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{{Short description|Ancient Chinese divination text}}
{{dablink|This article is about the ancient Chinese classic text. For the Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk, ''see'' ]. For the DC Comics character see ].}}
{{Redirect|The Book of Changes|other uses|The Book of Changes (disambiguation)|other uses of "I Ching" or "Yijing"|I Ching (disambiguation)|and|Yijing (disambiguation)}}
{{Citations missing|date=December 2007}}
{{ChineseText}} {{Italic title}}
{{Good article}}
{{Chinese|t=易經|s=易经|showflag=p|p= Yì Jīng|w=I<sup>4</sup> Ching<sup>1</sup>|i=jɪk<sub>22</sub> kɪŋ<sub>55</sub>|j=jik6 ging1|poj=e̍k-keng|l= "Classic of Changes" }}
{{Infobox book
The '''''I Ching''''' (Wade-Giles), or “Yì Jīng” (Pinyin); also called “Book of Changes” or “Classic of Changes” is one of the oldest of the ].<ref>Wilhelm, R. . English translation by Cary F. Baines; HTML edition by Dan Baruth. Retrieved on: ], ].</ref> The book is a symbol system used to identify order in chance events. The text describes an ancient system of ] and ] that is intrinsic to ancient Chinese cultural beliefs. The cosmology centres on the ideas of ''the dynamic balance of opposites'', ''the evolution of events as a process,'' and ''acceptance of the inevitability of change'' (see ''Philosophy'', below). In ] cultures and modern East Asia, the ''I Ching'' is sometimes regarded as a system of ]. The classic consists of a series of symbols, rules for manipulating these symbols, poems, and commentary.
| image = I Ching Song Dynasty print.jpg
==Implications of the title==
| image_size = 240px
* 易 (''yì''), when used as an adjective, means “easy” or “simple”, while as a verb it implies “to change“ or 'to exchange/substitute one thing for another'.
| caption = Title page of a ] ({{circa|1100}}) edition of the ''I Ching''
* 經 (''jīng'') here means “classic (text)”, derived from its original meaning of “regularity” or “persistency”, implying that the text describes the ] which will not change throughout the flow of time. This same character was later appropriated to translate the Sanskrit word ']' into Chinese in reference to Buddhist scripture. In this sense the two concepts, in as much as they mean 'treatise,' 'great teaching,' or 'canonical scripture,' are equivalent.
| title_orig = 易
| orig_lang_code = zh
| country = China
| language = ]
| subject = ], ]
| published = Late 9th century BC
| native_wikisource = 周易
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
| title = ''I Ching''
| pic = I Ching (Chinese characters).svg
| piccap = "''I (Ching)''" in ] (top),{{NoteTag|name="jing"}} traditional (middle), and simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
| picupright = 0.425
| t = 易經
| s = 易经
| showflag = p
| p = Yì Jīng
| w = {{tonesup|I4 Ching1}}
| bpmf = ㄧˋ ㄐㄧㄥ
| gr = Yih Jing
| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|yi|4|-|j|ing|1}}
| ci = {{IPA-yue|jèk kéŋ|}}
| j = Jik6 Ging1
| y = Yihk Gīng
| poj = {{Zhwb|Ia̍h Keng|E̍k Keng}}
| buc = Ĭk Gĭng
| suz = Yih Jin
| h = {{tonesup|Yit6 Gang1}}
| l = "Classic of Changes"
| mc = yek geng
| oc-b92 = &ast;{{IPA|ljek (keng)}}
| oc-bs = &ast;{{IPA|lek (k-lˤeng)}} {{NoteTag|The ''&ast;k-lˤeng'' (''jing'' {{lang|zh|經}}, "classic") appellation was not used until after the ], after the core ] period.|name="jing"}}
| kanji = 易経
| hiragana = えききょう
| revhep = Ekikyō
| hangul = 역경
| hanja = 易經
| rr = Yeokgyeong
| qn = Kinh Dịch
| chuhan = 經易
}}
The '''''I Ching''''' or '''''Yijing''''' ({{zh|t=易經}}, {{small|Mandarin:}} {{IPAc-cmn|AUD|YiJing.ogg|yi|4|-|j|ing|1}}), usually translated '''''Book of Changes''''' or '''''Classic of Changes''''', is an ancient Chinese ] text that is among the oldest of the ]. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in the ] period (1000–750&nbsp;BC). Over the course of the ] and early imperial periods (500–200&nbsp;BC), it transformed into a ] text with a series of philosophical commentaries known as the ].{{sfnp|Kern|2010|p=17}} After becoming part of the Chinese ] in the 2nd century&nbsp;BC, the ''I Ching'' was the basis for divination practice for centuries across the Far East and was the subject of scholarly commentary. Between the 18th and 20th centuries, it took on an influential role in Western understanding of East Asian philosophical thought.{{sfnmp|1a1=Redmond|1y=2021|2a1=Adler|2y=2022|2loc=chs. 1, 6, 7}}


As a divination text, the ''I Ching'' is used for a Chinese form of ] known as ] in which bundles of ] are manipulated to produce sets of six apparently random numbers ranging from 6 to 9. Each of the 64 possible sets corresponds to a ], which can be looked up in the ''I Ching''. The hexagrams are arranged in an order known as the ]. The interpretation of the readings found in the ''I Ching'' has been discussed and debated over the centuries. Many commentators have used the book symbolically, often to provide guidance for moral decision-making, as informed by ], ] and ]. The hexagrams themselves have often acquired cosmological significance and been paralleled with many other traditional names for the processes of change such as ] and ].
The ''I Ching'' is a "reflection of the universe in miniature." The word "I" has three meanings: ease and simplicity, change and transformation, and invariability.<ref>Dy, Manuel B., Jr. . Chapter XX. Retrieved on: ], ]</ref> Thus the three principles underlying the ''I Ching'' are the following:
# ''Simplicity'' - the root of the substance. The fundamental law underlying everything in the universe is utterly plain and simple, no matter how abstruse or complex some things may appear to be.
# ''Variability'' - the use of the substance. Everything in the universe is continually changing. By comprehending this one may realize the importance of flexibility in life and may thus cultivate the proper attitude for dealing with a multiplicity of diverse situations.
# ''Persistency'' - the essence of the substance. While everything in the universe seems to be changing, among the changing tides there is a persistent principle, a central rule, which does not vary with space and time.
::&mdash; 易一名而含三義:易簡一也;變易二也;不易三也。 commented on by ] (鄭玄 ''zhèng xúan'') in his writings ''Critique of I Ching'' (易贊 ''yì zàn'') and ''Commentary on I Ching'' (易論 ''yì lùn'') of ].


==The divination text: ''Zhou Yi''==
==History==
===Traditional view=== ===History===
The core of the ''I Ching'' is a ] divination text called the ''Changes of Zhou'' ({{zh|c=周易|p=Zhōu yì}}).{{sfnmp|1a1=Smith|1y=2012|1p=22|2a1=Nelson|2y=2011|2p=377|3a1=Hon|3y=2005|3p=2|4a1=Shaughnessy|4y=1983|4p=105|5a1=Raphals|5y=2013|5p=337|6a1=Nylan|6y=2001|6p=220|7a1=Redmond|7a2=Hon|7y=2014|7p=37|8a1=Rutt|8y=1996|8p=26}} Modern scholars suggest dates ranging between the 10th and 4th centuries&nbsp;BC for the assembly of the text in approximately its current form.{{sfnp|Nylan|2001|p=218}} Based on a comparison of the language of the ''Zhou yi'' with dated ], the American sinologist ] dated its compilation in its current form to the last quarter of the 9th century&nbsp;BC, during the early decades of the reign of ] ({{reign|{{circa|827}}|782}}&nbsp;BC).{{sfnmp|1a1=Shaughnessy|1y=1983|1p=219|2a1=Rutt|2y=1996|2pp=32–33|3a1=Smith|3y=2012|3p=22|4a1=Knechtges|4y=2014|4p=1885}} A copy of the text in the ] corpus of ] discovered in 1994 shows that the ''Zhou yi'' was used throughout all levels of Chinese society in its current form by 300&nbsp;BC, but still contained small variations as late as the ] ({{circa|475}}{{snd}}221&nbsp;BC).{{sfnmp|1a1=Shaughnessy|1y=2014|1p=282|2a1=Smith|2y=2012|2p=22}} It is possible that other divination systems existed at this time; the '']'' name two other such systems, the {{ill|Lianshan (divination system)|lt=''Lianshan''|zh|連山易}} and the '']''.{{sfnmp|1a1=Rutt|1y=1996|1pp=26-27|2a1=Redmond|2a2=Hon|2y=2014|2pp=106–109|3a1=Shchutskii|3y=1979|3p=98}}
Traditionally it was believed that the principles of the ''I Ching'' originated with the mythical ] (伏羲 ''Fú Xī''). In this respect he is seen as an early ], one of the earliest legendary rulers of China (traditional dates ]-]), reputed to have had the 8 ] (八卦 ''bā gùa'') revealed to him supernaturally. By the time of the legendary ] (禹 ''Yǔ'') 2194 BCE–2149 BCE, the trigrams had supposedly been developed into 64 hexagrams (六十四卦 ''lìu shí­ sì gùa''), which were recorded in the scripture ] (《連山》 ''Lián Shān''; also called ''Lian Shan Yi''). ''Lian Shan'', meaning “continuous mountains” in Chinese, begins with the hexagram ] (艮 ''gèn''), which depicts a ''mountain'' (::|) mounting on another and is believed to be the origin of the scripture's name.


===Name and authorship===
After the traditionally recorded ] was overthrown by the ], the hexagrams are said to have been re-deduced to form ] (《歸藏》 ''Gūi Cáng''; also called ''Gui Cang Yi''), and the hexagram ] (坤 ''kūn'') became the first hexagram. ''Gui Cang'' may be literally translated into “return and be contained”, which refers to ''earth'' as the first hexagram itself indicates. At the time of Shang's last king, ], ] is said to have deduced the hexagram and discovered that the hexagrams beginning with ] (乾 ''qián'') revealed the rise of ]. He then gave each hexagram a description regarding its own nature, thus ] (卦辭 ''guà cí'', “Explanation of Hexagrams”).
The name ''Zhou yi'' literally means the 'changes' ({{zhi|c=易|p=yì}}) of the ]. The 'changes' involved have been interpreted as the transformations of hexagrams, of their lines, or of the numbers obtained from the divination.{{sfnp|Knechtges|2014|p=1877}} ] proposed that the word for 'changes' originally meant 'easy', as in a form of divination easier than the ]s, but there is little evidence for this. There is also an ancient ] that sees the character for 'changes' as containing the sun and moon, the cycle of the day. Modern sinologists believe the character to be derived either from an image of the sun emerging from clouds, or from the content of a vessel being changed into another.{{sfnmp|1a1=Shaughnessy|1y=1983|1p=106|2a1=Schuessler|2y=2007|2p=566|3a1=Nylan|3y=2001|3pp=229–230}}


The ''Zhou yi'' was traditionally ascribed to the Zhou cultural heroes ] and the ], and was also associated with the legendary world ruler ].{{sfnp|Shaughnessy|1999|p=295}} According to the canonical ''Great Commentary'', Fuxi observed the patterns of the world and created the ] ({{zhi|c=八卦|p=bāguà}}), "in order to become thoroughly conversant with the numinous and bright and to classify the myriad things". The ''Zhou yi'' itself does not contain this legend and indeed says nothing about its own origins.{{sfnp|Redmond|Hon|2014|pp=54–55}} The ''Rites of Zhou'', however, also claims that the hexagrams of the ''Zhou yi'' were derived from an initial set of eight trigrams.{{sfnp|Shaughnessy|2014|p=144}} During the Han dynasty there were various opinions about the historical relationship between the trigrams and the hexagrams.{{sfnp|Nielsen|2003|p=7}} Eventually, a consensus formed around 2nd-century&nbsp;AD scholar ]'s attribution of the text to the joint work of Fuxi, King Wen of Zhou, the Duke of Zhou, and ], but this traditional attribution is no longer generally accepted.{{sfnmp|1a1=Nielsen|1y=2003|1p=249|2a1=Shchutskii|2y=1979|2p=133}}
When ], son of King Wen, toppled the Shang Dynasty, his brother ] is said to have created ] (爻辭 ''yáo cí'', “Explanation of Horizontal Lines”) to clarify the significance of each horizontal line in each hexagram. It was not until then that the whole context of ''I Ching'' was understood. Its philosophy heavily influenced the literature and government administration of the ] (1122 BCE - 256 BCE).


Another tradition about the ''I Ching'' was that most of it was written by ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bauer |first=Susan Wise |author-link=Susan Wise Bauer |title=The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome |publisher=] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-393-05974-8 |location=New York |pages=300}}</ref>
Later, during the time of ] (722 BCE - 481 BCE), ] is traditionally said to have written the Shi Yi (十翼 ''shí yì'', “Ten Wings”), a group of commentaries on the ''I Ching''. By the time of ] (漢武帝 ''Hàn Wǔ Dì'') of the ] (circa 200 BCE), ''Shi Yi'' was often called ''Yi Zhuan'' (易傳 ''yì zhùan'', “Commentary on the I Ching”), and together with the ''I Ching'' they composed ''Zhou Yi'' (周易 ''zhōu yì'', “Changes of Zhou”). All later texts about ''Zhou Yi'' were explanations only, due to the classic's deep meaning.


