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I Ching software to explore multiple moving lines in a cast hexagram

d_squared

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Last week, by chance I came across the article about multiple moving lines on Clarity: https://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/learn/interpreting-the-i-ching/multiple-moving-lines/ which opened up a new perspective for me on the subject. With hindsight, the progression of changes from one moving line to the next , in single step, seems most logical and reasonable, but some how it has escaped me for all these years . I have been able to enhance an old computer program of mine, called E-KING (Electronic Key and Instant Gateway to I Ching), to encapsulate the above idea. This software is now offered freely to the Clarity Community . E-KING was first written some twenty odd years ago, designed to run even on the most humble MS-DOS computer. It's old-fashioned and plain, but it works well to assist all students of I Ching in various ways . The original MS-DOS version of E-KING is no longer compatible with modern WINDOWS computers . Fortunately, I recently discovered a free tool on the net (at QB64.org) which enabled me to recompile and revive E-KING to run on contemporary machines . So here it is, in a zip file : https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqlT81ICDn2ejlBg4bK5oB3W1yDG
 

d_squared

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As someone who has only ever used MS-DOS and Windows-based machines, the world of Apple computers has remained quite a foreign territory for me all these years . After recompiling the E-KING program using the compiler provided by QB64.org for Windows-10, I noticed that there is also a MAC/OSX version of the same compiler being offered freely. The opportunity was too good to pass, so I decided to have a go at porting E-KING to the Apple environment as well .
There was a bit of a learning curve to overcome, of course, but the porting was successful with relatively little effort . Once the MAC version of QB64 compiler was downloaded and installed, it was just a matter of copying the program source across and then recompile . Before I knew it, E-KING was running happily on my son's 2013 MAC-mini . It has never crossed my mind that one day I would see my old MS-DOS program shown up on an Apple machine .
Quite an odd feeling to observe an orange appearing on an apple tree !

To know what I mean, just download the fresh-off-the-press MAC-OSX version of E-KING from here :

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqlT81ICDn2ejlHHyrWXPjxVmjs4
.

After unzipping the executable, please "right-click" in order to open it (select run-anyway) . E-KING contains no malware. Even the bugs would find I Ching rather difficult to digest :)
 

Gmulii

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Good job. Lately I can't learn new system in the Five Arts without making app for it first. May be a bad habit to go into, but it does work well in the long run for many people... : )
 

d_squared

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Thank you for your feedback .
Pardon my ignorance, but what is the new system in the Five Arts ? Can you point me in the right direction ?
 

Gmulii

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In Asia there are many systems interrelated with each other, from Traditional Chinese Medicine(what we know as acupuncture, acupressure, moxibustion etc. all part of the Art of Healing for example) to even things like cooking, part of the Art of the Mountain. And all of them are related to the 5 elements, the stems and branches from the calendar and Lou Shu/He Tu etc.
All parts of what they call the Five Arts, including all this and much more.

Yi Jing is also part of that(Art of Divination).
However, there are many styles and schools there.

If you are curious I can post a link to free app that incorporates some more of the styles related to Yi Jing in the east. It uses different translations from some of the Five Arts forums and we had some more rare assignments like the Symbolic Stars, blindsect branches and stems and other similar stuff thanks to translation done by members there.

By new systems, I mean systems that I'm starting to learn, so new for me like XKDG, XKZR and lately QMDJ. Without an app and tooltips and stuff like that it's much more difficult as we need to look for text to explain elements, while otherwise we can just hover the mouse. : )
 

d_squared

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Many thanks for the explanation.
It's quite true that some of these systems are just too complicated for the poor old brain. Seven years after the E-KING software was written, I had the good fortune of reading a book which presents a method of consulting the I Ching based on the Taoist (?) concept of the Five Elements . According to this method, however, there are just so many parameters and rules to consider every time a hexagram is cast that it is quite impractical to rely on human brain power alone . To master it , I had to capture the principles involved in another computer program, called E-QEEN !

I consider E-QEEN the pair complement of E-KING for two reasons:
1) E-QEEN does not depend on any commentary text, therefore can offer a fresh new alternative perspective .
2) The answer that E-QEEN provides is in the Yes/No/May-be form, which can be more satisfying for the one who poses the question.

My personal view is to effectively consult the I Ching one should use a two-stage approach:
a) First explore the problem with an open mind to seek new directions, new ideas which have not taken shape in one's head . This can be done with E-KING, asking open-ended questions .
b) Once a better picture has appeared about what to do, which way to go etc. , a more focused , yes-no type of question can then be posed . At this point E-QEEN can be invoked to obtain the answer .

