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The I Ching/ Yi Jing/ Chinese Book of Changes, was made
part of the cannon of Confucian scriptures during the Han
Dynasty of ancient China around 206 years BC. For
thousands of years, the I Ching/Yi Jing has been the great
guide to the relationships of Heaven and Earth. It is the
logos, the word made manifest, the "Word of Heaven" for
the Chinese Imperial State. Once called the "Chou Yi," it
dates from the Chou dynasty (1122 to 256 BC). Yi, or I,
means a change that cannot be predicted. Jing, or Ching,
simply means an classic, an ancient text.
Essay on I Ching
(see Rudolf Ritsema and Shantena Augusto Sabbadini, The
Original I Ching Oracle, Eranos Foundation, Watkins
Publishing, 2005, p 2)

A study of the I Ching during the Sung Dynasty (See Sung
Dynasty Uses of the I Ching, Kidder Smith, Jr., Peter K. Bol,
Joseph A. Adler, Don J. Wyatt, Princeton University Press,
1990) emphasizes how there have been thousands of
references to the I Ching in China over the last three
thousand years (p. vii), and how Sung Dynasty Chinese
philosophers made the I Ching a central part of their
philosophical systems (p.1), this because the I Ching had
provided China a model linking heaven and earth, humanity
and the environment. The I Ching provided these Sung era
philosophers, beginning with Ou-yang Hsiu (1007 -1072 AD),
a means of relating heaven and earth, even humanity and
civilization to the natural order, to the tao/dao, the way of
nature (p. 27).

The Sung Dynasty is important because it is the period of the
emergence of Neoconfucian philosophy, the most influential
philosophy in later periods of Chinese history. It is also the
period that gave rise to Chu Hsi, the most influential of all
Chinese philosophers. Chu Hsi's philosophy was extensively
influenced by the I Ching. Chu Hsi wrote extensively on the
I Ching, including commentary, interpretations, and ways of
using the I Ching (pp. 169 -205). Chu Hsi wanted to return
to the original idea of the I Ching as it developed more than a
thousand years before his time. This meant that he had to
ignore much that was in later commentaries, including those
of King Wen and the Duke of Chou.

We will press an interpretation of the I Ching, influenced by
Chu Hsi, that interprets the hexagrams as a series of trigrams
composed of long yang energy lines and short broken yin
information lines. The bottom line of each trigram is either
the long yang "I" line of the conserved thermodynamic
energy that supplies all change, or the broken "Li" line of the
information principles that supply all mathematical and
rational stability. The middle line of each trigram is either the
long yang line of the "Tao," or "Dao" that is the boundless
order of all things, or the broken yin "Ch'i" (Hsiang is the
form, the local structure that molds the Ch'i) line of the
particular material order that breaks out of the longer line
yang whole. The top line is the long "Te" (Shen) of inner
subjective virtue (or essential creative power) vs. The broken
short "Jen" lines of the human civilized world.

For further information, click on the reference links at the top
of this page.
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Our interpretation is unusual in the sense that we attempt to
tie it to the nature of the human brain. The long top yang
line, that we identify to "Te" or to "Shen" is also the anterior,
the Frontal Lobe, portion of the cerebral cortex, while the
"Jen" opposite is the association areas of the Parietal,
Occipital, Temporal Lobe posterior. The long middle yang
line that we identify to "Tao/Dao" would be the Right
Cerebral Hemisphere and the "Ch'i" or "Hsiang" atomic
matter opposite, the broken middle yin line, would be the
Left Cerebral (verbal) Hemisphere (fact loving hemisphere).
Finally the long yang "I" line, pure change, pure energy would
be the limbic and autonomic systems of the brain, while the
broken bottom yin lines, the "Li" would be the information
systems of the brain, hippocampus, basal ganglia, striated
body switching, etc.

The three long lines of the Heaven trigram would also be the
Brahma (Te or Shen line), Vishnu (Tao/Dao line), Shiva ( I
line) of the Hindu trinity of creator, preserver, and destroyer.