=== Modernist view === === Structure ===
]) of {{tlit|zh|zhēn}} ({{lang|zh|貞}}) 'to divine']]
In the past 50 years a “Modernist” history of the ''I Ching'' has been emerging, based on context criticism and research into Shang and Zhou dynasty ], as well as Zhou bronze inscriptions and other sources (see below). These reconstructions are dealt with in a growing number of books, such as '']'', by S. J. Marshall, and Richard Rutt's ''Zhouyi: The Book of Changes'', (see ''References'', below).


The basic unit of the ''Zhou yi'' is the ] ({{lang|zh|卦}} {{tlit|zh|guà}}), a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines ({{lang|zh|爻}} {{tlit|zh|yáo}}). Each line is either broken or unbroken. The received text of the ''Zhou yi'' contains all 64 possible hexagrams, along with the hexagram's name ({{lang|zh|卦名}} {{tlit|zh|guàmíng}}), a short hexagram statement ({{lang|zh|彖}} {{tlit|zh|tuàn}}),{{NoteTag|The word {{tlit|zh|tuàn}} ({{lang|zh|彖}}) refers to a four-legged animal similar to a pig. This is believed to be a gloss for 'decision', {{tlit|zh|duàn}} ({{lang|zh|斷}}). The modern word for a hexagram statement is {{tlit|zh|guàcí}} ({{lang|zh|卦辭}}). {{harvp|Knechtges|2014|p=1881}} }} and six line statements ({{lang|zh|爻辭}} {{tlit|zh|yáocí}}).{{NoteTag|Referred to as {{tlit|zh|yao}} ({{lang|zh|繇}}) in the ''Zuo Zhuan''. {{harvp|Nielsen|2003|pp=24, 290}} }} The statements were used to determine the results of divination, but the reasons for having two different methods of reading the hexagram are not known, and it is not known why hexagram statements would be read over line statements or vice versa.{{sfnp|Rutt|1996|pp=122–125}}
Scholarly works dealing with the new view of the Book of Changes include doctoral dissertations by Richard Kunst and Edward Shaughnessy. These and other scholars have been helped immensely by the discovery, in the 1970s, by Chinese archaeologists, of intact Han dynasty era tombs in ] near ], ] province. One of the tombs contained more or less complete 2nd century BCE texts of the ''I Ching'', the ] and other works, which are mostly similar yet in some ways diverge significantly from the “received”, or traditional, texts preserved by the chances of history.


The book opens with the first hexagram statement, {{tlit|zh|yuán hēng lì zhēn}} ({{lang|zh|元亨利貞}}). These four words are often repeated in the hexagram statements and were already considered an important part of ''I Ching'' interpretation in the 6th century&nbsp;BC. Edward Shaughnessy describes this statement as affirming an "initial receipt" of an offering, "beneficial" for further "divining".{{sfnmp|1a1=Rutt|1y=1996|1pp=126, 187–178|2a1=Shchutskii|2y=1979|2pp=65–66|3a1=Shaughnessy|3y=2014|3pp=30–35|4a1=Redmond|4a2=Hon|4y=2014|4p=128}}
The tomb texts include additional commentaries on the ''I Ching'', previously unknown, and apparently written as if they were meant to be attributed to Confucius. All of the Mawangdui texts are many centuries older than the earliest known attestations of the texts in question. When talking about the evolution of the Book of Changes, therefore, the Modernists contend that it is important to distinguish between the traditional history assigned to texts such as the ''I Ching'' (felt to be anachronistic by the Modernists), assignations in commentaries which have themselves been canonized over the centuries along with their subjects, and the more recent scholarly history aided by modern linguistic textual criticism and ].
The word {{tlit|zh|zhēn}} ({{lang|zh|貞}}, ancient form ]) was also used for the verb 'divine' in the ]s of the late ], which preceded the Zhou. It also carried meanings of being or making upright or correct, and was defined by the Eastern Han scholar ] as "to enquire into the correctness" of a proposed activity.{{sfnp|Shaughnessy|2014|pp=2–3}}


The names of the hexagrams are usually words that appear in their respective line statements, but in five cases (2, 9, 26, 61, and 63) an unrelated character of unclear purpose appears. The hexagram names could have been chosen arbitrarily from the line statements,{{sfnmp|1a1=Rutt|1y=1996|1p=118|2a1=Shaughnessy|2y=1983|2p=123}} but it is also possible that the line statements were derived from the hexagram names.{{sfnp|Knechtges|2014|p=1879}} The line statements, which make up most of the book, are exceedingly cryptic. Each line begins with a word indicating the line number, "base, 2, 3, 4, 5, top", and either the number 6 for a broken line, or the number 9 for a whole line. Hexagrams 1 and 2 have an extra line statement, named ''yong''.{{sfnp|Rutt|1996|pp=129–130}} Following the line number, the line statements may make oracular or prognostic statements.{{sfnp|Rutt|1996|p=131}} Some line statements also contain poetry or references to historical events.{{sfnp|Knechtges|2014|pp=1880–1881}}
Many hold that these perspectives are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but, for instance, many Modernist scholars doubt the actual existence of Fuxi, think Confucius had nothing to do with the Book of Changes, and contend that the hexagrams came before the trigrams. Modern scholarship comparing poetic usage and formulaic phrasing in this book with that in ancient bronze inscriptions has shown that the text cannot be attributed to King Wen or Zhou Gong, and that it likely was not compiled until the late Western Zhou, perhaps ca. the late 9th century BCE.


===Usage===
Rather than being the work of one or several legendary or historical figures, the core divinatory text is now thought to be an ] of Western Zhou divinatory concepts. As for the Shi Yi commentaries traditionally attributed to Confucius, scholars from the time of the 11th century A.D. scholar ] onward have doubted this, based on textual analysis, and modern scholars date most of them to the late ] period (403/475 BCE-256/221 BCE), with some sections perhaps being as late as the ] period (206 BCE-220 AD).
{{Main|I Ching divination}}
]
Archaeological evidence shows that Zhou dynasty divination was grounded in ], the production of seemingly random numbers to determine divine intent.{{sfnp|Shaughnessy|2014|p=14}} The ''Zhou yi'' provided a guide to cleromancy that used the stalks of the ], but it is not known how the yarrow stalks became numbers, or how specific lines were chosen from the line readings.{{sfnp|Smith|2012|p=39}} In the hexagrams, broken lines were used as shorthand for the numbers 6 ({{lang|zh|六}}) and 8 ({{lang|zh|八}}), and solid lines were shorthand for values of 7 ({{lang|zh|七}}) and 9 ({{lang|zh|九}}). The ''Great Commentary'' contains a late classic description of a process where various numerological operations are performed on a bundle of 50 stalks, leaving remainders of 6 to 9.{{sfnp|Smith|2008|p=27}} Like the ''Zhou yi'' itself, yarrow stalk divination dates to the Western Zhou period, although its modern form is a reconstruction.{{sfnp|Raphals|2013|p=129}}


The ancient narratives '']'' and '']'' contain the oldest descriptions of divination using the ''Zhou yi''. The two histories describe more than twenty successful divinations conducted by professional soothsayers for royal families between 671 and 487&nbsp;BC. The method of divination is not explained, and none of the stories employ predetermined commentaries, patterns, or interpretations. Only the hexagrams and line statements are used.{{sfnp|Rutt|1996|p=173}} By the 4th century&nbsp;BC, the authority of the ''Zhou yi'' was also cited for rhetorical purposes, without relation to any stated divination.{{sfnmp|1a1=Smith|1y=2012|1p=43|2a1=Raphals|2y=2013|2p=336}} The ''Zuo Zhuan'' does not contain records of private individuals, but ] records found at ] show that the hexagrams were privately consulted to answer questions such as business, health, children, and determining lucky days.{{sfnp|Raphals|2013|pp=203–212}}
==Structure==
The text of the ''I Ching'' is a set of predictions represented by a set of 64 abstract line arrangements called '']'' (卦 ''guà''). Each hexagram is a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines (爻 ''yáo''), where each line is either ] (an ''unbroken'', or ''solid'' line), or ] (''broken'', an ''open'' line with a gap in the center). With six such lines stacked from bottom to top there are 2<sup>6</sup> or 64 possible combinations, and thus 64 hexagrams represented.


The most common form of divination with the ''I Ching'' in use today is a reconstruction of the method described in these histories, in the 300&nbsp;BC ''Great Commentary'', and later in the '']'' and the '']''. From the ''Great Commentary''{{'}}s description, the Neo-Confucian ] reconstructed a method of yarrow stalk divination that is still used throughout the Far East. In the modern period, ] attempted his own reconstruction, which varies from Zhu Xi in places.{{sfnmp|1a1=Smith|1y=2008|1p=27|2a1=Raphals|2y=2013|2p=167}} ], employing coins, became widely used in the Tang dynasty and is still used today. In the modern period; alternative methods such as specialized ] and ] have also appeared.{{sfnp|Redmond|Hon|2014|p=257}}
The hexagram diagram is conceptually subdivided into two three-line arrangements called ''trigrams'' (卦 ''guà''). There are 2<sup>3</sup>, hence 8, possible trigrams. The traditional view was that the hexagrams were a later development and resulted from combining the two trigrams. However, in the earliest relevant archaeological evidence, groups of numerical symbols on many Western Zhou bronzes and a very few Shang oracle bones, such groups already usually appear in sets of six. A few have been found in sets of three numbers, but these are somewhat later. Note also that these numerical sets greatly predate the groups of broken and unbroken lines, leading modern scholars to doubt the mythical early attributions of the hexagram system (see, e.g., Shaugnessy 1993).


In the ''Zuo Zhuan'' stories, individual lines of hexagrams are denoted by using the genitive particle {{tlit|zh|zhi}} ({{lang|zh|之}}), followed by the name of another hexagram where that specific line had another form. In later attempts to reconstruct ancient divination methods, the word {{tlit|zh|zhi}} was interpreted as a verb meaning 'moving to', an apparent indication that hexagrams could be transformed into other hexagrams. However, there are no instances of "changeable lines" in the ''Zuo Zhuan''. In all 12 out of 12 line statements quoted, the original hexagrams are used to produce the oracle.{{sfnmp|1a1=Shaughnessy|1y=1983|1p=97|2a1=Rutt|2y=1996|2pp=154–155|3a1=Smith|3y=2008|3p=26}}
Each hexagram represents a description of a state or process. When a hexagram is cast using one of the traditional processes of ], each of the yin or yang lines will be indicated as either ''moving'' (that is, changing), or ''fixed'' (that is, unchanging). Moving (also sometimes called “old”, or “unstable”) lines will change to their opposites, that is “young” lines of the other type -- old yang becoming young yin, and old yin becoming young yang.


==The classic: ''I Ching''==
The oldest method for casting the hexagrams, using ] stalks, is a ''biased'' ] generator, so the possible answers are not equiprobable. While the probability of getting either yin or yang is equal, the probability of getting old yang is three times greater than old yin. The yarrow stalk method was gradually replaced during the Han Dynasty by the three coins method. Using this method, the imbalance in generating old yin and old yang was eliminated. However, there is no theoretical basis for indicating what should be the optimal probability basis of the old lines versus the young lines. Of course, the whole idea behind this system of divination is that the oracle will select the appropriate answer anyway, regardless of the probabilities.
In 136&nbsp;BC, ] named the ''Zhou yi'' "the first among the classics", dubbing it the ''Classic of Changes'' or ''I Ching''. Emperor Wu's placement of the ''I Ching'' among the ] was informed by a broad span of cultural influences that included ], ], ], ], and Wu Xing physical theory.{{sfnp|Smith|2008|pp=31–32}} While the ''Zhou yi'' does not contain any cosmological analogies, the ''I Ching'' was read as a microcosm of the universe that offered complex, symbolic correspondences.{{sfnp|Raphals|2013|p=337}} The official edition of the text was literally set in stone, as one of the ].{{sfnmp|1a1=Nielsen|1y=2003|1pp=48–51|2a1=Knechtges|2y=2014|2p=1889}} The canonized ''I Ching'' became the standard text for over two thousand years, until alternate versions of the ''Zhou yi'' and related texts were discovered in the 20th century.{{sfnmp|1a1=Shaughnessy|1y=2014|1loc=passim|2a1=Smith|2y=2008|2pp=48–50}}


=== Ten Wings ===
There have been several arrangements of the trigrams and hexagrams over the ages. The ] is a circular arrangement of the trigrams, traditionally printed on a mirror, or disk. According to legend, Fu Hsi found the bā gùa on the scales of a tortoise's back. They function rather like a magic square, with the four axes summing to the same value (e.g., using 0 and 1 to represent yin and yang, 000 + 111 = 111, 101 + 010 = 111, etc.).
{{Main|Ten Wings}}


Part of the canonization of the ''Zhou yi'' bound it to a set of ten commentaries called the ]. The Ten Wings are of a much later provenance than the ''Zhou yi'', and are the production of a different society. The ''Zhou yi'' was written in Early ], while the Ten Wings were written in a predecessor to ].{{sfnp|Rutt|1996|p=39}} The specific origins of the Ten Wings are still a complete mystery to academics.{{sfnmp|1a1=Shaughnessy|1y=2014|1p=284|2a1=Smith|2y=2008|2pp=31–48}} Regardless of their historical relation to the text, the philosophical depth of the Ten Wings made the ''I Ching'' a perfect fit to Han period Confucian scholarship.{{sfnp|Smith|2012|p=48}} The inclusion of the Ten Wings reflects a widespread recognition in ancient China, found in the ''Zuo zhuan'' and other pre-Han texts, that the ''I Ching'' was a rich moral and symbolic document useful for more than professional divination.{{sfnp|Nylan|2001|p=229}}
The ] is the traditional (i.e. “classical”) sequence of the hexagrams used in most contemporary editions of the book. The ] was explained for the first time in , where it is shown to contain within it a demonstration of advanced mathematical knowledge.


