk about a subject.)

While it was a very rewarding conversation much of it went straight above my head, and while I have slowly solved some puzzles and started to understand parts of what he said during the following months there are still things which are simply way beyond me.

Anyway, so this is just sort of a prepframe to my question. One thing he claimed is that the Basis of the i ching is in chinese astrology. Since I have close to zero knowledge of that topic I realy have no basis for comparison. I would hope that perhaps some able soul on this forum could address the topic?

Noxlux

 

[carly]

My knowledge of chinese astrology is really very very thin, but I believe that a good place to start is reading Derek Walters. As I understand it trigrams are applied to enable a problem solving approach...a bit like feng shui, you identify weaknesses/issues in the personality and personal history and then resolve them. Richard Ashworth seems to use the Ba Zi (chinese horoscope) along side his feng shui work... he seems to suggest in his book (and his online diaries) that by looking at a person's ba zi he has a good idea of what /where problems will lie in their house before he even looks at the house. It sounds intriguing to me and I'd like to know more.

 

[jesed]

Hi

Just in case the comment could be useful

1.- In ancient times in China, there was no diference between what we call now "mathematics", "astronomy", "astrology", "divination". All was the same subject "numbers".

You can find useful "Chinese Mathematical Astrology: reaching out for the stars"", wich also includes the "3 sacred boards" of divination.. claimed to be more precise than Yijing itself.
http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Mathe...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201385809&sr=8-1

2.- Ba Zi is not the root of chinese astrology, but only one of it's many tools for practical application.
Some basic concepts are: the 10 Heavenly Stems; the 12 Earthly Branches; the 60 cicle (for time/direction), the mayor and minor constelations...
Another tool for practical application is the 10,000 years calendar (or chinese almanac)

3.- In Yijing studies, there is one mayor school, wich focus on simbolism and numerology instead (or complementary) to the text. In this mayor school, some people uses astrologic tools and concepts to understand an answer. One book I know for beginners in English is the one from Raymond Lo (you can google it)
Whenever I said "based on mathematical method" in this forum, I'm using those tools..like the stems and branches, the "chinese zodiac" (like..line 1 is Dragon..line 6 is Rat..and so on), the 5 aspects (some people call them "stars": father, wife, husband, child, brothers).

That is one fascinating broad way to study Yijing, even if many people tend to fight against it's uses.

Best

 

[Sparhawk]

Thanks for the reference, Rodrigo. Do you have that book? If so, I thought I was the only crazy one that spends ungodly amounts of money in these subjects... Let me know what you think of it and I may order it.

 

[bradford]

One thing he claimed is that the Basis of the i ching is in chinese astrology. Noxlux

Putting it bluntly, that's wrong.
The Yi embodies a keen awareness of the seasons of the year, but that's about it.
The two evolved independently until the Han. Eight hundred years after the Yi was written a lot of scribes tried to force-fit the two together, and some of those methods survived. But that hardly makes one the "basis" of the other.

 

[jesed]

Hi Luis

If you mean, "Reaching out the stars"..yes I have it.

Interesting one... not useful if you want a practical use in divination; it is an academic research on mathematics on the Astronomical Bureau.

Even so, I liked to read many of it.

Best

 

[jesed]

About the price.. well I think it is higher than deserved.