E-QEEN was written in 2002 . I have recompiled it with the QB64 tool for Windows 10, as below :

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqlT81ICDn2ejlQLzMJtfzmUlVuC

Perhaps you''ll find it useful . It could save you from writing more apps .. :)
 

Gmulii

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Good job, that is Mei Hua, a little simplified, but still awesome to see in English app!

I did some Mei Hua implementation as well in the Liu Yao/WWG app, however it need people to know the basic rules to use it, as there is no answers, the reading is suppose to be done by the practitioner.

Mei Hua part was this:

Mei-Hua-1-1.png




Well, keep up the good work, I personally think that we do need more info about these wonderful systems in the western world. : )
 

d_squared

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I had no idea about the name of the method described in the book I read. Even the book title itself has escaped me, after so many years . Thank you again for the pointer .
The screen shot from your I Ching app looks very impressive indeed. It takes more than ordinary skill to pack so much info into a single screen like that, and in colour to boot . My hat's off to you .

Being an Asian, born and bred in the East but have spent all my adult life in the West, I found myself struggling for a long time with an "identity" crisis , relentlessly pulled here and there by conflicting currents. In my view, East and West don't mix together too well ! When subjected simultaneously to the influence of these polar opposites, one very likely ends up as a social misfit . That's my personal experience anyway .


To me the Eastern philosophy tends to paint a macroscopic picture of life, in which the role of a human being is to integrate with his/her environment, to be part of a vast whole, to learn and move in sync with an ever-changing universal rhythm of some sort . On the other hand the Western way seems to me rather microscopic, where to live fully one must analyze and dissect everything into minute components, to gain understanding with a motive to control and manipulate an "external" world for one's personal advantage .

Either East or West, both roads in all probability will lead only to an approximation, an incomplete interpretation of some elusive "reality" . Whatever that "reality" truly is, as human beings with our limited senses and ability, we can never know . Anything we can conjure up would be just another "set of hexagrams" , our own made-up symbolic representations of that which exists and envelopes all, including us .

As observers, it seems we cannot get away from the fate of seeing nothing but ourselves . The "observed" apparently does not exist separately or independently from us ! We will always end up sleeping in the bed of our own making, fulfilling our own prophecies, so to speak . :)
 

Gmulii

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In the materialistic level I guess...
But there is more to all that if we look at spiritual systems.

Tibet has the lighting of the inner fire, one of the strongest spiritual systems and practices I have practiced. Buddhism in the Tibetan view is very different then what is popular in much of the East. Buddha is not a person, its a state of being. Siddhartha had it, many others have it as well.
While Buddhism may have become a control system for much of the East, based on rules like "don't do something or you will be reborn as a pig" and / or other stuff like that, there are many people, teachers and monasteries that still remember the real spark behind it.

In most religions and spiritual systems there is path laid out. But people get stuck in the control parts usually and lose the essence.

In Christianity that would be based on unconditional love, loving even your enemies or at least trying to not view them as enemies, like the tribe that had its closes word to enemy as a "friend you didn't meet yet",although all of them were killed, at least they got it right in a hostile environment for a time.
In Buddhism it would be the idea that in our natural state we are at peace, if we stop moving that peace is still there, we can keep that with us for longer then it may seem and become that eventually.
Taoism will be a different step with the idea that we can find that peace in the movement of everything, we move with it and we become That. However to know That we may need to understand our environment .
And endless more depending on the religion/system we decided to follow.

So if we find the materialistic view not enough(and in most of the East the Five Arts are materialistic systems, maybe with very few exceptions of Inner Alchemy and stuff like that). There are alternatives in each place. The spark is there, but there are layers of dirt, broken traditions, superstitions, dogmas and control elements on top of it, much like a lake tainted on the surface. Somewhere deep below there is crystal clear water that can give us all we may ever need, but need to get through the other stuff to be a part of it. But that is the spiritual aspect and that isn't innately part of the Five Arts.
 

d_squared

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Some very interesting observations. Thank you .

In Asia, where standard of living is generally pretty low, it's understandable that the focus of life would be predominantly materialistic , practically a necessity for survival . But then, when looking at the Western scene, physical comfort seems to only add more materialistic weight instead of swinging the pendulum in the spiritual direction . Can't really figure it out !


By the way , E-QEEN has also been recompiled for MAC-OSX computers :

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqlT81ICDn2ejlKc_UfwDhTfHWE_

I just found out the other day that the Apple's default Safari browser ignores ZIP files which are placed in cloud storage . As it happened, I've only been using the Mozilla Firefox browser on the MAC-mini . Firefox is a more familiar tool for me, and with it I have had no problem downloading ZIP files online .
 

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