Arguably the most important of the Ten Wings is the ''Great Commentary'' (''Dazhuan'') or '']'', which dates to roughly 300&nbsp;BC.{{NoteTag|The received text was rearranged by ]. {{harv|Nielsen|2003|p=258}} }} The ''Great Commentary'' describes the ''I Ching'' as a microcosm of the universe and a symbolic description of the processes of change. By partaking in the spiritual experience of the ''I Ching'', the ''Great Commentary'' states, the individual can understand the deeper patterns of the universe.{{sfnp|Smith|2008|p=27}} Among other subjects, it explains how the eight trigrams proceeded from the eternal oneness of the universe through three ].{{sfnp|Nielsen|2003|p=260}} The other Wings provide different perspectives on essentially the same viewpoint, giving ancient, cosmic authority to the ''I Ching''.{{sfnp|Smith|2008|p=48}} For example, the ''Wenyan'' provides a moral interpretation that parallels the first two hexagrams, {{lang|zh|乾}} ({{tlit|zh|qián}}) and {{lang|zh|坤}} ({{tlit|zh|kūn}}), with ] and Earth,{{sfnp|Knechtges|2014|p=1882}} and the ''Shuogua'' attributes to the symbolic function of the hexagrams the ability to understand self, world, and destiny.{{sfnp|Redmond|Hon|2014|pp=151–152}} Throughout the Ten Wings, there are passages that seem to purposefully increase the ambiguity of the base text, pointing to a recognition of multiple layers of symbolism.{{sfnp|Nylan|2001|p=221}}
]
===Trigrams===
The solid line represents ''yang'', the creative principle. The open line represents ''yin'', the receptive principle. These principles are also represented in a common circular symbol ({{unicode|☯}}), known as ] (太極圖), but more commonly known in the west as the '']'' (陰陽) diagram, expressing the idea of complementarity of changes: when Yang is at top, Yin is increasing, and the reverse.


The ''Great Commentary'' associates knowledge of the ''I Ching'' with the ability to "delight in Heaven and understand fate;" the sage who reads it will see cosmological patterns and not despair in mere material difficulties.{{sfnp|Nylan|2001|pp=248–249}} The Japanese word for 'metaphysics', {{tlit|ja|keijijōgaku}} ({{lang|ja|形而上学}}) is derived from a statement found in the ''Great Commentary'' that "what is above form is called ]; what is under form is called a tool".{{sfnp|Yuasa|2008|p=51}} The word has also been borrowed into Korean and re-borrowed back into Chinese.
In the following lists, the trigrams and hexagrams are represented using a common textual convention, horizontally from left-to-right, using '|' for yang and '¦' for yin, rather than the traditional bottom-to-top. In a more modern usage, the numbers 0 and 1 can also be used to represent yin and yang, being read left-to-right.


The Ten Wings were traditionally attributed to ], possibly based on a misreading of the '']''.{{sfnp|Peterson|1982|p=73}} Although it rested on historically shaky grounds, the association of the ''I Ching'' with Confucius gave weight to the text and was taken as an article of faith throughout the Han and Tang dynasties.{{sfnmp|1a1=Smith|1y=2008|1p=27|2a1=Nielsen|2y=2003|2pp=138, 211}} The ''I Ching'' was not included in the ], and textual evidence strongly suggests that Confucius did not consider the ''Zhou yi'' a "classic". An ancient commentary on the ''Zhou yi'' found at Mawangdui portrays Confucius as endorsing it as a source of wisdom first and an imperfect divination text second.{{sfnmp|1a1=Shchutskii|1y=1979|1p=213|2a1=Smith|2y=2012|2p=46}} However, since the Ten Wings became canonized by Emperor Wu of Han together with the original I Ching as the Zhou Yi, it can be attributed to the positions of influence from the Confucians in the government.<ref name=Adler/> Furthermore, the Ten Wings tends to use diction and phrases such as "the master said", which was previously commonly seen in the ], thereby implying the heavy involvement of Confucians in its creation as well as institutionalization.<ref name="Adler">{{Cite web |last=Adler |first=Joseph A. |date=April 2017 |title=Zhu Xi's Commentary on the Xicizhuan 繫辭傳 (Treatise on the Appended Remarks) Appendix of the Yijing 易經 (Scripture of Change) |url=https://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Xici%20trans%20A.pdf}}</ref>
There are eight possible trigrams (八卦 '']''):


== Hexagrams ==
{| border="1" cellpadding="6" class="wikitable"
{{Main|Hexagram (I Ching)}}
|----- align="center"
{{Main list|List of hexagrams of the I Ching}}
!

! Trigram Figure
In the canonical ''I Ching'', the hexagrams are arranged in an order dubbed the ] after King Wen of Zhou, who founded the Zhou dynasty and supposedly reformed the method of interpretation. The sequence generally pairs hexagrams with their upside-down equivalents; the eight hexagrams that do not change when turned upside-down, are instead paired with their inversions (exchanging yin and yang lines).{{sfnp|Smith|2008|p=37}} Another order, found at ] in 1973, arranges the hexagrams into eight groups sharing the same upper trigram. But the oldest known manuscript, found in 1987 and now held by the Shanghai Library, was almost certainly arranged in the King Wen sequence, and it has even been proposed that a pottery paddle from the Western Zhou period contains four hexagrams in the King Wen sequence.{{sfnp|Shaughnessy|2014|pp=52–53, 16–17}} Whichever of these arrangements is older, it is not evident that the order of the hexagrams was of interest to the original authors of the ''Zhou yi''. The assignment of numbers, binary or decimal, to specific hexagrams, is a modern invention.{{sfnp|Rutt|1996|pp=114–118}}
! Binary Value
! Name
! Translation: ''Wilhelm''<ref>Wilhelm, R. & Baynes, C., 1967: “The I Ching or Book of Changes”, With foreword by Carl Jung, Introduction, pp.l-li. Bollingen Series XIX, Princeton University Press, (1st ed. 1950)</ref>, others
! Image in Nature <ref>Wilhelm, 1967, pp.l-li</ref>
! Direction <ref>The Shuo Kua. Translated in Wilhelm, 1967, p.269</ref>
! Family Relationship <ref>The Shuo Kua. Translated in Wilhelm, 1967, p.274</ref>
! Body Part <ref>The Shuo Kua. Translated Wilhelm, 1967, p.274</ref>
! Attribute <ref>The Shuo Kua. Translated Wilhelm, 1967, pp.l-li, p.273</ref>
! Stage/ State <ref>Wilhelm, 1967, p.l-li</ref>
! Animal <ref>The Shuo Kua. Translated Wilhelm, 1967, p.273</ref>
|----- align="center"
| 1 || <nowiki>|||</nowiki> ({{unicode|☰}}) || 111 || 乾 ''qián'' || ''the Creative'', Force || heaven, ] (天)
| northwest || father || head || strong || creative || horse
|----- align="center"
| 2 || <nowiki>||¦</nowiki> ({{unicode|☱}}) || 110 || 兌 ''duì'' || ''the Joyous'', Open || swamp, marsh
| west || third daughter || mouth || pleasure || tranquil (complete devotion) || sheep
|----- align="center"
| 3 || <nowiki>|¦|</nowiki> ({{unicode|☲}}) || 101 || 離 ''lí'' || ''the Clinging'', Radiance || fire (火)
| south || second daughter || eye || light-giving, dependence || clinging, clarity, adaptable || pheasant
|----- align="center"
| 4 || <nowiki>|¦¦</nowiki> ({{unicode|☳}}) || 100 || 震 ''zhèn'' || ''the Arousing'', Shake || thunder (雷)
| east || first son || foot || inciting movement || initiative || dragon
|----- align="center"
| 5 || <nowiki>¦||</nowiki> ({{unicode|☴}}) || 011 || 巽 ''xùn'' || ''the Gentle'', Ground || wind (風), wood
| southeast || first daughter || thigh || penetrating || gentle entrance || fowl
|----- align="center"
| 6 || <nowiki>¦|¦</nowiki> ({{unicode|☵}}) || 010 || 坎 ''kǎn'' || ''the Abysmal'', ] || water (水)
| north || second son || ear || dangerous || in-motion || pig
|----- align="center"
| 7 || <nowiki>¦¦|</nowiki> ({{unicode|☶}}) || 001 || 艮 ''gèn'' || ''Keeping Still'', Bound || mountain (山)
| northeast || third son || hand || resting, stand-still || completion || wolf, dog
|----- align="center"
| 8 || <nowiki>¦¦¦</nowiki> ({{unicode|☷}}) || 000 || 坤 ''kūn'' || ''the Receptive'', Field || earth (地)
| southwest || mother || belly || devoted, yielding || receptive || cow
|}


Yin and yang are represented by broken and solid lines: yin is broken (<span style="font-size: 1.25em; line-height: 1em; vertical-align: middle">⚋</span>) and yang is solid (<span style="font-size: 1.25em; line-height: 1em; vertical-align: middle">⚊</span>). Different constructions of three yin and yang lines lead to eight trigrams (八卦) namely, Qian (乾, ☰), Dui (兌, ☱), Li (離, ☲), Zhen (震, ☳), Xun (巽, ☴), Kan (坎, ☵), Gen (艮, ☶), and Kun (坤, ☷).
The first three lines of the hexagram, called the ''lower trigram'', are seen as the ''inner aspect'' of the change that is occurring. The ''upper trigram'' (the last three lines of the hexagram), is the ''outer aspect''. The change described is thus the dynamic of the inner (personal) aspect relating to the outer (external) situation. Thus, hexagram 04 ¦|¦¦¦| Enveloping, is composed of the inner trigram ¦|¦ Gorge, relating to the outer trigram ¦¦| Bound.


The different combinations of the two trigrams lead to 64 hexagrams.
===Hexagram Lookup Table===


The following table numbers the hexagrams in King Wen order.
{| class="wikitable"
|-----
| width="10%" |
<p>'''Upper →'''</p>


{| class="center" style="background: transparent; width: 100%; table-layout: fixed"
<p>'''Lower ↓'''</p>
|- style="vertical-align: top"
| valign="top" align="center" width="10%" | <nowiki>|||</nowiki><br>
| 1<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Qian<br>Heaven'''
| 2<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| valign="top" align="center" width="10%" | <nowiki>|¦¦</nowiki><br>
| 3<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Zhen<br>Thunder'''
| 4<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| valign="top" align="center" width="10%" | <nowiki>¦|¦</nowiki><br>
| 5<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Kan<br>Water'''
| 6<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| valign="top" align="center" width="10%" | <nowiki>¦¦|</nowiki><br>
| 7<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Gen<br>Mountain'''
| 8<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| valign="top" align="center" width="10%" | <nowiki>¦¦¦</nowiki><br>
|- style="vertical-align: top"
'''Kun<br>Earth'''
| 9<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| valign="top" align="center" width="10%" | <nowiki>¦||</nowiki><br>
| 10<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Xun<br>Wind'''
| 11<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| valign="top" align="center" width="10%" | <nowiki>|¦|</nowiki><br>
| 12<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Li<br>Flame'''
| 13<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| valign="top" align="center" width="10%" | <nowiki>||¦</nowiki><br>
| 14<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Dui<br>Swamp'''
| 15<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
|-----
| 16<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | <nowiki>|||</nowiki><br>
|- style="vertical-align: top"
'''Qian<br>Heaven'''
| 17<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 18<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 19<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 20<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 21<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 22<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 23<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 24<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
|- style="vertical-align: top"
|-----
| 25<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | |¦¦<br>
| 26<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Zhen<br>Thunder'''
| 27<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 28<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 29<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 30<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 31<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 32<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
|- style="vertical-align: top"
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 33<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 34<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
|-----
| 35<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ¦|¦<br>
| 36<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Kan<br>Water'''
| 37<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 38<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 39<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 40<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
|- style="vertical-align: top"
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 41<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 42<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 43<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 44<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
|-----
| 45<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ¦¦|<br>
| 46<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Gen<br>Mountain'''
| 47<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 48<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
|- style="vertical-align: top"
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 49<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 50<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 51<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 52<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 53<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 54<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
|-----
| 55<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ¦¦¦<br>
| 56<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
'''Kun<br>Earth'''
|- style="vertical-align: top"
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 57<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 58<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 59<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 60<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 61<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 62<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 63<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| 64<br>]<br>{{lang|zh|]}}
|-----
| align="center" width="10%" |
<p align="center">¦||<br>
'''Xun<br>Wind'''</p>
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
|-----
| align="center" width="10%" |
<p align="center">|¦|<br>
'''Li<br>Flame'''</p>
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
|-----
| align="center" width="10%" |
<p align="center">||¦<br>
'''Dui<br>Swamp'''</p>
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
| align="center" width="10%" | ]
|} |}


==Interpretation and influence==
===The hexagrams===
{{See also|Influence of the I Ching{{!}}Influence of the ''I Ching''}}
The text of the ''I Ching'' describes each of the 64 hexagrams, and later scholars added commentaries and analyses of each one; these have been subsumed into the text comprising the ''I Ching''.
The sinologist ] describes the ''I Ching'' as the best-known Chinese book in the world.{{sfnp|Nylan|2001|pp=204–206}} ] wrote that it is the most "recognized" Chinese book.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Weinberger |first=Eliot |date=February 25, 2016 |title=What Is the I Ching? |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/02/25/what-is-the-i-ching/ |magazine=] |quote=In China and in East Asia, it has been by far the most consulted of all books, in the belief that it can explain everything.... is surely the most popularly recognized Chinese book.}}</ref> In East Asia, it is a foundational text for the Confucian and Daoist philosophical traditions, while in the West, it attracted the attention of Enlightenment intellectuals and prominent literary and cultural figures.


