Question: In the Later Heaven sequence, how are we to understand that Qian and Kun, the father and mother trigrams, are placed 90-degrees from one another, rather than 180 degrees, if indeed they are the polar opposites which tradition tells us they are?

They answer may well be: just because that’s the way it has always been. That would not be a new type of answer for me. I have seen a lot of that in my life.

Since the Magic Square is as old as dust, another answer might simply be that the Later Heaven sequence follows the Magic Square in directional positioning. Period.

The answer that I seem to be getting most frequently is: we don’t really know. That is also a familiar answer for me.

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