| The I Ching (Yi Jing) Chinese Book of Changes Classic |
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The worlds scriptures have developed around the great world
empires: Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Roman, Greek, South Asian,
Chinese, Japanese, European, Byzantine, Russian, Spanish, British,
French, etc. Most important are the collections of cannonical books
associated with Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, Daoist, Christian,
Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Shinto, Muslim, Gnostic, and Zoroasterian
belief. Of these, the Christian, South Asian, Muslim, Buddhist, and
Confucian collections of scriptures have generated the greatest
modern influence. We know the Christian scriptures as the "Bible,"
the South Asian as the "Vedas," the Muslim as the "Koran," the
Buddhist as the "Tripitaka," and the Chinese as "The Confucian
Classics." Of all the Confucian Classics, the I Ching (Yi Jing) is the
oldest and most influential. The greatest and most influential
Chinese Philosopher, the major Neoconfucianist, Chu Hsi, was
heavily influence by the I Ching in developing his philosophy and
wrote commentaries on the I Ching and its proper uses.
The I Ching means "Change Classic or Change Scripture." It is a
group of texts going back as early as the 12th Century BCE (See
The Living I Ching, Deng Ming-Dao, Harper, 2006, p. xi). It is used to
predict the future, for magical divination, and as a book of wisdom,
even of metaphysics, that penetrates to the deep basis of the
relationship of the supernatural and the natural, the dreamtime and
the real world present. In its current form, it contains 64, hexagrams,
groups of six vertical lines, one above the other, either long unbroken
masculine "yang" lines or broken feminine "yin" lines. With each of
these hexagrams is a statement from the founder of the Zhou
dynasty, "King Wen." The Imperial government of China made it one
of the five basic books of the imperial Chinese cannon, or Confucian
Classics. These five books were used as the basis for official
Imperial belief and ritual from the Han dynasty, beginning in 206,
BCE, to the Qing that ended in 1911 CE (see reference above).
One way to understand these hexagrams, is to understand them as
made up either long yang masculine power lines, or broken feminine
yin receptive powerless lines. Each hexagram is a combination of
two trigrams, two sets of three lines broken or unbroken, yin or yang.
There are eight trigrams known as Heaven, Earth, Wind, Thunder,
Lake, Mountain, Flame, and Waterpit or Waterwell or Watergroove.
Heaven is the opposite of Earth, Wind of Thunder, Lake of Mountain,
Flame of Waterpit.
Fu Xi arranged the eight trigrams into an octagonal pattern:
Qian Heaven
__________
__________
_________
Dui Lake Sun Wind
___ ___ ________
_______ middle line yang ________
bottom ________ ___ ___bottom line yine
line yang boundless global yang
Li Flame Kan Water Pit
________ _____ ____
___ ____ ___________
________ energy yang to information system yin _____ ____
Zhen Thunder Gen Mountain
____ _____ __________
____ ____ ____ ___
bottom ___________ ____ ____bottom line yin
line yang particular yin
Kun Earth
____ ____
____ ____middle line yin
____ ____ (see above ref. p. xiv)
_______________________________________________________
We recommend a three dimensional organization of the trigrams, as
follows (shown as a flattened octahedron):
Long yang energy bottom line
__________________
HEAVEN TRIGRAM
Long yang self top line Long yang whole middle line
________________ __________________
WIND (Air) TRIGRAM
Broken yin information bottom line
________ _______
FLAME (Fire) MOUNTAIN (Salt) WATERPIT (Bowl) LAKE (Water)
TRIGRAM TRIGRAM TRIGRAM TRIGRAM
EARTH TRIGRAM
Broken yin atom cell middle line Broken yin group top line
_______ _______ ________
_______
THUNDER TRIGRAM
_________________
Long yang energy bottom line
_______________________________________________________
Romantic Heaven vs. Realistic Earth
Idealistic/Classical Wind (Air) vs. Expressionistic/Pragmatist Thunder
DaDa/Cubist Flame (Fire) vs. Baroque Waterpit
Impressionist Mountain (Salt) vs. Post-Impressionist Lake (Water)
_______________________________________________________
Self long top line vs. Association broken top line
Whole long middle line vs. Particular broken middle line
Flux long bottom line vs. Information/Fixed bottom line
are the six sides of a cube, vertex of octahedron, edges of
tetrahedron
The Eight trigrams are the eight faces of an octaheron (each a vertex
of a tetrahedron or a face of a tetrahedron, thus Flame, Lake, Wind,
Earth as faces, and each of Heaven, Thunder, Waterpit, Mountain, a
vertex), corners of a cube.
_______________________________________________________
The bottom line can be a long yang line ("I" or "Yi" meaning endless
flux) or a broken yin line ("Li" or information principle, fundamental
systems pattern, mathematical pattern, logical pattern, rational
pattern). The middle line can be a long yang line ("Tao" or "Dao"
meaning boundless whole) or a broken yin line ("Ch'i" or atomic
substance). The top line can be a long yang line ("Shen" or private
selfness) or a broken yin line ("Jen" or public humanness and charity).