===Eastern Han and Six Dynasties===
Each hexagram's common translation is accompanied by the corresponding R. Wilhelm translation, which is the source for the ] names.
During the ], ''I Ching'' interpretation divided into two schools, originating in a dispute over minor differences between different editions of the received text.{{sfnmp|1a1=Smith|1y=2008|1p=58|2a1=Nylan|2y=2001|2p=45|3a1=Redmond|3a2=Hon|3y=2014|3p=159}} The first school, known as New Text criticism, was more egalitarian and eclectic, and sought to find symbolic and numerological parallels between the natural world and the hexagrams. Their commentaries provided the basis of the ]. The other school, Old Text criticism, was more scholarly and hierarchical, and focused on the moral content of the text, providing the basis for the School of Meanings and Principles.{{sfnp|Smith|2012|pp=76-78}} The New Text scholars distributed alternate versions of the text and freely integrated non-canonical commentaries into their work, as well as propagating alternate systems of divination such as the '']''.{{sfnmp|1a1=Smith|1y=2008|1pp=76–79|2a1=Knechtges|2y=2014|2p=1889}} Most of this early commentary, such as the image and number work of ], ] and ], is no longer extant.{{sfnp|Smith|2008|pp=57, 67, 84–86}} Only short fragments survive, from a Tang dynasty text called ''Zhou yi jijie''.{{sfnp|Knechtges|2014|p=1891}}


With the fall of the Han, ''I Ching'' scholarship was no longer organized into systematic schools. The most influential writer of this period was ], who discarded the numerology of Han commentators and integrated the philosophy of the Ten Wings directly into the central text of the ''I Ching'', creating such a persuasive narrative that Han commentators were no longer considered significant. A century later ] added commentaries on the Ten Wings to Wang Bi's book, creating a text called the ''Zhouyi zhu''. The principal rival interpretation was a practical text on divination by the soothsayer ].{{sfnmp|1a1=Smith|1y=2008|1pp=89–90, 98|2a1=Hon|2y=2005|2pp=29–30|3a1=Knechtges|3y=2014|3p=1890}}
{|
|-----
| valign="top" |
{| class="wikitable"
|-----
! Hexagram
! R. Wilhelm
|-----
| ]
| The Creative
|-----
| ]
| The Receptive
|-----
| ]
| Difficulty at the Beginning
|-----
| ]
| Youthful Folly
|-----
| ]
| Waiting
|-----
| ]
| Conflict
|-----
| ]
| The Army
|-----
| ]
| Holding Together
|-----
| ]
| Small Taming
|-----
| ]
| Treading (Conduct)
|-----
| ]
| Peace
|-----
| ]
| Standstill
|-----
| ]
| Fellowship
|-----
| ]
| Great Possession
|-----
| ]
| Modesty
|-----
| ]
| Enthusiasm
|-----
| ]
| Following
|-----
| ]
| Work on the Decayed
|-----
| ]
| Approach
|-----
| ]
| Contemplation
|-----
| ]
| Biting Through
|-----
| ]
| Grace
|-----
| ]
| Splitting Apart
|-----
| ]
| Return
|-----
| ]
| Innocence
|-----
| ]
| Great Taming
|-----
| ]
| Mouth Corners
|-----
| ]
| Great Preponderance
|-----
| ]
| The Abysmal Water
|-----
| ]
| The Clinging
|-----
| ]
| Influence
|-----
| ]
| Duration
|}
| valign="top" |
{| class="wikitable"
|-----
! Hexagram
! R. Wilhelm
|-----
| ]
| Retreat
|-----
| ]
| Great Power
|-----
| ]
| Progress
|-----
| ]
| Darkening of the Light
|-----
| ]
| The Family
|-----
| ]
| Opposition
|-----
| ]
| Obstruction
|-----
| ]
| Deliverance
|-----
| ]
| Decrease
|-----
| ]
| Increase
|-----
| ]
| Breakthrough
|-----
| ]
| Coming to Meet
|-----
| ]
| Gathering Together
|-----
| ]
| Pushing Upward
|-----
| ]
| Oppression
|-----
| ]
| The Well
|-----
| ]
| Revolution
|-----
| ]
| The Cauldron
|-----
| ]
| Arousing
|-----
| ]
| The Keeping Still
|-----
| ]
| Development
|-----
| ]
| The Marrying Maiden
|-----
| ]
| Abundance
|-----
| ]
| The Wanderer
|-----
| ]
| The Gentle
|-----
| ]
| The Joyous
|-----
| ]
| Dispersion
|-----
| ]
| Limitation
|-----
| ]
| Inner Truth
|-----
| ]
| Small Preponderance
|-----
| ]
| After Completion
|-----
| ]
| Before Completion
|}
|}


===Tang and Song dynasties===
The hexagrams, though, are mere mnemonics for the philosophical concepts embodied in each one. The philosophy centres around the ideas of ''balance through opposites'' and ''acceptance of change''.
At the beginning of the ], ] ordered ] to create a canonical edition of the ''I Ching''. Choosing ]'s 3rd-century ''Annotated Book of Changes'' ({{tlit|zh|Zhōuyì zhù}}; {{lang|zh|周易注}}) as the official commentary, he added to it further commentary drawing out the subtler details of Wang Bi's explanations. The resulting ''Right Meaning of the Book of Changes'' ({{tlit|zh|Zhōuyì zhèngyì}}; {{lang|zh|周易正義}}) became the standard edition of the ''I Ching'' through the ].{{sfnmp|1a1=Hon|1y=2005|1pp=29–33|2a1=Knechtges|2y=2014|2p=1891}}


By the 11th century, the ''I Ching'' was being read as a work of intricate philosophy, as a jumping-off point for examining great metaphysical questions and ethical issues.{{sfnp|Hon|2005|p=144}} ], patriarch of the Neo-Confucian ], read the ''I Ching'' as a guide to moral perfection. He described the text as a way to for ministers to form honest political factions, root out corruption, and solve problems in government.{{sfnmp|1a1=Smith|1y=2008|1p=128|2a1=Redmond|2a2=Hon|2y=2014|2p=177}}
==Unicode==
In ], monograms cover code points U+268A to U+268B, digrams cover code points U+268C to U+268F, trigrams cover code points U+2630 to U+2637, hexagram symbols cover code points U+4DC0 to U+4DFF (19904 – 19967).


The contemporary scholar ] rearranged the hexagrams in a format that resembles modern ]s, although he did not intend his arrangement to be used mathematically.{{sfnp|Redmond|Hon|2014|p=227}} This arrangement, sometimes called the ], later inspired ].
]({{lang|zh|]}}) digrams cover code points U+1D301 to U+1D305, tetragrams cover code points U+1D306 to U+1D356. The monograms cover code points U+1D300 (earth), U+268A (yang), U+268B (yin).


]
==Philosophy==
Gradations of binary expression based on yin and yang -- old yang, old yin, young yang or young yin (see the ''divination'' paragraph below) -- are what the hexagrams are built from. Yin and yang, while common expressions associated with many schools known from classical Chinese culture, are especially associated with the ]s.


===Neo-Confucianism===
Another view holds that the ''I Ching'' is primarily a ] ethical or philosophical document. This view is based upon the following:
The 12th century Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi, co-founder of the Cheng–Zhu school, criticized both of the Han dynasty lines of commentary on the ''I Ching'', saying that they were one-sided. He developed a synthesis of the two, arguing that the text was primarily a work of divination that could be used in the process of moral self-cultivation, or what the ancients called "rectification of the mind" in the '']''. Zhu Xi's reconstruction of ], based in part on the ''Great Commentary'' account, became the standard form and is still in use today.{{sfnmp|1a1=Adler|1y=2002|1pp=v–xi|2a1=Smith|2y=2008|2p=229|3a1=Adler|3y=2020|3pp=9–16}}
* The Wings or Appendices are attributed to Confucius.
* The study of the ''I Ching'' was required as part of the Civil Service Exams in the period that these exams only studied Confucianist texts.
* It is one of the Five Confucian Classics.
* It does not appear in any surviving editions of the ].
* The major commentaries were written by Confucianists, or Neo-Confucianists.
* Taoist scripture avoids, even mocks, all attempts at categorizing the world's myriad phenomena and forming a static philosophy.
* Taoists venerate the non-useful. The ''I Ching'' could be used for good or evil purposes.


As China entered the early modern period, the ''I Ching'' took on renewed relevance in both Confucian and Daoist studies. The ] was especially fond of the ''I Ching'' and ordered new interpretations of it.{{sfnp|Smith|2008|p=177}} ] scholars focused more intently on understanding pre-classical grammar, assisting the development of new philological approaches in the modern period.{{sfnp|Nielsen|2003|p=xvi}}
Both views may be seen to show that the ''I Ching'' was at the heart of Chinese thought, serving as a common ground for the Confucian and Taoist schools. Partly forgotten due to the rise of Chinese Buddhism during the ], the ''I Ching'' returned to the attention of scholars during the ]. This was concomitant with the reassessment of Confucianism by Confucians in the light of Taoist and Buddhist ], and is known in the West as ]. The book, unquestionably an ancient Chinese scripture, helped Song Confucian thinkers to synthesize Buddhist and Taoist cosmologies with Confucian and Mencian ]. The end product was a new ] that could be linked to the so-called “lost Tao” of ] and ].


===Binary sequence=== ===East Asia===
Like the other Chinese classics, the ''I Ching'' was an influential text across East Asia. In 1557, the Korean Neo-Confucianist philosopher ] produced one of the most influential ''I Ching'' studies of the early modern era, claiming that the spirit was a principle ('']'') and not a material force (]). Hwang accused the Neo-Confucian school of having misread Zhu Xi. His critique proved influential not only in Korea but also in Japan.{{sfnp|Ng|2000b|pp=55–56}} Other than this contribution, the ''I Ching''—known in Korean as the {{tlit|ko|Yeok Gyeong}}&nbsp;({{lang|ko|역경}})—was not central to the development of Korean Confucianism, and by the 19th century, ''I Ching'' studies were integrated into the {{tlit|ko|]}} reform movement.{{sfnp|Ng|2000b|p=65}}
In his article '']'' (1703) ] writes that he has found in the hexagrams a base for claiming the universality of the ]. He takes the layout of the combinatorial exercise found in the hexagrams to represent binary sequences, so that ¦¦¦¦¦¦ would correspond to the binary sequence 000000 and ¦¦¦¦¦| would be 000001, and so forth.


In medieval Japan, secret teachings on the ''I Ching''—known in Japanese as the {{tlit|ja|Eki Kyō}}&nbsp;({{lang|ja|易経}})—were publicized by ] master ] and the Shintoist ] during the Kamakura era.{{sfnp|Ng|2000a|pp=7, 15}} ''I Ching'' studies in Japan took on new importance during the ], during which over 1,000 books were published on the subject by over 400 authors. The majority of these books were serious works of philology, reconstructing ancient usages and commentaries for practical purposes. A sizable minority focused on numerology, symbolism, and divination.{{sfnp|Ng|2000a|pp=22–25}} During this time, over 150 editions of earlier Chinese commentaries were reprinted across Edo Japan, including several texts that had become lost in China.{{sfnp|Ng|2000a|pp=28–29}} In the early Edo period, Japanese writers such as ], ], and ] ranked the ''I Ching'' the greatest of the Confucian classics.{{sfnp|Ng|2000a|pp=38–39}} Many writers attempted to use the ''I Ching'' to explain ]. One writer, ], even attempted to employ ] and the ] within an ''I Ching'' cosmology.{{sfnp|Ng|2000a|pp=143–145}} This line of argument was later taken up in China by the Qing politician ].{{sfnp|Smith|2008|p=197}}
The binary arrangement of hexagrams is associated with the famous Chinese scholar and philosopher ] (a neo-Confucian and Taoist) in the 11th century. He displayed it in two different formats, a circle, and a rectangular block. Thus, he clearly understood the sequence represented a logical progression of values. However, while it is true that these sequences do represent the values 0 through 63 in a binary display, there is no evidence that Shao understood that the numbers could be used in computations such as addition or subtraction.


