I Ching
Tom Grove
Keywords: divination, hexagrams, Book of Changes, oracles, yarrow sticks, penny
toss, Confucianism, Daoism
I. Like any other epistemological form of
knowledge, the I Ching, or Book of Changes, provided one of the first
systematized attempts of a culture to make sense of the confusion and flux in
the world around it. At the time of the conception of the texts about 4,000
years ago, the Chinese faced a world where no guarantees were offered, and
safety, like good fortune, was never certain (Anthony 3). This encumberance
with constant change led to a need for stability and, ultimately, the creation
of a book that offered grounding advice. The Chinese, for centuries, took the
short, elusive epigrams of the I Ching as the voice of an oracle that would
help men through times of trouble or confusion.
II.
The I Ching was originally
found in China and is best identified as an oracle. Its importance, however, is
the oracle's roots in philosophy and its claim to reflect the natural laws of
change. The man seeking guidance from
the I Ching understands that one must live life in harmony with the cosmic and
personal changes that are in constant motion. By accepting the wisdom of the
oracle, one accepts that change is an inescapable, defining feature of life and
uses the laws of change to his benefit. Because change, according to the
thought underlying the book, is inherent in every moment, the I Ching all
situations can grasp any situation and ascertain a fruitful path of conduct for
any moment.
"The Book of Changes
embraces the essential meaning of the various situations of life: thus we are
in a position to shape our lives meaningful, by acting in accordance with order
and sequence, and doing in each case what the situation requires (Wilhelm I
Ching lvii)."
Ultimately the I Ching is a
guide for living for all people. By offering man a philosophy that assumes a
grasp on immutable laws of nature, a semblance of sought-after stability can be
found and a greater meaning can be ascribed to his decisions. He is no longer
an isolated soul acting arbitrarily in the world, but is an enlightened figure
whose thoughts and actions commune with and reflect higher natural truths.
III.a First
of all, the Book of Changes must be accepted on the assumption that it
"contains the measure of heaven and earth: therefore (enabling) us to
comprehend the Tao of the world and its order (Wilhelm 263)." By making
such a lofty claim, the I Ching may throw the foundations of its wisdom into
doubt. The Book of Changes, however, ascribes its insight to men of
"cosmic intelligence" who incorporated their wisdom into the images
of the I Ching. Once they had observed their world and its infinite flux, these
sages set about delineating the laws of change and syncretized them into the I
Ching hexagrams and their accompanying commentaries. In this manner,
empiricism, coupled with cosmic wisdom, is the foundation to the I Ching's own
claim to knowledge.
Thus the sages acted as an intermediary between fixed,
immutable natural laws and those who seek knowledge. Their authority, defined
by the Book of Changes as an equivalent to modern scientists, however, leaves
some weight to be desired. If we look beyond the texts of the I Ching, we find
that their empirical observations and subsequent delineations of natural law
provide that their words are grounded in fact, but the otherworldly, oracular
nature of the I Ching demands that authority come also from outside the realm
of the empirical. Examining these figures, the sages also bear the credibility
of an entire cultural history. Relying on culture and the stability its
familiarity brings, the sages engender an entire way of thinking that has
stayed with the Chinese people throughout centuries of peace and turmoil. These
figures represent the stability the Chinese find in their cultural past. The I
Ching, speaking with the voices of these sages, thus has an authority not only
derived from faith in empiricism but also from the roots of an entire cultural
philosophy.
The figure of the sages is furthermore solidified in the
Taoist bearing of the commentaries. The philosophy of Taoism adds to the
cultural weight of the I Ching, but bears philosophical importance in and of
itself as well. Began by Lao – Tse, Taoism looks at the world and all action
that transpires therein as a manifestation of the continually oscillating
forces of yin and yang. This concept– the yin-yang – is the primary dualism
that can be expanded to embrace all dichotomies – male/female, bad/good,
dark/light. Each moment holds a specific composition of yin and yang expressed
in the sum total of all dualities being played out in the world. Thus each
moment has a Tao in the way every person has a fingerprint. The I Ching uses
random events, such as the coin toss, as a way to take this fingerprint. Once
this information is gained, the I Ching examines the yin and yang in the given
situation and, ultimately, meditates upon a course of action for the
individual.