The broken top yin line of the Lake trigram would be the
thesis stage of the Hegelian dialectic, the long yang line at the
bottom of the Lake trigram, the antithesis stage of the
dialectic (pure "I" change), and the long yang middle line at
the center of the Lake trigram, the synthesis stage of the
Hegelian dialectic (pure "Tao/Dao" boundless one). This
long yang line can also be the Brahman-Nirvana unity of all
things, from which the long yang bottom line of eternal flux,
of Karma-Dharma, action and law of information system
reaction, draw the soul into Samara, into the broken top line
of attachment to the world and rebirth.

The long yang line at the top of the Wind trigram would be
the Pneuma (soul, spirit) of the Neoplatonic trinity (Thus, Te,
or Shen). The long yang middle line would be the Hen (one)
and thus, Tao/Dao. The broken yin line at the bottom, the
Nous, Logos, or Mind, would be the equivalent of Chu Hsi's
"Li." The link between Te and Tao/Dao is the "Father" of
the Christian Trinity, the link between Te and Li, the soul
becoming logos, thus, the "Son," and the link between Li and
Tao/Dao, the "Holy Spirit". The Father connects Wind to
Heaven, to the origin of all things, to the divine as the Hindu
trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, creator, preserver, and
destroyer. The Son connects Wind to Mountain, to "the
Word made Flesh." The Holy Spirit connects Wind to
Waterpit, to the levels of organization systems order that
governs creation. Thus, Wind is the ultimate paradigm, the
Platonic "Form of the Good," the set point, the idealism that
guides all information systems, the place where information
systems, symbolized by the broken bottom yin line of the
Wind trigram, are held up by two long yang lines into the
Heaven trigram, into the boundless creative source of all
being.

The three types of laws of Bernard Rensch, and Evolution
Above the Species Level, See the papers of the Darwinian
Centennial, University of Chicago, 1959, laws of parallelism,
are the long top yang line of the Mountain trigram, laws of
coherence or logic, the broken bottom yin information line,
and the laws of correspondence (laws of science), broken yin
middle line of the Mountain trigram. The top yang line is also
the Spirit, broken middle line the Law, and broken bottom
line, the Body, of the Spirit, Law, and Body trinity of New
Thought.

The Waterpit trigram consists of the broken top Sanga
Buddhist church yin line, the broken bottom information
Dharma law line, and the long yang middle Buddhamind
Nirvana line. The broken top line is also the associative
assembly legislative function, the broken bottom line, the
legal and judicial function, and the unbroken middle yang
line, the power line of the universal king boundless empire,
the ultimate Executive line, this being the trinity of
government.

The Thunder trigram emerges from the Lake trigram by
breaking the long middle yang line into the broken lines of
movement of energy to dispersion, to entropy. The Thunder
trigram consists of the bottom long yang line, which
symbolizes endlessly conserved thermodynamic energy, the
broken middle yin line, energy dispersed to entropy in the
movement of molecules. Moving molecules become hotter
as they move faster, so this is heat energy. It is the atomic
particular that is the opposite of the Brahman-Hen-One whole.
The top broken yin line is the relativistic world, the universe
of relativistic space-time and the evolution of energy
dissipative structures within that universe. Thus, the top
broken yin line is the evolving universe and the various levels
of organized structure that emerge in the evolving universe
driven by Darwinian competition at various levels of
organization. The Thunder trigram also symbolizes the
Buddhist suffering trinity. The long bottom yang line is the
endless flux underlying all manifest things, the broken yin
middle line is movement toward entropy and the suffering
caused by the death and disintegration of all higher structures
by entropy, and finally the top broken yin line is the third leg
of the Buddhist suffering trinity, the realization that there is
no real self in the manifest world, all things are but
associations of smaller atomic units. We are only a collection
of thoughts and feelings, cells and atoms.