===Enlightenment Europe===
==Divination==
] from ]. The Arabic numerals were added by Leibniz.]]
{{main|I Ching divination}}
], who was corresponding with ], wrote the first European commentary on the ''I Ching'' in 1703. He argued that it proved the universality of ]s and ], since the broken lines, the "0" or "nothingness", cannot become solid lines, the "1" or "oneness", without the intervention of ].{{sfnmp|1a1=Nelson|1y=2011|1p=379|2a1=Smith|2y=2008|2p=204}} This was criticized by ], who proclaimed that binary system and ] were "empty forms" that could not articulate spoken words with the clarity of the Western ].{{sfnp|Nelson|2011|p=381}} In their commentary, ''I Ching'' hexagrams and Chinese characters were conflated into a single foreign idea, sparking a dialogue on Western philosophical questions such as universality and the nature of communication. The usage of binary in relation to the I Ching was central to Leibniz's {{lang|la|]}}, or 'universal language', which in turn inspired the standards of ] and for ] to develop ] in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, ] identified Hegel's argument as ], but accepted without question Hegel's premise that the Chinese language cannot express philosophical ideas.{{sfnp|Nelson|2011|p=383}}


===Modern===
The ''I Ching'' has long been used as an oracle and many different ways coexist to “cast” a reading, i.e., a hexagram, with its dynamic relationship to others. In China the ''I Ching'' had two distinct functions. The first was as a compendium and classic of ancient cosmic principles. The second function was that of divination text. As a divination text the world of the ''I Ching'' was that of the marketplace fortune teller and roadside oracle. These individuals served the illiterate peasantry. The educated Confucian elite in China were of an entirely different disposition. The future results of our actions were a function of our personal virtues. The Confucian literati actually had little use for the ''I Ching'' as a work of divination. In the collected works of the countless educated literati of ancient China there are actually few references to the ''I Ching'' as a divination text. Any eyewitness account of traditional Chinese society, such as ] ''The Middle Kingdom'', and many others, can clarify this very basic distinction. Williams tells us of the ''I Ching'', "The hundred of fortune- tellers seen in the streets of Chinese towns, whose answers to their perplexed customers are more or less founded on these cabala, indicate their influence among the illiterate; while among scholars, who have long since conceded all divination to be vain..." (''The Middle Kingdom'', vol. 1, p. 632)
After the ], the ''I Ching'' lost its significance in political philosophy, but it maintained cultural influence as one of China's most ancient texts. Chinese writers offered parallels between the ''I Ching'' and subjects such as ] and ], aiming to demonstrate that ancient Chinese cosmology had anticipated Western discoveries.{{sfnp|Smith|2008|p=205}} The sinologist ] took the opposite opinion, arguing that the ''I Ching'' had actually impeded scientific development by incorporating all physical knowledge into its metaphysics. However, with the advent of ], physicist ] credited the yin and yang symbolism for providing inspiration of his ] of the new field, which disproved principles from older Western classical mechanics. The ] heavily used concepts from the I Ching as mentioned in his writings.{{sfnp|Redmond|Hon|2014|p=231}} The psychologist ] took interest in the possible universal nature of the imagery of the ''I Ching'', and he introduced an influential German translation by ] by discussing his theories of ]s and ].{{sfnmp|1a1=Smith|1y=2008|1p=212|2a1=Redmond|2a2=Hon|2y=2014|2pp=205–214}} Jung wrote, "Even to the most biased eye, it is obvious that this book represents one long admonition to careful scrutiny of one's own character, attitude, and motives."{{sfnp|Smith|2012|pp=11, 198}} The book had a notable impact on the ] and on 20th century cultural figures such as ], ], ], ] and ]. ] references the six yang hexagram in "Amelia", a song on the album ''Hejira'', where she describes the image of "...six jet planes leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain...".{{sfnp|Smith|2012|pp=11, 197–198}} It also inspired the 1968 song "]" by ].


The modern period also brought a new level of skepticism and rigor to ''I Ching'' scholarship. ] spent several decades producing a new interpretation of the text, which was published posthumously in 1978. Modern data scientists including Alex Liu proposed to represent and develop ''I Ching'' methods with data science 4E framework and ] approaches for a more rigorous representation and interpretation of I Ching.<ref>{{Cite web |title=I Ching Methods Represented with Big Data Science |url=http://www.researchmethods.org/iching.html |access-date=20 May 2021}}</ref>{{undue weight inline|date=December 2023}} ], an expert in pre-Qin China, re-investigated its use as a Zhou dynasty oracle. Edward Shaughnessy proposed a new dating for the various strata of the text.{{sfnp|Knechtges|2014|pp=1884–1885}} New archaeological discoveries have enabled a deeper level of insight into how the text was used in the centuries before the Qin dynasty. Proponents of newly reconstructed Western Zhou readings, which often differ greatly from traditional readings of the text, are sometimes called the "modernist school".{{sfnmp|1a1=Redmond|1a2=Hon|1y=2014|1p=122ff|2a1=Shaughnessy|2y=2014|2loc=passim}}
==Symbolism==
]
] used Trigram Li - Fire]]
The ] contains the ] symbol, or ''tàijítú,'' (yin and yang in dynamic balance, called '']'' in Korean), representing the origin of all things in the universe. The ''taegeuk'' is surrounded by four of the eight trigrams, starting from top left and going clockwise: Heaven, Water, Earth, Fire.


==Translations==
The flag of the ] used the ''Li'' (Fire) trigram and was known as ''cờ quẻ Ly'' (Li trigram flag) because the trigram represents South. Its successor the ] connected the middle lines, turning it into the Qián (Heaven) trigram. (see ]).
{{Taoism condensed}}
The ''I Ching'' has been translated into Western languages dozens of times. The earliest published complete translation of the ''I Ching'' into a Western language was a Latin translation done in the 1730s by the French Jesuit missionary ] and his companions that was published in Germany in the 1830s.{{sfnp|Shaughnessy|1993|p=225}}<ref>The text downloadable form the Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum: ''Y-King: antiquissimus Sinarum liber, quem ex Latina interpretatione P. Regis aliorumque ex Soc. Iesu P. P. edidit Julius Mohl'', Stuttgartiae et Tubingae: Cotta, liber 1: 1834, XX + 475 S., liber 2: 1839, 588 S.
, </ref>


Historically, the most influential Western-language ''I Ching'' translation was ]'s 1923 German translation, which was translated into English in 1950 by ].{{sfnmp|1a1=Shaughnessy|1y=2014|1p=1|2a1=Redmond|2a2=Hon|2y=2014|2p=239}} Although ] and ] had both translated the text into English already in the 19th century, while ] and ] had both translated it in the same period into French, the text gained significant traction during the counterculture of the 1960s, with the translations of Wilhelm and ] attracting particular interest.{{sfnp|Smith|2012|pp=198–199}} ]'s 1996 translation incorporated much of the new archaeological and philological discoveries of the 20th century.{{sfnp|Redmond|Hon|2014|pp=241–243}}
==Influence on Western culture==
{{main|I Ching's influence}}
<!-- Please see subarticle, main points of which this section should summarize-->
The ''I Ching'' has influenced countless Chinese philosophers, artists and even businesspeople throughout history. In more recent times, several Western artists and thinkers have used it in fields as diverse as ], music, film, drama, ], and fiction writing.


The most commonly used English translations of the ''I Ching'' are:{{sfnp|Shaughnessy|1993|p=225}}
==Criticism==
* Legge, James (1882). ''The Yî King''. In ''], vol. XVI''. 2nd edition (1899), Oxford: Clarendon Press; reprinted numerous times.
{{Expand|date=February 2008}}
* ] (1924, 1950). ''The I Ching or Book of Changes''. Cary Baynes, trans. Bollingen Series '''19'''. Introduction by Carl G. Jung. New York: Pantheon Books. 3rd edition (1967), Princeton: ]; reprinted numerous times.


Other notable English translations include:
Early ], as with western civilization, suffered from various ''a priori'' "pseudo-scientific 'explanations' of natural events." The ''I Ching'' has been cited as an example of this. As a manual of divination it interpreted natural events through readings based on symbols expressed in the trigrams and hexagrams. Thus any observation in nature could be interpreted as to its cause and effet. This might be compared to the ] practice of basing decisions of state on animals' livers. While usually sympathetic to the claims of Chinese culture and science, ], in his second volume of ''Science and Civilization in China'' (p. 311) stated: "Yet really they would have been wiser to tie a millstone about the neck of the ''I Ching'' and cast it into the sea."<ref>Snow, Eric. (], 1999]]) . Retrieved on: ], ]</ref>
* McClatchie, Thomas (1876). ''A Translation of the Confucian Yi-king''. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press.
* ] (1965). ''The Book of Changes: A New Translation of the Ancient Chinese I Ching''. New York: E. P. Dutton.
* {{Cite book |last=Cleary |first=Thomas |title=I Ching: The Book of Change |publisher=Shambhala |year=1992 |isbn=0-877-73661-8 |location=Boston, MA |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lynn |first=Richard John |title=The Classic of Changes |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1994 |isbn=0-231-08294-0 |location=New York |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rutt |first=Richard |title=The Book of Changes (Zhouyi): A Bronze Age Document |publisher=Curzon |year=1996 |isbn=0-700-70467-1 |location=Richmond |ref=none |authorlink1=Richard Rutt}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shaughnessy |first=Edward L. |title=I Ching: The Classic of Changes |publisher=Ballantine |year=1996 |isbn=0-345-36243-8 |location=New York |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hinton |first=David |title=I Ching: The Book of Change |publisher=Farrar, Straus & Giroux |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-374-22090-7 |author-link=David Hinton |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Redmond |first=Geoffrey |title=The I Ching (Book of Changes): A Critical Translation of the Ancient Text |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-472-51413-4 |location=London |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Adler |first=Joseph A. |title=The Original Meaning of the Yijing: Commentary on the Scripture of Change |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-231-19124-1 |location=New York |ref=none}}


==Translations== ==See also==
* '']''
*Anthony, Carol K. & Moog, Hanna. ''I Ching: The Oracle of the Cosmic Way''. Stow, Massachusetts: Anthony Publishing Company, Inc., 2002. ISBN 1-890764-00-0. The publisher's internet address is www.ichingoracle.com.
* ]
*Balkin, Jack M. 2002. “The Laws of Change: I Ching and the Philosophy of Life”. New York: Schocken Books. ISBN 0-8052-4199-X
* '']''
*Benson, Robert G. 2003. ''I Ching for a New Age: The Book of Answers for Changing Times''. New York: Square One Publishers.
* '']''
*Blofeld, J. 1965. ''The Book of Changes: A New Translation of the Ancient Chinese I Ching''. New York: E. P. Dutton.
* Cornelius, J Edward & Cornelius, Marlene (1998) Yî King: A Beastly Book of Changes. ''Red Flame: A Thelemic Research Journal'' (5) 1998. This book contains Aleister Crowley's notes and comments on the Yi Jing.
*Huang, A. 1998. ''The Complete I Ching: the Definitive Translation From the Taoist Master Alfred Huang''. Rochester, N.Y: Inner Traditions.
*Hua-Ching Ni. 1999. ''I Ching: The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth''. (2nd edition). Los Angeles: Seven Star Communications.
*Karcher, Stephen, 2002. ''I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change: The First Complete Translation with Concordance''. London: Vega Books. ISBN 1-84333-003-2. The publisher can be found at www.chrysalisbooks.co.uk. This version manages to pull together a wide variety of sources and interpretations into a coherent, intelligible whole which is generally easier to understand than the Wilhelm/Baynes edition. Especially interesting are its multiple translations of the Chinese words used and the concordance at the end.
*Legge, J. 1964. ''I Ching: Book of Changes''. With introduction and study guide by ] and ]. New York: Citadel Press.
*''I Ching, The Classic of Changes'', The first English translation of the newly discovered second-century B.C. Mawangdui texts by Edward L. Shaughnessy, Ballantine, 1996. ISBN 0-345-36243-8.
*]. & Baynes, C., 1967. ''The I Ching or Book of Changes,'' With foreword by ]. 3rd. ed., ] XIX. Princeton NJ: ] (1st ed. 1950).
*Lynn, Richard J. 1994, ''The Classic of Changes, A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by ]''. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08294-0
*Wei, Wu 2005. “I Ching, The Book Of Answers” Power Press ISBN 0-943015-41-3 New revised edition, interpreted by Wu Wei. Appears to follow the Wilhelm and Baynes translation real well, leaving out the sometimes confusing mechanics. Would be handy to use in conjunction with Wilhelm and Baynes when divining for the lay person.
*Cheng Yi translated by Cleary, Thomas 1988, 2003. “I Ching: The Book of Change” Shambala Library, Boston, London ISBN 1-59030-015-7


==Footnotes== == Notes ==
{{reflist}} {{NoteFoot}}


==References== == References ==
=== Citations ===
*Herbie Brennan, 1973. ''The Syncronistic Barometer'', ], August 1973.
{{Reflist|25em}}
*Marshall, S. J. 2001. ''The Mandate of Heaven: Hidden History in the I Ching''. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12299-3