Thus the Wind trigram is private self and boundless whole in
fundamental principle and pattern, thus the Wind trigram is the basis
of virtue, or "Te." This is the equivalent of the Greek notion of Air
and the Neoplatonic trinity of the Hen=One (Tao/Dao),
Nous=Mind=Logos (Li) and the Pneuma=Soul/spirit (Shen) as the
source of Plato's "Form (Paradigm) of the Good."
In genetic systems the long bottom yang line is evolution and the yin
is genetic code, the long middle yang line is the biosphere and the
yin line is a particular organ, the top yang line is the gene and the yin
is the population. Heaven trigram is genetic mutation and Earth is
phenotype, Wind is genetic set point and Thunder is maladaptive
expression. Flame is extinction and natural selection and Water Pit
is regulative feed back. Mountain is speciation and genetic
segregation and Lake is recombination.
Gene pools unite Lake to Heaven and variability and genetic drift
unite Heaven to Flame. Flame unites to Thunder through
competition and Thunder to Lake through sexual reproduction. The
opposite of the union of Lake and Heaven is Earth and Mountain, of
gene pools is measured traits. The opposite of variability is
homeostasis and it unites Water Pit to Earth. The opposite of
competition is system goal and the union of Wind and Water Pit.
Speciation and isolation unite Flame to Mountain. The opposite is
the hybridization that unites Water Pit to Lake. Hierarchies of
organization in genetics unite Heaven to Wind. The opposite is the
measurable demonstration that unites Earth to Thunder.
These systems are the deep metaphysics that tie all things into a
system of systems at ever higher levels of organization. Just as
there is natural selection and evolution in organisms, so in universes,
systems of universes and systems of systems.
Ethical systems emerge from language according to the principles
described by Julius Kovesi in "Moral Notions." Ethical systems lie on
the interface between Wind and Water Pit, as systems of set points.
Koversi shows that all words speak both to the value of the things
referred to in respect to human need fulfillment and the traits and
characteristics of those things. Words are generated by language
communities, and thus emerge at a level of organization beyond the
cell, the organism. The status of the speaker as the object for whom
the language is designed to serve and the subject that is helping
generate and operate the language, that status, that superior level of
organization is the source of morality and ethics, as Kovesi shows in
"Moral Notions."
As Gilbert Ryle shows, in his book, "Dilemmas," many philosophical
confusions are generated by failure to note the different categories of
thought and reference caused by levels of organization
considerations like those described above.
______________________________________________________
empires: Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Roman, Greek, South Asian,
Chinese, Japanese, European, Byzantine, Russian, Spanish, British,
French, etc. Most important are the collections of cannonical books
associated with Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, Daoist, Christian,
Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Shinto, Muslim, Gnostic, and Zoroasterian
belief. Of these, the Christian, South Asian, Muslim, Buddhist, and
Confucian collections of scriptures have generated the greatest
modern influence. We know the Christian scriptures as the "Bible,"
the South Asian as the "Vedas," the Muslim as the "Koran," the
Buddhist as the "Tripitaka," and the Chinese as "The Confucian
Classics." Of all the Confucian Classics, the I Ching (Yi Jing) is the
oldest and most influential. The greatest and most influential
Chinese Philosopher, the major Neoconfucianist, Chu Hsi, was
heavily influence by the I Ching in developing his philosophy and
wrote commentaries on the I Ching and its proper uses.
The I Ching means "Change Classic or Change Scripture." It is a
group of texts going back as early as the 12th Century BCE (See
The Living I Ching, Deng Ming-Dao, Harper, 2006, p. xi). It is used to
predict the future, for magical divination, and as a book of wisdom,
even of metaphysics, that penetrates to the deep basis of the
relationship of the supernatural and the natural, the dreamtime and
the real world present. In its current form, it contains 64, hexagrams,
groups of six vertical lines, one above the other, either long unbroken
masculine "yang" lines or broken feminine "yin" lines. With each of
these hexagrams is a statement from the founder of the Zhou
dynasty, "King Wen." The Imperial government of China made it one
of the five basic books of the imperial Chinese cannon, or Confucian
Classics. These five books were used as the basis for official
Imperial belief and ritual from the Han dynasty, beginning in 206,
BCE, to the Qing that ended in 1911 CE (see reference above).
One way to understand these hexagrams, is to understand them as
made up either long yang masculine power lines, or broken feminine
yin receptive powerless lines. Each hexagram is a combination of
two trigrams, two sets of three lines broken or unbroken, yin or yang.
There are eight trigrams known as Heaven, Earth, Wind, Thunder,
Lake, Mountain, Flame, and Waterpit or Waterwell or Watergroove.
Heaven is the opposite of Earth, Wind of Thunder, Lake of Mountain,
Flame of Waterpit.
