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Crosslines, fan yao and squares

heylise

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Pictures were missing, so I am doing it all over...
Lise
 

heylise

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Crossline omens have to do with the fact that hexagrams are each other's inverse. One is upside-down the other. When you draw a hexagram on its side, you cannot see which one is meant.
5066.jpg
..is this 25.2 or 26.5?

I found the principle when I found this on Steve Marshall's website:
<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

http://www.biroco.com/yijing/scan.htm A paper by Edward Hacker and Steve Moore ? 'A brief note on the two-part division of the received order of the hexagrams in the Zhouyi', by Edward Hacker and Steve Moore. .. They discovered a diagram showing the idea was known in the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

Every hexagram has its upside down counterpart (qian gua), and most of them are visible in the Yi as 'pair'. But some pairs consist not of one hexagram with its inverse, but of two different hexagrams, which happen not to have an inverse.. or rather, it looks not different. Hexagrams 1/2, 27/28, 29/30, and 61/62. So I think there is one small mistake in Karcher's crossline omens, it is the inconsistency Kevin mentioned.
Hex.1 upside down is hex.1, and 2 is 2... So the crossline goes from hex.1.2 to 1.5, and from 1.3 to 1.4. Not to hex 2. The relation between 1 and 2 is a different one, it has to do with being each others opposite (pang tong gua), not inverse.

In the Yi it looks as if there are 64 DIFFERENT hexagrams. But what if there are only 36 different ones, and the other 28 are simply the inverses? That explains why pairs have so much to do with each other. Same theme, but one of the two is that theme turned upside-down.
When you compare 'pairs', some obviously belong together, others not as clearly as that, eg 27 and 28. I cannot see excess as upside-down nourishment. Or heaven as upside-down earth. Most real pairs make sense when seen together: 3 and 4 (beginning versus not-knowing), 5 and 6 (waiting versus contending), and so on. A very clear one is 41-42 of course, there even the name is kind of upside down.

Then there are the fanyao, the line with its 'brother' in the relating hexagram. The fanyao of 25.2 is 10.2. Together with the qian yao, the connection of 25.2 with 26.5, they form a square of lines, the 'crossline omen'.

Here is an example of a complete "crossline omen", or square as I call them myself. I must admit, Karcher's name is a lot prettier.
5067.jpg

In this drawing, the square is not immediately visible, but it is there.

Here is an example of another one, drawn in a more extensive way. There is not 'more' than in the previous diagram. Just another way of showing it.
5068.gif


Hilary is right, nobody invented anything, everybody just discovered it.

LiSe
 

siwert

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Just my "two cents." I see the tricky pair 27 and 28 as in both cases relating to self-subsistence. The protagonist of 27 is searching for nourishment while 28 is a house in bereavement (mourning rituals at the bottom line) but yet coping with the loss of an important member (line four). Coping, perhaps because a remaining member leaves the house to look for sustenance (27)?

A very different meaning-pair might be seen in the very aware and keen-eyed character of 27 in contrast to 28's oblivion and excessive feeling wrought about by e.g. bereavement.
 

heylise

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They have a lot to do with each other, but not in the upside-down way of Qian Gua. They are to each other what hexagrams 1 and 2 are to each other, Pang Tong Gua.

When I fugure out a square/crossline, I always look to the opposite hexagrams too, because they tell a lot about what the square "is not".

Eg the square of 33.2-44.2 which has to do with the way of 'having', or holding on to things, and as opposite to that the square of 19.2-24.2 which has to do with the way of 'being', following your own road.

square 19.2-33,2

LiSe
 

frank

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Hi LiSe,

I?m trying to experiment a bit with this method, as I?m always curious of ways in ?reading? the Yi. Now I was wandering what the ?roadmap?of this method would be... Do I read the fanyao first after the changing line, then the opposite and at last the oposite of the first hexagram, or do I read that one first?

As in an example... say, I have line 11.1... Do I read 11.1 > 46.1 > 45.6 > 12.6 or.... do I read 11.1 > 12.6 > 46.1 > 45.6... ore variations on this?

Hug,
Frank
 

heylise

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I don't think the sequence makes any difference. I found that they make a theme together, sometimes it takes quite some pondering what the theme is. I put them all on one page, the lines with meanings, and then look - and look - and look. Then slowly a common theme emerges. something which applies to all those four lines.

The reward is, that the basic meaning of the lines becomes much more clear, and from there it is easier to apply them to a situation. In 19.2-33.2 the theme was a simple one, that is why I posted that one. But maybe in others I did not yet find that one. Simple is usually the proof that you found it.

liSe
 

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