*Rutt, R. 1996. ''Zhouyi: The Book of Changes''. Curzon Press.
=== Works cited ===
*Reifler, Samuel. 1974. “I Ching: A New Interpretation for Modern Times.” Bantam New Age Books. ISBN 0-553-27873-8
{{Refbegin}}
*Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1993). “I ching 易經 (Chou I 周易) ”, pp.216-228 in Loewe, Michael (ed.). Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, (Early China Special Monograph Series No. 2), Society for the Study of Early China, and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
* {{Cite book |last=Adler |first=Joseph A. |title=Introduction to the Study of the Classic of Change (I-hsüeh ch'i-meng) |publisher=Global Scholarly Publications |year=2002 |isbn=1-592-67334-1 |location=Provo, UT}}
*His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman also contains references to the I Ching.
* {{Cite book |last=Adler |first=Joseph A. |title=The Original Meaning of the Yijing: Commentary on the Scripture of Change |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-231-19124-1 |location=New York}}
*Aleister Crowley - liber CCXVI- The Book of Changes- I CHing - The Equinox, Vol III NO 7. A.'.A.'.
* {{Cite book |last=Adler |first=Joseph A. |title=The Yijing: A Guide |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-190-07246-9 |location=New York}}
*Phillip K. Dick's Hugo Award-winning novel 'The Man in the High Castle' features numerous I Ching references.
* {{Cite book |last=Hon |first=Tze-ki |title=The Yijing and Chinese Politics: Classical Commentary and Literati Activism in the Northern Song Period, 960–1127 |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-791-46311-7 |location=Albany |author-mask=Hon Tze-ki (韓子奇)}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kern |first=Martin |title=The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1: To 1375 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-11677-0 |editor-last=Owen |editor-first=Stephen |pages=1–115 |chapter=Early Chinese literature, Beginnings through Western Han}}
* {{Cite book |last=Knechtges |first=David R. |author-link=David R. Knechtges |title=Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide |publisher=Brill |year=2014 |isbn=978-90-042-7216-3 |editor-last=Knechtges |editor-first=David R. |volume=3 |location=Leiden |pages=1877–1896 |chapter=Yi jing |script-chapter=zh:易經 |trans-chapter=Classic of changes |editor-last2=Chang |editor-first2=Taiping}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Eric S. |year=2011 |title=The Yijing and Philosophy: From Leibniz to Derrida |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/NELTYA |journal=Journal of Chinese Philosophy |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=377–396 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6253.2011.01661.x}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ng |first=Wai-ming |title=The I Ching in Tokugawa Thought and Culture |publisher=Association for Asian Studies and University of Hawaiʻi Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-824-82242-0 |location=Honolulu |ref={{sfnref|Ng|2000a}} |author-mask=Ng Wai-ming (吳偉明)}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Ng |first=Wai-ming |author-mask=Ng Wai-ming (吳偉明) |year=2000 |title=The I Ching in Late-Choson Thought |journal=Korean Studies |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=53–68 |doi=10.1353/ks.2000.0013 |s2cid=162334992 |ref={{sfnref|Ng|2000b}}}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nielsen |first=Bent |title=A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology: Chinese Studies of Images and Numbers from Han (202 BCE–220 CE) to Song (960–1279 CE) |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=0-700-71608-4 |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nylan |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Nylan |title=The Five "Confucian" Classics |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-300-13033-3 |location=New Haven, CT}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Peterson |first=Willard J. |year=1982 |title=Making Connections: 'Commentary on the Attached Verbalizations' of the ''Book of Change'' |journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=67–116 |jstor=2719121}}
* {{Cite book |last=Raphals |first=Lisa |title=Divination and Prediction in Early China and Ancient Greece |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-107-01075-8}}
* {{Cite book |last=Redmond |first=Geoffrey |title=Teaching the I Ching |last2=Hon |first2=Tze-Ki |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-199-76681-9}}
* {{Cite book |last=Redmond |first=Geoffrey |title=The Making of the Global Yijing in the Modern World |publisher=Springer |year=2021 |isbn=978-9-813-36227-7 |editor-last=Ng |editor-first=Wai-ming |location=Singapore |pages=197–221 |chapter=The Yijing in Early Postwar Counterculture in the West}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rutt |first=Richard |title=The Book of Changes (Zhouyi): A Bronze Age Document |publisher=Curzon |year=1996 |isbn=0-700-70467-1 |location=Richmond}}
* {{Cite book |last=Schuessler |first=Axel |title=ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4356-6587-3 |location=Honolulu}}
* {{Cite thesis |last=Shaughnessy |first=Edward |title=The composition of the Zhouyi |degree=Ph.D. |publisher=Stanford University |authorlink1=Edward Shaughnessy |year=1983}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shaughnessy |first=Edward |title=Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide |publisher=Society for the Study of Early China; Institute for East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley |year=1993 |isbn=1-557-29043-1 |editor-last=Loewe |editor-first=Michael |location=Berkeley |pages=216–228 |chapter=''I Ching'' 易經 (''Chou I'' 周易)}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shaughnessy |first=Edward |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory00loew |title=The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-521-47030-7 |editor-last=Loewe |editor-first=Michael |pages=–351 |chapter=Western Zhou History |editor-last2=Shaughnessy |editor-first2=Edward |url-access=limited}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shaughnessy |first=Edward |title=Unearthing the Changes: Recently Discovered Manuscripts of the Yi Jing (I Ching) and Related Texts |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-231-16184-8 |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shchutskii |first=Julian |title=Researches on the I Ching |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1979 |isbn=0-691-09939-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Richard J. |title=Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: the Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and its Evolution in China |publisher=University of Virginia Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-813-92705-3 |location=Charlottesville}}
* {{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Richard J. |title=The I Ching: A Biography |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-691-14509-9}}
* {{Cite book |last=Yuasa |first=Yasuo |title=Overcoming Modernity: Synchronicity and Image-thinking |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-435-65870-7 |location=Albany}}
{{Refend}}


==External links== ==External links==
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* (''The Sacred books of China'' '''16'''), translated by James Legge, 1882.
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* '''' at the Chinese Text Project: original text and Legge's translation
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Latest revision as of 22:59, 17 December 2024

Ancient Chinese divination text "The Book of Changes" redirects here. For other uses, see The Book of Changes (disambiguation). For other uses of "I Ching" or "Yijing", see I Ching (disambiguation) and Yijing (disambiguation).

I Ching
Title page of a Song dynasty (c. 1100) edition of the I Ching
Original title
LanguageOld Chinese
SubjectDivination, cosmology
PublishedLate 9th century BC
Publication placeChina
Original text at Chinese Wikisource
I Ching
"I (Ching)" in seal script (top), traditional (middle), and simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese易經
Simplified Chinese易经
Hanyu PinyinYì Jīng
Literal meaning"Classic of Changes"
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinYì Jīng
Bopomofoㄧˋ ㄐㄧㄥ
Gwoyeu RomatzyhYih Jing
Wade–GilesI Ching
IPA
Wu
SuzhouneseYih Jin
Hakka
RomanizationYit Gang
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationYihk Gīng
JyutpingJik6 Ging1
IPA[jèk kéŋ]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJIa̍h Keng (col.)
E̍k Keng (lit.)
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUCĬk Gĭng
Middle Chinese
Middle Chineseyek geng
Old Chinese
Baxter (1992)*ljek (keng)
Baxter–Sagart (2014)*lek (k-lˤeng)
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabetKinh Dịch
Chữ Hán經易
Korean name
Hangul역경
Hanja易經
Transcriptions
Revised RomanizationYeokgyeong
Japanese name
Kanji易経
Hiraganaえききょう
Transcriptions
Revised HepburnEkikyō

The I Ching or Yijing (Chinese: 易經, Mandarin: ), usually translated Book of Changes or Classic of Changes, is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The I Ching was originally a divination manual in the Western Zhou period (1000–750 BC). Over the course of the Warring States and early imperial periods (500–200 BC), it transformed into a cosmological text with a series of philosophical commentaries known as the Ten Wings. After becoming part of the Chinese Five Classics in the 2nd century BC, the I Ching was the basis for divination practice for centuries across the Far East and was the subject of scholarly commentary. Between the 18th and 20th centuries, it took on an influential role in Western understanding of East Asian philosophical thought.

As a divination text, the I Ching is used for a Chinese form of cleromancy known as I Ching divination in which bundles of yarrow stalks are manipulated to produce sets of six apparently random numbers ranging from 6 to 9. Each of the 64 possible sets corresponds to a hexagram, which can be looked up in the I Ching. The hexagrams are arranged in an order known as the King Wen sequence. The interpretation of the readings found in the I Ching has been discussed and debated over the centuries. Many commentators have used the book symbolically, often to provide guidance for moral decision-making, as informed by Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. The hexagrams themselves have often acquired cosmological significance and been paralleled with many other traditional names for the processes of change such as yin and yang and Wu Xing.

The divination text: Zhou Yi

History

The core of the I Ching is a Western Zhou divination text called the Changes of Zhou (Chinese: 周易; pinyin: Zhōu yì). Modern scholars suggest dates ranging between the 10th and 4th centuries BC for the assembly of the text in approximately its current form. Based on a comparison of the language of the Zhou yi with dated bronze inscriptions, the American sinologist Edward Shaughnessy dated its compilation in its current form to the last quarter of the 9th century BC, during the early decades of the reign of King Xuan of Zhou (r.c. 827 – 782 BC). A copy of the text in the Shanghai Museum corpus of bamboo and wooden slips discovered in 1994 shows that the Zhou yi was used throughout all levels of Chinese society in its current form by 300 BC, but still contained small variations as late as the Warring States period (c. 475 – 221 BC). It is possible that other divination systems existed at this time; the Rites of Zhou name two other such systems, the Lianshan [zh] and the Guicang.

Name and authorship

The name Zhou yi literally means the 'changes' (易; ) of the Zhou dynasty. The 'changes' involved have been interpreted as the transformations of hexagrams, of their lines, or of the numbers obtained from the divination. Feng Youlan proposed that the word for 'changes' originally meant 'easy', as in a form of divination easier than the oracle bones, but there is little evidence for this. There is also an ancient folk etymology that sees the character for 'changes' as containing the sun and moon, the cycle of the day. Modern sinologists believe the character to be derived either from an image of the sun emerging from clouds, or from the content of a vessel being changed into another.

The Zhou yi was traditionally ascribed to the Zhou cultural heroes King Wen of Zhou and the Duke of Zhou, and was also associated with the legendary world ruler Fuxi. According to the canonical Great Commentary, Fuxi observed the patterns of the world and created the eight trigrams (八卦; bāguà), "in order to become thoroughly conversant with the numinous and bright and to classify the myriad things". The Zhou yi itself does not contain this legend and indeed says nothing about its own origins. The Rites of Zhou, however, also claims that the hexagrams of the Zhou yi were derived from an initial set of eight trigrams. During the Han dynasty there were various opinions about the historical relationship between the trigrams and the hexagrams. Eventually, a consensus formed around 2nd-century AD scholar Ma Rong's attribution of the text to the joint work of Fuxi, King Wen of Zhou, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius, but this traditional attribution is no longer generally accepted.

Another tradition about the I Ching was that most of it was written by Tang of Shang.

Structure

A turtle shell inscribed with primitive Chinese characters
Oracle turtle shell featuring the ancient form () of zhēn (貞) 'to divine'

The basic unit of the Zhou yi is the hexagram (卦 guà), a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines (爻 yáo). Each line is either broken or unbroken. The received text of the Zhou yi contains all 64 possible hexagrams, along with the hexagram's name (卦名 guàmíng), a short hexagram statement (彖 tuàn), and six line statements (爻辭 yáocí). The statements were used to determine the results of divination, but the reasons for having two different methods of reading the hexagram are not known, and it is not known why hexagram statements would be read over line statements or vice versa.

The book opens with the first hexagram statement, yuán hēng lì zhēn (元亨利貞). These four words are often repeated in the hexagram statements and were already considered an important part of I Ching interpretation in the 6th century BC. Edward Shaughnessy describes this statement as affirming an "initial receipt" of an offering, "beneficial" for further "divining". The word zhēn (貞, ancient form ) was also used for the verb 'divine' in the oracle bones of the late Shang dynasty, which preceded the Zhou. It also carried meanings of being or making upright or correct, and was defined by the Eastern Han scholar Zheng Xuan as "to enquire into the correctness" of a proposed activity.

The names of the hexagrams are usually words that appear in their respective line statements, but in five cases (2, 9, 26, 61, and 63) an unrelated character of unclear purpose appears. The hexagram names could have been chosen arbitrarily from the line statements, but it is also possible that the line statements were derived from the hexagram names. The line statements, which make up most of the book, are exceedingly cryptic. Each line begins with a word indicating the line number, "base, 2, 3, 4, 5, top", and either the number 6 for a broken line, or the number 9 for a whole line. Hexagrams 1 and 2 have an extra line statement, named yong. Following the line number, the line statements may make oracular or prognostic statements. Some line statements also contain poetry or references to historical events.

Usage

Main article: I Ching divination
A bundle of thin sticks
Fifty yarrow (Achillea millefolium) stalks used for I Ching divination

Archaeological evidence shows that Zhou dynasty divination was grounded in cleromancy, the production of seemingly random numbers to determine divine intent. The Zhou yi provided a guide to cleromancy that used the stalks of the yarrow plant, but it is not known how the yarrow stalks became numbers, or how specific lines were chosen from the line readings. In the hexagrams, broken lines were used as shorthand for the numbers 6 (六) and 8 (八), and solid lines were shorthand for values of 7 (七) and 9 (九). The Great Commentary contains a late classic description of a process where various numerological operations are performed on a bundle of 50 stalks, leaving remainders of 6 to 9. Like the Zhou yi itself, yarrow stalk divination dates to the Western Zhou period, although its modern form is a reconstruction.

The ancient narratives Zuo Zhuan and Guoyu contain the oldest descriptions of divination using the Zhou yi. The two histories describe more than twenty successful divinations conducted by professional soothsayers for royal families between 671 and 487 BC. The method of divination is not explained, and none of the stories employ predetermined commentaries, patterns, or interpretations. Only the hexagrams and line statements are used. By the 4th century BC, the authority of the Zhou yi was also cited for rhetorical purposes, without relation to any stated divination. The Zuo Zhuan does not contain records of private individuals, but Qin dynasty records found at Shuihudi show that the hexagrams were privately consulted to answer questions such as business, health, children, and determining lucky days.

