New Evidence for the Indo-European Origins of the Yi Jing Trigram Names by Julie Lee Wei

[surnevs]

From the Introduction:
"The purpose of this paper is to add new considerations to the case for the proposal that the names of the Yi Jing trigrams were originally Indo-European (IE) words. It does this by following the method, pioneered by Victor H. Mair,1 of proposing correspondences in sound-and-meaning between a given Old Chinese word and a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) etymon and/or its IE reflexes............"

Link: http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp324_yi_jing_trigram_names.pdf

 

[surnevs]

I would have added this first article (spp161 that Julie refers to) concerning the matter but couldn't edit it, so I'll link to it here:
http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp161_yi_jing_trigrams.pdf

 

[dobro p]

The loan word idea is fascinating, and I'll continue to consider it. But if the hexagrams are archetypal in origin and inspiration, that means that they and their images are universal, not just the language used to name the images.

That's the thing about Huang that I don't really get. For each hexagram, he goes into an analysis of the ideogram, as if that helps you understand the meaning of the hexagram. Cart before horse, yes?

 

[surnevs]

The loan word idea is fascinating, and I'll continue to consider it. But if the hexagrams are archetypal in origin and inspiration, that means that they and their images are universal, not just the language used to name the images.

That's the thing about Huang that I don't really get. For each hexagram, he goes into an analysis of the ideogram, as if that helps you understand the meaning of the hexagram. Cart before horse, yes?

Hi dobro p,

I'll link to the conversation that I guess to which you are replying (?) just for good order.

I may admit that I can't follow you concerning Alfred Huang's explanations of the Ideographs or tags that follow each hexagram, but if I'm not wrong you are referring to the origination of the meaning behind it all to be these six-lined patterns or hexagrams (?) to which I think that nobody knows (?)
In "True Eye of the Tiger", Sakis Totlis has made an attempt to explain the I Ching text from the perspective of the hexagram pattern and I think he's on the right track, mostly. A pdf draft of the book can be downloaded from his academia.edu profile above here.

 

[dobro p]

Hi dobro p,

I may admit that I can't follow you concerning Alfred Huang's explanations of the Ideographs or tags that follow each hexagram, but if I'm not wrong you are referring to the origination of the meaning behind it all to be these six-lined patterns or hexagrams (?) to which I think that nobody knows (?)

Sorry to be late getting back to you. What I meant was this: The sages arrived at the meaning of a hexagram, and THEN chose the name (with its ideogram). Meaning and image first, name and ideogram second. But Huang goes into the structure and meanings of the components of each ideogram in order to eleucidate the meaning of the hexagram. Of course, one *can* do that, but I think it's a bit back to front.