III.b. Perhaps
we can understand the role that these cultural and philosophical foundations of
the I Ching better if we can gain a hold on the system of hexagrams developed
in the book. Structurally, the hexagrams are composed of six broken or unbroken
lines – the unbroken line represents the creative forces of nature, and the
broken lines, the receptive or yielding natural phenomena. Each hexagram is
named according to the two trigrams of which it is composed. Ranging through
all the eight possible combinations of broken and unbroken lines, the trigrams
are given names based on the amount of creative or yielding forces at play
within them as well as the visual imagery they invoke. (http://www1.shore.net/~rdl/iching/Trigrams.html
)
The hexagrams of the I Ching are considered to be the
earthly representations of ideal situations endlessly at play in the heavens.
As the Tao of the world oscillates between the forces of yin and yang, the
hexagrams that represent each moment change. In this way, the I Ching plays off
of the schism between the ideal and the real.
The ideal world of images, which is in constant transition, dictates the
state of earthly affairs. In turn, the sixty-four hexagrams of the Book of Changes
correspond to and represent each one of these different ideal situations. Over
time, however, the lines of the hexagram can change. The broken lines can
become forceful; the solid lines can break. The philosophy of the I Ching
embraces change implicit in each hexagram, providing explanations for
situations on the verge of change. The forces of yin and yang are shown to be
in constant flux, adding, with the fourth dimension of time, the necessity of
transformation and change in all things. In this way change represented in the
hexagrams is constant on earth, in the heavens, and in the lives of those
people applying to the oracle for help.
In summoning the oracular voice of the I Ching, the
supplicant tries to make sense of a particularly puzzling or important
situation. Through entreating the oracle to speak, a hexagram and accompanying
texts will reveal the cosmic nature of the petitioner's situation, including a
subsequent mode of action. In applying to the Book of Changes, six throws of
three coins must be made. By assigning heads and tails of the three coins
thrown – three and two, respectively – each throw will have a value of six,
seven, eight, or nine. Starting from the bottom, a new line is added with each
throw. Odd numbers produce solid lines and even numbers produce broken lines.
Lines of the values of six and nine constitute aspects of the hexagram that are
on the verge of change and must be considered separately in the text. After six
throws, the hexagram is complete.
Now the hexagram itself can be found in the I Ching. At
first the hexagram as a whole should be regarded. The title of the hexagram and
its breakdown into elementary trigrams provides a heading for following
information -- the commentary provided by the aforementioned sages. Their words
about each hexagram are split under headings of Judgment and Image.
The commentary on the image of the hexagram is the direct
result of the observations of the sages.
"The holy sages were
able to survey all the confused diversity under heaven. They observed forms and
phenomena, and made representations of things and their attributes. These were
called the images (Wilhelm 304)."
Through their observations,
the sages were able to determine the sixty-four ideal images in heaven. Their
commentaries elaborate upon the nature of the given image and develop our
understanding of the archetypal figures that underlie the hexagram before us.
The image commentary of the Chi'en hexagram, The Creative, is presented in the
following words: "The movement of heaven is full of power. Thus the
superior man makes himself strong and untiring (Wilhelm 6)." Here we find simply the verbal
representation of the hexagram image.
It is the judgment commentaries that then provide a
specific meaning to the supplicant's situation. Here lie the adjurations of the
oracle. While the image commentaries provide an understanding of the hexagram
and its nature, the judgment commentaries draw on the essence of the image to
develop a course of action for the supplicant. Cosmic knowledge prescribes a
path that creates the greatest harmony between man and his environment.
Confucius' Doctrine of the Mean provides a useful example of the harmony that
is attempted. Playing off the Taoist interplay of opposites, the Doctrine of
the Mean seeks to strike a balance between all conflicting counterparts and
ease the tensions between the will of man and the condition of his environment.
Thus the tensions of yin and yang within the situation are relieved, and
equilibrium is struck not only in the personal life, but in the world Tao as
well.
Like many other
systems of divination, a large amount of interpretation is needed to give
personal meaning to the words randomly arise from the book. The loose language
of the text demands a great deal of personal supplement to give the lines their
meaning. Interpretation plays an important role in both commentaries, but it
maintains its largest part in the Judgment. Here, he who approaches the oracle
receives a meditation on the right actions to be taken and the fortunes that
these actions bode. Once again drawing from the Chi'en hexagram, the Creative,
the judgment reads: "The creative works sublime success. Furthering
through perseverance (Wilhelm 5)." From these lines, the person who tossed
the coins must find an application to the important question or situation in
mind to derive worth from the text.