The most common form of divination with the I Ching in use today is a reconstruction of the method described in these histories, in the 300 BC Great Commentary, and later in the Huainanzi and the Lunheng. From the Great Commentary's description, the Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi reconstructed a method of yarrow stalk divination that is still used throughout the Far East. In the modern period, Gao Heng attempted his own reconstruction, which varies from Zhu Xi in places. Another divination method, employing coins, became widely used in the Tang dynasty and is still used today. In the modern period; alternative methods such as specialized dice and cartomancy have also appeared.

In the Zuo Zhuan stories, individual lines of hexagrams are denoted by using the genitive particle zhi (之), followed by the name of another hexagram where that specific line had another form. In later attempts to reconstruct ancient divination methods, the word zhi was interpreted as a verb meaning 'moving to', an apparent indication that hexagrams could be transformed into other hexagrams. However, there are no instances of "changeable lines" in the Zuo Zhuan. In all 12 out of 12 line statements quoted, the original hexagrams are used to produce the oracle.

The classic: I Ching

In 136 BC, Emperor Wu of Han named the Zhou yi "the first among the classics", dubbing it the Classic of Changes or I Ching. Emperor Wu's placement of the I Ching among the Five Classics was informed by a broad span of cultural influences that included Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, yin-yang cosmology, and Wu Xing physical theory. While the Zhou yi does not contain any cosmological analogies, the I Ching was read as a microcosm of the universe that offered complex, symbolic correspondences. The official edition of the text was literally set in stone, as one of the Xiping Stone Classics. The canonized I Ching became the standard text for over two thousand years, until alternate versions of the Zhou yi and related texts were discovered in the 20th century.

Ten Wings

Main article: Ten Wings

Part of the canonization of the Zhou yi bound it to a set of ten commentaries called the Ten Wings. The Ten Wings are of a much later provenance than the Zhou yi, and are the production of a different society. The Zhou yi was written in Early Old Chinese, while the Ten Wings were written in a predecessor to Middle Chinese. The specific origins of the Ten Wings are still a complete mystery to academics. Regardless of their historical relation to the text, the philosophical depth of the Ten Wings made the I Ching a perfect fit to Han period Confucian scholarship. The inclusion of the Ten Wings reflects a widespread recognition in ancient China, found in the Zuo zhuan and other pre-Han texts, that the I Ching was a rich moral and symbolic document useful for more than professional divination.

Arguably the most important of the Ten Wings is the Great Commentary (Dazhuan) or Xi ci, which dates to roughly 300 BC. The Great Commentary describes the I Ching as a microcosm of the universe and a symbolic description of the processes of change. By partaking in the spiritual experience of the I Ching, the Great Commentary states, the individual can understand the deeper patterns of the universe. Among other subjects, it explains how the eight trigrams proceeded from the eternal oneness of the universe through three bifurcations. The other Wings provide different perspectives on essentially the same viewpoint, giving ancient, cosmic authority to the I Ching. For example, the Wenyan provides a moral interpretation that parallels the first two hexagrams, 乾 (qián) and 坤 (kūn), with Heaven and Earth, and the Shuogua attributes to the symbolic function of the hexagrams the ability to understand self, world, and destiny. Throughout the Ten Wings, there are passages that seem to purposefully increase the ambiguity of the base text, pointing to a recognition of multiple layers of symbolism.

The Great Commentary associates knowledge of the I Ching with the ability to "delight in Heaven and understand fate;" the sage who reads it will see cosmological patterns and not despair in mere material difficulties. The Japanese word for 'metaphysics', keijijōgaku (形而上学) is derived from a statement found in the Great Commentary that "what is above form is called Tao; what is under form is called a tool". The word has also been borrowed into Korean and re-borrowed back into Chinese.

The Ten Wings were traditionally attributed to Confucius, possibly based on a misreading of the Records of the Grand Historian. Although it rested on historically shaky grounds, the association of the I Ching with Confucius gave weight to the text and was taken as an article of faith throughout the Han and Tang dynasties. The I Ching was not included in the burning of the Confucian classics, and textual evidence strongly suggests that Confucius did not consider the Zhou yi a "classic". An ancient commentary on the Zhou yi found at Mawangdui portrays Confucius as endorsing it as a source of wisdom first and an imperfect divination text second. However, since the Ten Wings became canonized by Emperor Wu of Han together with the original I Ching as the Zhou Yi, it can be attributed to the positions of influence from the Confucians in the government. Furthermore, the Ten Wings tends to use diction and phrases such as "the master said", which was previously commonly seen in the Analects, thereby implying the heavy involvement of Confucians in its creation as well as institutionalization.

Hexagrams

Main article: Hexagram (I Ching) For a more comprehensive list, see List of hexagrams of the I Ching.

In the canonical I Ching, the hexagrams are arranged in an order dubbed the King Wen sequence after King Wen of Zhou, who founded the Zhou dynasty and supposedly reformed the method of interpretation. The sequence generally pairs hexagrams with their upside-down equivalents; the eight hexagrams that do not change when turned upside-down, are instead paired with their inversions (exchanging yin and yang lines). Another order, found at Mawangdui in 1973, arranges the hexagrams into eight groups sharing the same upper trigram. But the oldest known manuscript, found in 1987 and now held by the Shanghai Library, was almost certainly arranged in the King Wen sequence, and it has even been proposed that a pottery paddle from the Western Zhou period contains four hexagrams in the King Wen sequence. Whichever of these arrangements is older, it is not evident that the order of the hexagrams was of interest to the original authors of the Zhou yi. The assignment of numbers, binary or decimal, to specific hexagrams, is a modern invention.

Yin and yang are represented by broken and solid lines: yin is broken (⚋) and yang is solid (⚊). Different constructions of three yin and yang lines lead to eight trigrams (八卦) namely, Qian (乾, ☰), Dui (兌, ☱), Li (離, ☲), Zhen (震, ☳), Xun (巽, ☴), Kan (坎, ☵), Gen (艮, ☶), and Kun (坤, ☷).

The different combinations of the two trigrams lead to 64 hexagrams.

The following table numbers the hexagrams in King Wen order.

1

乾 (qián)
2

坤 (kūn)
3

屯 (zhūn)
4

蒙 (méng)
5

需 (xū)
6

訟 (sòng)
7

師 (shī)
8

比 (bǐ)
9

小畜 (xiǎo xù)
10

履 (lǚ)
11

泰 (tài)
12

否 (pǐ)
13

同人 (tóng rén)
14

大有 (dà yǒu)
15

謙 (qiān)
16

豫 (yù)
17

隨 (suí)
18

蠱 (gŭ)
19

臨 (lín)
20

觀 (guān)
21

噬嗑 (shì kè)
22

賁 (bì)
23

剝 (bō)
24

復 (fù)
25

無妄 (wú wàng)
26

大畜 (dà xù)
27

頤 (yí)
28

大過 (dà guò)
29

坎 (kǎn)
30

離 (lí)
31

咸 (xián)
32

恆 (héng)
33

遯 (dùn)
34

大壯 (dà zhuàng)
35

晉 (jìn)
36

明夷 (míng yí)
37

家人 (jiā rén)
38

睽 (kuí)
39

蹇 (jiǎn)
40

解 (xiè)
41

損 (sǔn)
42

益 (yì)
43

夬 (guài)
44

姤 (gòu)
45

萃 (cuì)
46

升 (shēng)
47

困 (kùn)
48

井 (jǐng)
49

革 (gé)
50

鼎 (dǐng)
51

震 (zhèn)
52

艮 (gèn)
53

漸 (jiàn)
54

歸妹 (guī mèi)
55

豐 (fēng)
56

旅 (lǚ)
57

巽 (xùn)
58

兌 (duì)
59

渙 (huàn)
60

節 (jié)
61

中孚 (zhōng fú)
62

小過 (xiǎo guò)
63

既濟 (jì jì)
64

未濟 (wèi jì)

Interpretation and influence

See also: Influence of the I Ching

The sinologist Michael Nylan describes the I Ching as the best-known Chinese book in the world. Eliot Weinberger wrote that it is the most "recognized" Chinese book. In East Asia, it is a foundational text for the Confucian and Daoist philosophical traditions, while in the West, it attracted the attention of Enlightenment intellectuals and prominent literary and cultural figures.

Eastern Han and Six Dynasties

During the Eastern Han, I Ching interpretation divided into two schools, originating in a dispute over minor differences between different editions of the received text. The first school, known as New Text criticism, was more egalitarian and eclectic, and sought to find symbolic and numerological parallels between the natural world and the hexagrams. Their commentaries provided the basis of the School of Images and Numbers. The other school, Old Text criticism, was more scholarly and hierarchical, and focused on the moral content of the text, providing the basis for the School of Meanings and Principles. The New Text scholars distributed alternate versions of the text and freely integrated non-canonical commentaries into their work, as well as propagating alternate systems of divination such as the Taixuanjing. Most of this early commentary, such as the image and number work of Jing Fang, Yu Fan and Xun Shuang, is no longer extant. Only short fragments survive, from a Tang dynasty text called Zhou yi jijie.

With the fall of the Han, I Ching scholarship was no longer organized into systematic schools. The most influential writer of this period was Wang Bi, who discarded the numerology of Han commentators and integrated the philosophy of the Ten Wings directly into the central text of the I Ching, creating such a persuasive narrative that Han commentators were no longer considered significant. A century later Han Kangbo added commentaries on the Ten Wings to Wang Bi's book, creating a text called the Zhouyi zhu. The principal rival interpretation was a practical text on divination by the soothsayer Guan Lu.

Tang and Song dynasties

At the beginning of the Tang dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Tang ordered Kong Yingda to create a canonical edition of the I Ching. Choosing Wang Bi's 3rd-century Annotated Book of Changes (Zhōuyì zhù; 周易注) as the official commentary, he added to it further commentary drawing out the subtler details of Wang Bi's explanations. The resulting Right Meaning of the Book of Changes (Zhōuyì zhèngyì; 周易正義) became the standard edition of the I Ching through the Song dynasty.

By the 11th century, the I Ching was being read as a work of intricate philosophy, as a jumping-off point for examining great metaphysical questions and ethical issues. Cheng Yi, patriarch of the Neo-Confucian Cheng–Zhu school, read the I Ching as a guide to moral perfection. He described the text as a way to for ministers to form honest political factions, root out corruption, and solve problems in government.

The contemporary scholar Shao Yong rearranged the hexagrams in a format that resembles modern binary numbers, although he did not intend his arrangement to be used mathematically. This arrangement, sometimes called the binary sequence, later inspired Gottfried Leibniz.

A yellowed bamboo page with the eight trigrams from I Ching stamped by wood block in black ink
Wood block printed page of Zhou Yi Zhuan Yi Da Quan depicting the eight trigrams

Neo-Confucianism

The 12th century Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi, co-founder of the Cheng–Zhu school, criticized both of the Han dynasty lines of commentary on the I Ching, saying that they were one-sided. He developed a synthesis of the two, arguing that the text was primarily a work of divination that could be used in the process of moral self-cultivation, or what the ancients called "rectification of the mind" in the Great Learning. Zhu Xi's reconstruction of I Ching yarrow stalk divination, based in part on the Great Commentary account, became the standard form and is still in use today.

As China entered the early modern period, the I Ching took on renewed relevance in both Confucian and Daoist studies. The Kangxi Emperor was especially fond of the I Ching and ordered new interpretations of it. Qing dynasty scholars focused more intently on understanding pre-classical grammar, assisting the development of new philological approaches in the modern period.

East Asia

Like the other Chinese classics, the I Ching was an influential text across East Asia. In 1557, the Korean Neo-Confucianist philosopher Yi Hwang produced one of the most influential I Ching studies of the early modern era, claiming that the spirit was a principle (li) and not a material force (qi). Hwang accused the Neo-Confucian school of having misread Zhu Xi. His critique proved influential not only in Korea but also in Japan. Other than this contribution, the I Ching—known in Korean as the Yeok Gyeong (역경)—was not central to the development of Korean Confucianism, and by the 19th century, I Ching studies were integrated into the silhak reform movement.

In medieval Japan, secret teachings on the I Ching—known in Japanese as the Eki Kyō (易経)—were publicized by Rinzai Zen master Kokan Shiren and the Shintoist Yoshida Kanetomo during the Kamakura era. I Ching studies in Japan took on new importance during the Edo period, during which over 1,000 books were published on the subject by over 400 authors. The majority of these books were serious works of philology, reconstructing ancient usages and commentaries for practical purposes. A sizable minority focused on numerology, symbolism, and divination. During this time, over 150 editions of earlier Chinese commentaries were reprinted across Edo Japan, including several texts that had become lost in China. In the early Edo period, Japanese writers such as Itō Jinsai, Kumazawa Banzan, and Nakae Tōju ranked the I Ching the greatest of the Confucian classics. Many writers attempted to use the I Ching to explain Western science in a Japanese framework. One writer, Shizuki Tadao, even attempted to employ Newton's laws of motion and the Copernican principle within an I Ching cosmology. This line of argument was later taken up in China by the Qing politician Zhang Zhidong.

