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Is it important for me to remember all the hexagrams in I Ching?

jtorz132759468

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Is it important for me to remember all the hexagrams in I Ching as I heard some famous masters said that they are just not important at all, can always refer to the chart or book of all the Hexagram names when the need arises?

If yes, how should we go about it? Any easy ways to do that?
 

tacrab

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If you anticipate using the Yi a lot, or studying it in more depth, it is helpful to be familiar with the hexagram names and numbers. Sheer repetition is best for memorizing the King Wen (received) order. Use Wing 9, the Xu Gua (Hsu-kua), which is meant to help with this.
Or, use the Fuxi/Shao Yong diagram, if you want to memorize hexagram figures at same time, as this diagram is arranged in a logical fashion.
I found it easier to do it in groups of eight.
Practice, practice!
 

Trojina

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No it is not important but with continued use you will find you naturally come to remember them anyway. I remember all the lines without ever having tried to do so.
 
C

cjgait

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I would say it is important, but as others have pointed out, it will come naturally as you work with the Yi.

Having the images in your mind, the meanings in your heart is a great tool to use in your life and is the foundation of Zhou Yi Dao meditation.

The Great Treatise says (1:2)

Thus: a superior man
when in repose,
observes the figures
and takes delight in the words;
when he acts
observes the alternations
and takes delight in the omens.
(Rutt's translation)
 

jtorz132759468

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Thanks for all the kind replies and I wondered whether those who said it's not important to remember all the 64 Hexagram names are just using I Ching for divination and not for anything else such as exploring its potential in other subjects such as science and technology, military art, medicine(be it TCM or modern biology) etc.?

I am trying to find simple ways or methods that allow us to remember all the 64 Hexagram names effectively within a short period of time as I believe that's the biggest challenge that most people have when studying I Ching?

There are many translated books on the lines etc. and I have a few of them in my library but none of them I have read so far that can offer simple ways or methods to remember all the Hexagram names which made me very frustrated as I was told that I Ching is the Genesis of Chinese culture and other subjects such as Fengshui, Qimendunjia, TCM etc. and every Hexagram actually represents every single situation that we might face in life, therefore, if one can be very good with I Ching, then it'd be easier to be good in other subjects such as Fengshui etc. that derived from it?

If one can't even remember the names of the Hexagram and what each Hexagram represents in the first place, I am quite curious how is it possible for someone to be good at it if s/he has to refer to book or chart every time the need arises?
 
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cjgait

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I evolved a system of my own for the figures. It's called the schematic version.

Zhou Yi Dao Schematic Hexagrams.jpg

The associated 'tags', the names of hexagrams came naturally over the years as I worked with the book daily.

There is an application called Memrise that has an Yi Jing learning module. You can find it in the app store of your OS of choice.
 

moss elk

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I would never tell a beginner to try to memorize the names. Focus on the meanings. That will keep you busy for years. Meaning is the important part.

Let's say you pick a single author and memorize the names that author decided on. Then you try to use Yi and find that you don't understand at all because the author you picked chose a bad name for the hexagram. (There are several names which are applicable/true to any hexagram.)

But, have fun with your interaction.
The book is much deeper than you understand.
 

tacrab

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There are mnemonic poems in Chinese for the hexagram order. Without the numbers, of course.
You could make up your own poem, that's probably easiest.
There are lots of poems in Chinese for things like this, for acupuncture points and such.
 

jtorz132759468

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I would never tell a beginner to try to memorize the names. Focus on the meanings. That will keep you busy for years. Meaning is the important part.

Let's say you pick a single author and memorize the names that author decided on. Then you try to use Yi and find that you don't understand at all because the author you picked chose a bad name for the hexagram. (There are several names which are applicable/true to any hexagram.)

But, have fun with your interaction.
The book is much deeper than you understand.

A few of my masters in China told me that foreigners who don't understand Chinese culture will never be able to be good at I Ching and other Chinese culture subjects as they don't get the "soul" of the subject(s), just like they try to copy the motions of those Tai Chi masters who are performing at the park but never get to learn the breathing techniques, the movement of the tongue, Qi etc. because they only see the external appearance of the Tai Chi master's movement instead of the internal process of it.

The analogy of memorising the hexagram names in my humble opinion is like learning a language such as English that we are using now, if we don't memorise the 26 alphabets and some of the grammars, how are we going to be able to understand the meaning of the words constructed from the alphabets so that we can communicate well with other people? I Ching only has 8 characters(Trigrams) and 64 words(Hexagrams), so how hard can it be compared to mastering a language such as 1000-2000 words in English for basic daily communication?

I Ching易经 is not a difficult book to understand at all, 易 also means that it's easy, not difficult 难, so I think for beginners, their basic must be strong and if they don't put in the efforts and looking for easy way out without understanding the meaning of the Hexagram names, then no matter how long the person spent in trying to understand I Ching, they are only seeing the tip of the iceberg and nothing more.
 

jtorz132759468

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I know the Chinese poem "乾坤屯蒙需讼师,比小畜兮履泰否... which you are talking about but even the Chinese people in China also find it difficult to memorise the poem as some can't even read the characters as they are not that commonly used, nevertheless, it's more advanced than just remembering the Hexagram names as still no one can give good explanations why the Hexagrams are arranged that way by King Wen of Zhou dynasty.

While I was looking for the answers to my question online, someone in some other forums recommended iching123.com which I had a look at it and found that some of the explanations of the hexagrams are really helpful, coincidentally some of the explanations are similar to what I found from some really good websites in China, if only there are more people like Tuck who are good in both Chinese and English can contribute to the world their gifted talent, then more people can really get to know I Ching better and not simply use it as just a religious or divination book.
 

moss elk

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A few of my masters in China told me that foreigners who don't understand Chinese culture will never be able to be good at I Ching and other Chinese culture subjects as they don't get the "soul" of the subject(s), just like they try to copy the motions of those Tai Chi masters who are performing at the park but never get to learn the breathing techniques, the movement of the tongue, Qi etc. because they only see the external appearance of the Tai Chi master's movement instead of the internal process of it.
This is of course complete ignorance.
Anyone with the faculty for it can learn.
It's like saying Japanese people would never be good at baseball because it was born in the West. Universal truths are universal. Chen Man Ching and Bruce Lee realized how stupid this claim of 'it belongs to Us!, you won't understand.' is.

The analogy of memorising the hexagram names in my humble opinion is like learning a language such as English that we are using now, if we don't memorise the 26 alphabets and some of the grammars, how are we going to be able to understand the meaning of the words constructed from the alphabets so that we can communicate well with other people? I Ching only has 8 characters(Trigrams) and 64 words(Hexagrams), so how hard can it be compared to mastering a language such as 1000-2000 words in English for basic daily communication?
Go ahead and memorize the names if you like. No one is trying to stop you, but it is kind of funny to watch you claim oversight of the subject matter.

I Ching易经 is not a difficult book to understand at all
Again, you are claiming something that you do not know.
Good luck in your study.
 

jtorz132759468

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Thank you for the comment and well wishes, I think you are right, there is no point to claim something that you don't know and it just happened that over the past few days of intensive research and good luck, I just got some easy and yet effective methods popping up in my mind to remember all the hexagram names by heart within a short period of time, maybe after practicing the methods for few more times, I will be able to understand The Book of Changes better by knowing why the hexagram has that particular name and its meaning, so excited that finally my study has gone up higher to another level, thanks to all the interactions and inputs. :)
 

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