Fu Xi arranged the eight trigrams into an octagonal pattern:
Qian Heaven
__________
__________
_________
Dui Lake Sun Wind
___ ___ ________
_______ middle line yang ________
bottom ________ ___ ___bottom line yine
line yang boundless global yang
Li Flame Kan Water Pit
________ _____ ____
___ ____ ___________
________ energy yang to information system yin _____ ____
Zhen Thunder Gen Mountain
____ _____ __________
____ ____ ____ ___
bottom ___________ ____ ____bottom line yin
line yang particular yin
Kun Earth
____ ____
____ ____middle line yin
____ ____ (see above ref. p. xiv)
_______________________________________________________
We recommend a three dimensional organization of the trigrams, as
follows (shown as a flattened octahedron):
Long yang energy bottom line
__________________
HEAVEN TRIGRAM
Long yang self top line Long yang whole middle line
________________ __________________
WIND (Air) TRIGRAM
Broken yin information bottom line
________ _______
FLAME (Fire) MOUNTAIN (Salt) WATERPIT (Bowl) LAKE (Water)
TRIGRAM TRIGRAM TRIGRAM TRIGRAM
EARTH TRIGRAM
Broken yin atom cell middle line Broken yin group top line
_______ _______ ________
_______
THUNDER TRIGRAM
_________________
Long yang energy bottom line
_______________________________________________________
Romantic Heaven vs. Realistic Earth
Idealistic/Classical Wind (Air) vs. Expressionistic/Pragmatist Thunder
DaDa/Cubist Flame (Fire) vs. Baroque Waterpit
Impressionist Mountain (Salt) vs. Post-Impressionist Lake (Water)
_______________________________________________________
Self long top line vs. Association broken top line
Whole long middle line vs. Particular broken middle line
Flux long bottom line vs. Information/Fixed bottom line
are the six sides of a cube, vertex of octahedron, edges of
tetrahedron
The Eight trigrams are the eight faces of an octaheron (each a vertex
of a tetrahedron or a face of a tetrahedron, thus Flame, Lake, Wind,
Earth as faces, and each of Heaven, Thunder, Waterpit, Mountain, a
vertex), corners of a cube.
_______________________________________________________
The bottom line can be a long yang line ("I" or "Yi" meaning endless
flux) or a broken yin line ("Li" or information principle, fundamental
systems pattern, mathematical pattern, logical pattern, rational
pattern). The middle line can be a long yang line ("Tao" or "Dao"
meaning boundless whole) or a broken yin line ("Ch'i" or atomic
substance). The top line can be a long yang line ("Shen" or private
selfness) or a broken yin line ("Jen" or public humanness and charity).
Thus the Wind trigram is private self and boundless whole in
fundamental principle and pattern, thus the Wind trigram is the basis
of virtue, or "Te." This is the equivalent of the Greek notion of Air
and the Neoplatonic trinity of the Hen=One (Tao/Dao),
Nous=Mind=Logos (Li) and the Pneuma=Soul/spirit (Shen) as the
source of Plato's "Form (Paradigm) of the Good."
In genetic systems the long bottom yang line is evolution and the yin
is genetic code, the long middle yang line is the biosphere and the
yin line is a particular organ, the top yang line is the gene and the yin
is the population. Heaven trigram is genetic mutation and Earth is
phenotype, Wind is genetic set point and Thunder is maladaptive
expression. Flame is extinction and natural selection and Water Pit
is regulative feed back. Mountain is speciation and genetic
segregation and Lake is recombination.
Gene pools unite Lake to Heaven and variability and genetic drift
unite Heaven to Flame. Flame unites to Thunder through
competition and Thunder to Lake through sexual reproduction. The
opposite of the union of Lake and Heaven is Earth and Mountain, of
gene pools is measured traits. The opposite of variability is
homeostasis and it unites Water Pit to Earth. The opposite of
competition is system goal and the union of Wind and Water Pit.
Speciation and isolation unite Flame to Mountain. The opposite is
the hybridization that unites Water Pit to Lake. Hierarchies of
organization in genetics unite Heaven to Wind. The opposite is the
measurable demonstration that unites Earth to Thunder.
These systems are the deep metaphysics that tie all things into a
system of systems at ever higher levels of organization. Just as
there is natural selection and evolution in organisms, so in universes,
systems of universes and systems of systems.
Ethical systems emerge from language according to the principles
described by Julius Kovesi in "Moral Notions." Ethical systems lie on
the interface between Wind and Water Pit, as systems of set points.
Koversi shows that all words speak both to the value of the things
referred to in respect to human need fulfillment and the traits and
characteristics of those things. Words are generated by language
communities, and thus emerge at a level of organization beyond the
cell, the organism. The status of the speaker as the object for whom
the language is designed to serve and the subject that is helping
generate and operate the language, that status, that superior level of
organization is the source of morality and ethics, as Kovesi shows in
"Moral Notions."
As Gilbert Ryle shows, in his book, "Dilemmas," many philosophical
confusions are generated by failure to note the different categories of
thought and reference caused by levels of organization
considerations like those described above.
______________________________________________________
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