When the long bottom yang line of the Thunder trigram is
finally broken, it yields the Earth trigram. The broken
bottom yin line of the Earth trigram symbolizes the
information system order that emerges from the competition
between energy dissipative structures. The broken middle
line symbolizes the quantum mechanical and atomic levels of
organization that underlie the particulars of the material
world. The broken top yin line symbolizes the relativistic
world of time and space that is organized into planets, solar
systems, galaxies, universes, and megacosmic systems, the
public associated world that is the polar opposite of the long
yang line of the infinitesimal monad jiva being from within
self.

When this long yang jiva monad line is generated in a
Thunder trigram, it changes into the Flame trigram. Each line
of the Flame trigrams symbolizes one of the three gunas of
Jain metaphysics. The long yang line at the top of the Flame
trigram symbolizes the sattva guna, the long yang energy line
at the bottom of the Flame trigram symbolizes the rajas
(activity) guna, and the broken middle line symbolizes the
tamas guna, the guna of the particular, of finite form and
atomic substance. Thus, each line of a trigram, or
combination of lines, symbolizes a person, an element of a
trinity of some type, metaphysical, theological, ecological,
etc..

The Heaven trigram is the romantic supernatural aspect of
existence, and the Earth trigram is the realistic and scientific
aspect. The Heaven trigram is boundless endless yang lines
that are never used up and magically so rich that they drive
the marvelous and the improbable out of the probable. The
Earth is the broken and battered local finite pieces of these
long yang lines, the broken yin lines that receive yang
possibility into the limited finite world of the actual.

The Wind trigram lifts information and system into the
endless and boundless yang line world and gives it perfection
in infinite completeness and creative refinement in
infinitesimal singularity. The Wind trigram is the idealism and
Platonic formal goodness that sets the set points of all
systems. Its opposite is the Thunder trigram that matches the
Classical idealism of Wind-Air with the expressionism, and
populism, and vulgarity of Thunder-Dust. Thunder is
marketing and business and practical things. Thunder is fun
rather than goodness and sales rather than quality. Thunder
is the thermodynamic progression of events, the movement
of energy toward entropy that drives the emergence of energy
dissipative structures and the organic and post-organic
evolution that drives emergence at higher and higher levels of
organizational order in the visible world: quanta, particles,
atoms, molecules, cells, organisms, populations, communities,
ecosystems and mechanical systems, biospheres and
electronic spheres, planets and astronauts and space probes,
solar systems and robotics, star clusters and androids,
galaxies and demigods, supergalaxies and titans, universes and
god-creators.

Mountain-Salt is the mental system that emerges from Earth
within brains and impressionistic systems that press against
the long yang line of the subjective soul infinitesimal monad
jiva pneuma creative spirit private singular here and now
time. Lake-Water is the collective unconscious, the fadism,
symbolism, post-impressionism, the system of association
and attachment that drives samsara, the wheel of death and
rebirth that attaches the jiva soul to Mountain and to Earth.
Lake is the broken top yin line becoming deeper long yang
lines that is the public recombination that generates all public
time and space, all movements in art and history. It is the
unique infinitesimal space time of the monad self winding its
infinitesimally refined endless timelines around the space time
of other monads till thick public timelines emerge and
congregate into relativistic time and space at the broken
association points of the yin line at the top of the Lake
trigram. These breaks allow private and personal time to
emerge into the public world.

Waterpit is the astrological dharma-karma Baroque order that
attaches information systems at various levels of atomic,
molecular, and cellular evolution to the long yang line of the
One Brahman Vishnu whole. Flame is the long yang line of
the jiva soul opening up this order to the new, to the Da Da-
Cubist, to local choice and local creation, and individualized
expression. Waterpit is fate, and Flame is the transformation
of fate, liberation from the cave, the bondage of the inner
soul.

For more of this see the references to be clicked above.
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I Ching/ Yi Jing Chinese Book of Changes Classic of Changes