Colors of Yijing

[tiziano]

Hi all,
I'd like to share a "vision" I had these days, I tried to put it down in a kind of "artwork"...

Well, here it is. I call it the "Colors of Yijing" mandala.

It's constructed using the traditional colors attributed to the eight trigrams, or at least the majority of them.

From the center: Wu Ji (in black), Tai Ji (in iridescent white, with its taijitu symbol superimposed), the Wu Xing (the five Elements or Phases) and finally the eight Trigrams, in the Xian Tian sequence.
Then, each of the trigrams is represented in all its possible "changing forms"; so, each one is surrounded by a smaller crown of trigrams (in the Hou Tian sequence), where all their hues blend together giving birth to 64 "changes".

I'd like to read some feedback from you about it, especially if you think there's space for some improvements or if I disposed things (trigrams, colors) properly.

You can download full-res image from here.

Thank you very much in advance. :bows:

 

[neegula]

ooohhh! thank you so much!
i joined in your group through FB few minutes ago: very happy to know that you are there in italy! actually i landed (or heavened) here on Clarity when, few years ago, i didn't find any forum about loving Yi in italy.. but i'm not a genius of Search.... well, sometimes it's a blessing not being genius

see you soon

neegula stef

 

[pocossin]

Where are the five elements, Tiziano? I don't see them.

 

[tiziano]

Just outside the taijitu symbol, where you can see that violet and yellow are still undivided.
Mmmhh yes it's barely visible, I should try to enhance it... anyway, the drawing is meant to illustrate the trigrams mainly, so I don't know...
Thank you for your remark, Pocossin!

...and yes, metal should be white, not violet... but I needed a color that could unify both Dui and Qian, and violet seemed the fittest one. There's a subtle blend anyway in every "element", metal is violet/purple, earth is yellow/orange and the two greens are slightly different... this is meant to show the yin-yang polarity starting to manifest itself in each element (except water and fire).

 

[pocossin]

This is a beautiful metaphysical design. Taking the lower trigram as Earlier Heaven (Xian Tian) and the upper as Later Heaven (Hou Tian), one can move from the Wu Ji center outward to a particular hexagram. For example, I just responded to a 28.5. Moving from the center, to upper right, and to the right gives hexagram 28 in a cosmic context.

 

[frank_r]

A beautifull design. Thanks for that.
Did you check the site of Lise with the article about the colours.http://www.yijing.nl/i_ching/trigrams/bigpattern.htm
If not you should read that also.

all the best Frank

 

[tiziano]

This is a beautiful metaphysical design. Taking the lower trigram as Earlier Heaven (Xian Tian) and the upper as Later Heaven (Hou Tian), one can move from the Wu Ji center outward to a particular hexagram. For example, I just responded to a 28.5. Moving from the center, to upper right, and to the right gives hexagram 28 in a cosmic context.

Yes, that's a great idea!

 

[tiziano]

A beautifull design. Thanks for that.
Did you check the site of Lise with the article about the colours.http://www.yijing.nl/i_ching/trigrams/bigpattern.htm
If not you should read that also.

all the best Frank

You're welcome, and thank you for the link!
I had missed it. It's a different approach, but built upon very solid basis. Very interesting.
LiSe's site is great, I love her pages about the trigrams. Now I've printed them all!

In fact I used the colors traditionally attributed to each trigram, according to: Shuogua, Da Liu's "I Ching Numerology" and Zu-Hui Yang and Hiria Ottino's "Le Livre de la Simplicité - Yi Jing Taoïste". I tried to imagine the different hues (of "yellow" or "blue-green" or "red", for example) choosing the fittest one for each trigram ("yellow" can't be the same for Kun, Gen and Zhen, for instance, even if all three have a "yellow" as their attribute).

 

[tiziano]

Here is the complete list I put together from the various sources, for quick reference (S=Shuogua, L=Da Liu, Y=Zu-Hui Yang):

Qian
S: deep red; L: white, deep red, dark colors; Y: scarlet red, deep purple*
Kun
S: black [soil]; L: yellow, black; Y: yellow, black
Li
S: --- (fire**, sun, light); L: bright red; Y: red, purple
Kan
S: red, (blood, moon); L: black, red; Y: black
Xun
S: white, gray[-haired men]; L: blue, white; Y: blue-green
Zhen
S: dark yellow, green [young bamboo]; L: green, dark yellow, light yellow; Y: blue-green/black, green-blue, jade green
Gen
S: black[-billed birds]; L: dark yellow; Y: yellow
Dui
S: --- (mouth, tongue); L: white, violet; Y: white

*) I think this matches the color found at line 2.6, probably similar to indigo, which is said to be the colour of the yang dragon's blood.
**) crimson?