Ultimately, the power of the I Ching lies here, in the
interpretation. For the oracle to work, the entreator must make sense of and
find a personal course of action derived from the words of the Judgment. At
this stage the validity of knowledge is either upheld or falsified. If the
supplicant can find a way to apply the commentary of the book of Changes to his
life and affect his situation in some meaningful way, the I Ching proves to be
a valid source of knowledge. If, on the other hand, the words of the sages find
no application in the life of the supplicant, that person has no recourse but
to dismiss the validity of the system, discard the Book of Changes, and use his
three coins for something more useful.
III.c. The
authority of the I Ching is rooted in the philosophy of the Chinese culture
found in the commentaries that accompany each hexagram. For this reason, all
knowledge must be sought within the text, as all authority lies therein.
Although modern scholars such as C.G. Jung and Richard Wilhelm have taken up
the I Ching as an object of study in the 20th c., the I Ching has no definitive
contemporary authority structure outside of the book itself. Many people have laid claim to its knowledge
through I Ching web-sites and private I Ching "readings," but because
the I Ching is one of the most accessible forms of divination known in any
tradition, no authority outside of the book is needed for interpretation.
Although a background in the philosophical foundations are necessary to
understand the voice of the oracle, no bodies ruling over the I Ching control
its use and wisdom. Ultimately, the consultation of the texts is based on
exclusively personal interaction with the book and is not reliant on authority
outside the text.
IV. The
Book of Changes is first mentioned in records of the Hsia dynasty (2205 – 1766
b.c.e.). Fu Hsi is attributed to be the
first in a long line of thinkers to contribute to the form and structure of the
Book of Changes. His contribution was the use of horizontal figures in
composing the book. His primitive shaping of the book’s structure, according to
scholar Richard Wilhelm, is a sign that his involvement predated “historical
memory.”
After Fu Hsi, subsequent
Chinese thinkers took the book up to append its texts.These included King Wên,
Duke of Chou, and Confucius.
King Wên is believed to have made his contribution to the
Book of Changes during his imprisonment at the hands of Chou Hsin. It was
thereafter that his son, Duke of Chou appended the King’s words. His commentary
was the first to link structured text to the hexagrams. After the role of the
Duke of Chou, the text was entitled the Changes of Chou (I Chou), and it was
form this point onward that the texts together with the hexagrams were used as
a form of oracle.
This was the state of the Book of Changes at the time
Confucius is believe to have attended to it. There is a certain ambiguity,
however, that arises in regard to Confucius’ involvement with the oracle. In
the Analects, Confucius dismisses the Book of Changes. If Confucius, himself,
was not compelled by the book, some of his students did indeed take up the
book. Pu Shang, a follower of Confucius, was known to have spread the I Ching
throughout different parts of China.
Even if Confucius’ personal relationship with the Book of
Changes was lacking, his historical and philosophical rapport with the oracle
cannot be denied. Confucius’ notion of the Doctrine of the Mean is used
extensively in ascertaining the correct mode of action when consulting the I
Ching. The belief that one should develop harmony between the events in the
environment and the forces of an inner nature underlies a great deal of the
wisdom of the I Ching.
Confucius has also been connected to the I Ching through
the fact that the oracle has found a place as one of the five Confucian
classics. These texts were mandatory reading for all those applying for a
career in civil service. Because of the cultural importance the Book of Changes
developed over the time of its use in service training, it was one of the few
books that survived the book burnings of the tyrant Chi’in Shih Huang Ti.
Because of its age, the Book of Changes is often revered as more of a
compendium of cultural wisdom and philosophy than a tool for divination.
V. Because
of my academic examination of the I Ching, I had been reluctant to go through
and personally consult the oracle. Historical and philosophical deconstruction
and faith must be relegated to their separate corners; it is very seldom that
the two attitudes can merge. Over this previous Thanksgiving break, however, I
found myself in a position to learn a great deal about my particular situation
and the kind of conduct it would demand.
I was in Florence, visiting a friend for the ten days of
the break. During these ten days of travel, I had some experiences,
conversations, and thoughts that changed a great deal the way I hold myself in
relation to other people. Unfortunately, traveling often provides these
insights, but seldom can they applied to real life once traveling is over. I
felt, however, that what I was finding out was too important to lose in the
midst of the fury and delirium of finals week I would be returning to at
Washington and Lee. Since I felt significantly removed from working on this
paper, I decided to pose the question: "How can bring what I learned from
this trip home?"
I sat on the bed in my friend's apartment and threw down
the coins once, twice -- all six times.