Enlightenment Europe

A circular diagram of I Ching hexagrams
A diagram of I Ching hexagrams sent to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz from Joachim Bouvet. The Arabic numerals were added by Leibniz.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who was corresponding with Jesuits in China, wrote the first European commentary on the I Ching in 1703. He argued that it proved the universality of binary numbers and theism, since the broken lines, the "0" or "nothingness", cannot become solid lines, the "1" or "oneness", without the intervention of God. This was criticized by Georg Friedrich Hegel, who proclaimed that binary system and Chinese characters were "empty forms" that could not articulate spoken words with the clarity of the Western alphabet. In their commentary, I Ching hexagrams and Chinese characters were conflated into a single foreign idea, sparking a dialogue on Western philosophical questions such as universality and the nature of communication. The usage of binary in relation to the I Ching was central to Leibniz's characteristica universalis, or 'universal language', which in turn inspired the standards of Boolean logic and for Gottlob Frege to develop predicate logic in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, Jacques Derrida identified Hegel's argument as logocentric, but accepted without question Hegel's premise that the Chinese language cannot express philosophical ideas.

Modern

After the 1911 Revolution, the I Ching lost its significance in political philosophy, but it maintained cultural influence as one of China's most ancient texts. Chinese writers offered parallels between the I Ching and subjects such as linear algebra and logic in computer science, aiming to demonstrate that ancient Chinese cosmology had anticipated Western discoveries. The sinologist Joseph Needham took the opposite opinion, arguing that the I Ching had actually impeded scientific development by incorporating all physical knowledge into its metaphysics. However, with the advent of quantum mechanics, physicist Niels Bohr credited the yin and yang symbolism for providing inspiration of his interpretation of the new field, which disproved principles from older Western classical mechanics. The principle of complementarity heavily used concepts from the I Ching as mentioned in his writings. The psychologist Carl Jung took interest in the possible universal nature of the imagery of the I Ching, and he introduced an influential German translation by Richard Wilhelm by discussing his theories of archetypes and synchronicity. Jung wrote, "Even to the most biased eye, it is obvious that this book represents one long admonition to careful scrutiny of one's own character, attitude, and motives." The book had a notable impact on the 1960s counterculture and on 20th century cultural figures such as Philip K. Dick, John Cage, Jorge Luis Borges, Terence McKenna and Hermann Hesse. Joni Mitchell references the six yang hexagram in "Amelia", a song on the album Hejira, where she describes the image of "...six jet planes leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain...". It also inspired the 1968 song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by The Beatles.

The modern period also brought a new level of skepticism and rigor to I Ching scholarship. Li Jingchi spent several decades producing a new interpretation of the text, which was published posthumously in 1978. Modern data scientists including Alex Liu proposed to represent and develop I Ching methods with data science 4E framework and latent variable approaches for a more rigorous representation and interpretation of I Ching. Gao Heng, an expert in pre-Qin China, re-investigated its use as a Zhou dynasty oracle. Edward Shaughnessy proposed a new dating for the various strata of the text. New archaeological discoveries have enabled a deeper level of insight into how the text was used in the centuries before the Qin dynasty. Proponents of newly reconstructed Western Zhou readings, which often differ greatly from traditional readings of the text, are sometimes called the "modernist school".

Translations

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The I Ching has been translated into Western languages dozens of times. The earliest published complete translation of the I Ching into a Western language was a Latin translation done in the 1730s by the French Jesuit missionary Jean-Baptiste Régis and his companions that was published in Germany in the 1830s.

Historically, the most influential Western-language I Ching translation was Richard Wilhelm's 1923 German translation, which was translated into English in 1950 by Cary Baynes. Although Thomas McClatchie and James Legge had both translated the text into English already in the 19th century, while Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre and Charles de Harlez had both translated it in the same period into French, the text gained significant traction during the counterculture of the 1960s, with the translations of Wilhelm and John Blofeld attracting particular interest. Richard Rutt's 1996 translation incorporated much of the new archaeological and philological discoveries of the 20th century.

The most commonly used English translations of the I Ching are:

  • Legge, James (1882). The Yî King. In Sacred Books of the East, vol. XVI. 2nd edition (1899), Oxford: Clarendon Press; reprinted numerous times.
  • Wilhelm, Richard (1924, 1950). The I Ching or Book of Changes. Cary Baynes, trans. Bollingen Series 19. Introduction by Carl G. Jung. New York: Pantheon Books. 3rd edition (1967), Princeton: Princeton University Press; reprinted numerous times.

Other notable English translations include:

  • McClatchie, Thomas (1876). A Translation of the Confucian Yi-king. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press.
  • Blofeld, John (1965). The Book of Changes: A New Translation of the Ancient Chinese I Ching. New York: E. P. Dutton.
  • Cleary, Thomas (1992). I Ching: The Book of Change. Boston, MA: Shambhala. ISBN 0-877-73661-8.
  • Lynn, Richard John (1994). The Classic of Changes. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08294-0.
  • Rutt, Richard (1996). The Book of Changes (Zhouyi): A Bronze Age Document. Richmond: Curzon. ISBN 0-700-70467-1.
  • Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1996). I Ching: The Classic of Changes. New York: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-36243-8.
  • Hinton, David (2015). I Ching: The Book of Change. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-22090-7.
  • Redmond, Geoffrey (2017). The I Ching (Book of Changes): A Critical Translation of the Ancient Text. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-472-51413-4.
  • Adler, Joseph A. (2020). The Original Meaning of the Yijing: Commentary on the Scripture of Change . New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-19124-1.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The *k-lˤeng (jing 經, "classic") appellation was not used until after the Han dynasty, after the core Old Chinese period.
  2. The word tuàn (彖) refers to a four-legged animal similar to a pig. This is believed to be a gloss for 'decision', duàn (斷). The modern word for a hexagram statement is guàcí (卦辭). Knechtges (2014), p. 1881
  3. Referred to as yao (繇) in the Zuo Zhuan. Nielsen (2003), pp. 24, 290
  4. The received text was rearranged by Zhu Xi. (Nielsen 2003, p. 258)

References

Citations

  1. Kern (2010), p. 17.
  2. Redmond (2021); Adler (2022), chs. 1, 6, 7.
  3. Smith (2012), p. 22; Nelson (2011), p. 377; Hon (2005), p. 2; Shaughnessy (1983), p. 105; Raphals (2013), p. 337; Nylan (2001), p. 220; Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 37; Rutt (1996), p. 26.
  4. Nylan (2001), p. 218.
  5. Shaughnessy (1983), p. 219; Rutt (1996), pp. 32–33; Smith (2012), p. 22; Knechtges (2014), p. 1885.
  6. Shaughnessy (2014), p. 282; Smith (2012), p. 22.
  7. Rutt (1996), pp. 26–27; Redmond & Hon (2014), pp. 106–109; Shchutskii (1979), p. 98.
  8. Knechtges (2014), p. 1877.
  9. Shaughnessy (1983), p. 106; Schuessler (2007), p. 566; Nylan (2001), pp. 229–230.
  10. Shaughnessy (1999), p. 295.
  11. Redmond & Hon (2014), pp. 54–55.
  12. Shaughnessy (2014), p. 144.
  13. Nielsen (2003), p. 7.
  14. Nielsen (2003), p. 249; Shchutskii (1979), p. 133.
  15. Bauer, Susan Wise (2007). The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 300. ISBN 978-0-393-05974-8.
  16. Rutt (1996), pp. 122–125.
  17. Rutt (1996), pp. 126, 187–178; Shchutskii (1979), pp. 65–66; Shaughnessy (2014), pp. 30–35; Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 128.
  18. Shaughnessy (2014), pp. 2–3.
  19. Rutt (1996), p. 118; Shaughnessy (1983), p. 123.
  20. Knechtges (2014), p. 1879.
  21. Rutt (1996), pp. 129–130.
  22. Rutt (1996), p. 131.
  23. Knechtges (2014), pp. 1880–1881.
  24. Shaughnessy (2014), p. 14.
  25. Smith (2012), p. 39.
  26. ^ Smith (2008), p. 27.
  27. Raphals (2013), p. 129.
  28. Rutt (1996), p. 173.
  29. Smith (2012), p. 43; Raphals (2013), p. 336.
  30. Raphals (2013), pp. 203–212.
  31. Smith (2008), p. 27; Raphals (2013), p. 167.
  32. Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 257.
  33. Shaughnessy (1983), p. 97; Rutt (1996), pp. 154–155; Smith (2008), p. 26.
  34. Smith (2008), pp. 31–32.
  35. Raphals (2013), p. 337.
  36. Nielsen (2003), pp. 48–51; Knechtges (2014), p. 1889.
  37. Shaughnessy (2014), passim; Smith (2008), pp. 48–50.
  38. Rutt (1996), p. 39.
  39. Shaughnessy (2014), p. 284; Smith (2008), pp. 31–48.
  40. Smith (2012), p. 48.
  41. Nylan (2001), p. 229.
  42. Nielsen (2003), p. 260.
  43. Smith (2008), p. 48.
  44. Knechtges (2014), p. 1882.
  45. Redmond & Hon (2014), pp. 151–152.
  46. Nylan (2001), p. 221.
  47. Nylan (2001), pp. 248–249.
  48. Yuasa (2008), p. 51.
  49. Peterson (1982), p. 73.
  50. Smith (2008), p. 27; Nielsen (2003), pp. 138, 211.
  51. Shchutskii (1979), p. 213; Smith (2012), p. 46.
  52. ^ Adler, Joseph A. (April 2017). "Zhu Xi's Commentary on the Xicizhuan 繫辭傳 (Treatise on the Appended Remarks) Appendix of the Yijing 易經 (Scripture of Change)" (PDF).
  53. Smith (2008), p. 37.
  54. Shaughnessy (2014), pp. 52–53, 16–17.
  55. Rutt (1996), pp. 114–118.
  56. Nylan (2001), pp. 204–206.
  57. Weinberger, Eliot (February 25, 2016). "What Is the I Ching?". The New York Review of Books. In China and in East Asia, it has been by far the most consulted of all books, in the belief that it can explain everything.... is surely the most popularly recognized Chinese book.
  58. Smith (2008), p. 58; Nylan (2001), p. 45; Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 159.
  59. Smith (2012), pp. 76–78.
  60. Smith (2008), pp. 76–79; Knechtges (2014), p. 1889.
  61. Smith (2008), pp. 57, 67, 84–86.
  62. Knechtges (2014), p. 1891.
  63. Smith (2008), pp. 89–90, 98; Hon (2005), pp. 29–30; Knechtges (2014), p. 1890.
  64. Hon (2005), pp. 29–33; Knechtges (2014), p. 1891.
  65. Hon (2005), p. 144.
  66. Smith (2008), p. 128; Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 177.
  67. Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 227.
  68. Adler (2002), pp. v–xi; Smith (2008), p. 229; Adler (2020), pp. 9–16.
  69. Smith (2008), p. 177.
  70. Nielsen (2003), p. xvi.
  71. Ng (2000b), pp. 55–56.
  72. Ng (2000b), p. 65.
  73. Ng (2000a), pp. 7, 15.
  74. Ng (2000a), pp. 22–25.
  75. Ng (2000a), pp. 28–29.
  76. Ng (2000a), pp. 38–39.
  77. Ng (2000a), pp. 143–145.
  78. Smith (2008), p. 197.
  79. Nelson (2011), p. 379; Smith (2008), p. 204.
  80. Nelson (2011), p. 381.
  81. Nelson (2011), p. 383.
  82. Smith (2008), p. 205.
  83. Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 231.
  84. Smith (2008), p. 212; Redmond & Hon (2014), pp. 205–214.
  85. Smith (2012), pp. 11, 198.
  86. Smith (2012), pp. 11, 197–198.
  87. "I Ching Methods Represented with Big Data Science". Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  88. Knechtges (2014), pp. 1884–1885.
  89. Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 122ff; Shaughnessy (2014), passim.
  90. ^ Shaughnessy (1993), p. 225.
  91. The text downloadable form the Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum: Y-King: antiquissimus Sinarum liber, quem ex Latina interpretatione P. Regis aliorumque ex Soc. Iesu P. P. edidit Julius Mohl, Stuttgartiae et Tubingae: Cotta, liber 1: 1834, XX + 475 S., liber 2: 1839, 588 S. vol. 1, vol. 2
  92. Shaughnessy (2014), p. 1; Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 239.
  93. Smith (2012), pp. 198–199.
  94. Redmond & Hon (2014), pp. 241–243.

Works cited

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  • Adler, Joseph A. (2022). The Yijing: A Guide. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-190-07246-9.
  • Hon Tze-ki (韓子奇) (2005). The Yijing and Chinese Politics: Classical Commentary and Literati Activism in the Northern Song Period, 960–1127. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-791-46311-7.
  • Kern, Martin (2010). "Early Chinese literature, Beginnings through Western Han". In Owen, Stephen (ed.). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1: To 1375. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–115. ISBN 978-0-521-11677-0.
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  • Nelson, Eric S. (2011). "The Yijing and Philosophy: From Leibniz to Derrida". Journal of Chinese Philosophy. 38 (3): 377–396. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6253.2011.01661.x.
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  • Ng Wai-ming (吳偉明) (2000). "The I Ching in Late-Choson Thought". Korean Studies. 24 (1): 53–68. doi:10.1353/ks.2000.0013. S2CID 162334992.
  • Nielsen, Bent (2003). A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology: Chinese Studies of Images and Numbers from Han (202 BCE–220 CE) to Song (960–1279 CE). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-700-71608-4.
  • Nylan, Michael (2001). The Five "Confucian" Classics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-13033-3.
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  • Rutt, Richard (1996). The Book of Changes (Zhouyi): A Bronze Age Document. Richmond: Curzon. ISBN 0-700-70467-1.
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  • Shaughnessy, Edward (1999). "Western Zhou History". In Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward (eds.). The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C.. Cambridge University Press. pp. 292–351. ISBN 0-521-47030-7.
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