I rolled:
9
9
7
6
7
7
This turned out to be the
"Treading" hexagram. Composed of the "Chi'en" (creative) trigram
above and the "Tui" (joyous) trigram below, the hexagram
"Lue" suggests an emphasis on conduct. The Judgement reads
"Treading. Treading upon the tail of the tiger. It does not bite the man.
Success." The judgment determines my course of action as a response to my
question. According to the oracle, I am weak and among those who can harm me.
If I conduct myself in the right way, I will not be harmed. The harm that could
bite me could be a number of things. For my situation, I interpreted it as my
life in the United States. In order to bring what I learned back with me, I
have to conduct myself in the right way and not forget what happened to me.
As for the Image commentary, it reads: " Heaven
above, the lake below: The image of treading. Thus the superior man
discriminates between high and low, and thereby fortifies the thinking of the
people." This text corresponded more directly to my situation because much
of my thoughts dealt with how I ought to treat people. Less interpretation is
needed with these lines.
Because I rolled two 9s and one 6, lines of implicit
transformation, I had to consider that these parts of the hexagram were on the
verge of change. Thus I had to read the commentary provided for changing lines
in these three positions. In reading "six in the third line" I found
out that the tiger really does bite the man. This was not particularly
encouraging. "Nine in the fifth place" told me that despite the
danger (I suppose of getting bitten) I should nonetheless act with resolution.
Finally with "nine at the top" I found that as long as I kept
severely conscious of my actions "everything (will be) fulfilled, supreme
good fortune comes." After considering these changing lines I decided that
if I am to follow the I Ching's advice, I must persevere with what I learned in
Italy, anger some people, but then reap "supreme good fortune."
(http://www1.shore.net/~rdl/iching/hex10.html)
VI.a.
Traditional Authority vs.
Testimony of Experience:
Easterner: 8 - 2 Westerner:
3 - 7
In relief against other systems of knowledge, the I Ching
has distinct characteristics. The traditional authority of the I Ching is found
in the philosophical commentaries supplementing each hexagram. For the Chinese,
these philosophies of traditional authority play a great deal into their
cultural experience and assumptions about the world. The notions of Tao and the
Doctrine of the Mean are much more widely recognized within China than without.
In the West, however, we find ourselves greatly removed from these traditions
of philosophy. For the Western layperson who approaches the Book of Changes,
Taoism and Confucianism does little more than invoke the images of a place far
off and long ago. While the shrouds of mystery in which the texts appear to the
lay person add weight to the general experience of consultation, the authority
of the commentaries are dangerously close to obscurity for many in the West.
For this reason personal experience is the key factor west of China. Thus the
authority of the Book of Changes is relative to place. While the Chinese would
respect the authority of the traditional authority that appears in the
commentary, without the validation of a meaningful personal experience, the
Westerner be more likely to disregard the I Ching and can easily push away its
philosophical underpinnings as they were foreign and unfamiliar to begin with.
VI.b.
Centralization of Authority
vs. Decentralization of Authority: 1-9
Authority in general, when dealing with the I Ching,
however, is greatly dispersed. Claims are made to its wisdom in the East, West,
and on the internet, wherever that may lie. No ruling body, however, governs
the movements of its information. Because there is no cultural authority in the
West, anyone can gain access to its information. As a result the
"cheapening" of the book may take place in which everyone can claims
to be an expert. Here we have a fate similar to that of the Tarot Cards, in
which virtually anyone can claim to be blessed with the powers of facilitating
the cards’ precognition.
VI.c.e.
c. Heavenly Realities vs.
Earthly Realities: 3 1/2 - 6 1/2
e. Power Reserved in
Divinity vs. Power Realizable in the Individual: 10 - 0
The roots of the I Ching are embedded in the spiritual
world, correlating all sixty-four representative hexagrams to the interplay of
opposites in the heavens. The implications of its power, however, extend
primarily to this world and the life of the individual who consults the oracle.
Here is the locus of power for the Book of Changes. Realizing itself in the
moral capacity of the individual to follow these cosmic laws is the primary aim
of the Book of Changes. Despite its formidable assumptions to the immutable
laws that govern change, the I Ching is essentially a guide for living.
Regardless of background or location, the I Ching has served the human race for
over 4000 years. It provides advice in any situation banal or extravagant – but
in any case, a human situation.
Primary Source
Wilhelm, Richard. The I Ching. New York: Bollingen
Foundation, 1950.
Secondary References
Anthony, Carol K. The Philosophy of the I Ching.
Stow, MA: Anthony Publishing Co., 1981.
Wilhelm, Richard. Lectures on the I Ching.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979.