Entries by Harmen Mesker

This is a message of a former student of mine. Anyone interested in his proposal should contact him directly.

Contemporary I Ching
Jan Enuma is forming a study group of I Ching adepts, who are interested in a present-day approach of the I Ching, which goes beyond restyling the language of the old Classic. René van Osten in Germany and Chris Lofting in Australia are examples of this approach. At the moment Jan is preparing a comment on Lofting’s book “The Emotional I Ching”.

Jan adds the following. The emotional element regards the nature of brain processing a particular hexagram. Both afore mentioned writers stress the Ordnung and Structure of the I Ching. There is no other change than according to these rules. And what to think of coincidence, synchronicity and resonance? What sort of world view fits this approach, and what are the differences with the Classic’s worldview? In Lofting’s book and his internet pages there are no references to “myths, legends or other 10th century BC perspectives, nor the use of random or miraculous methods of hexagram derivation”. No room for sinological, historical or exegetical deliberations. Lofting’s method is based on pre-language images, derived from human discernment along lines of differentiation and integration, much like yang and yin, but more abstract, less particular, but fitting the whole human race.

If the Classic is a template, it means other I Chings with particular backgrounds can be compared with it or with Lofting’s general domain model of differentiation/integration, as long as these models correlate with each other, meaning they are all based on 64 hexagrams. This promising possibility of comparison has been worked out for classification of psychological typology, but could also stretch out to sociology and political economy, and e.g. Spiral Dynamics.

Anyone who fancies a well prepared adventure into terra incognita, with according perseverance (Lofting’s translation of Heaven as an inner hexagram) should contact Jan: contemp.iching@live.nl.

In China a centuries old system is known to calculate life hexagrams from the Yijing. Using your birth date, time and place as a starting point it gives information about your character, your stronger en weaker points, and it provides insights in your path in life.

This system is known as Heluo Lishu 河洛理數, ’The Numbers and Principles of the He and Luo river documents’. Originating from the xiangshu 象數 branch of Yijing application it combines the hexagrams of the Yijing with the Stems and Branches of the Chinese calendar and the wuxing 五行 (Five Elements).The relationship between these parts shows the dynamics of someones personality and life path. The Heluo Lishu system was introduced by the authors Sherrill & Chu in their book The Astrology of I Ching, but this book contains serious mistakes and misconceptions that can lead to a wrong outcome.

This online course explains in eight lessons how you should calculate and interpret a life hexagram. There are more courses and also software programs about this subject, but they all use Sherrill & Chu’s book as base, which of course leads to certain consequences in the outcome. Because the original Heluo Lishu document forms the basis for this course the mistakes from The Astrology of I Ching are avoided. The original manuscript gives additional ways to interpret a life hexagram which are not mentioned by S&C, and by using a selected set of websites you can avoid some difficult calculations, making it easier to obtain a life hexagram.

We designed a special classroom on internet for this course. Through this virtual space the student acquire the lessons on a weekly basis, as well as assignments and tests to check the progress. There is a discussion forum to talk with the other students and ask questions to the teacher, and once a week there is the possibility to chat with the teacher.

The course contains the following eight lessons:

1. Background of the Heluo Lishu; what do you need for the calculations?
2. Calculation of the bazi 八字
3. Calculation of the xiantian 先天 hexagram, the yuantang 元堂 and the year periods (daxiang 大象)
4. Interpretation (1): trigrams and lines
5. Interpretation (2): wuxing, Stems and Branches, the houtian 後天 hexagram and how it relates to the xiantian hexagram
6. Year hexagram – calculation & interpretation
7. Month hexagram – calculation & interpretation
8. Case studies

Startdate: around March 15th 2010

Price: € 90,--

How do you apply for this course?
The starting date is not entirely decided, it is possible that the course will start one or two weeks later. Therefore it is best to sign up for the mailing list: send a (blank) mail to heluolishu-subscribe@itcn.nl, and we will let you know about the definitive starting date, how you can sign up and how you can send your payment for the course.

I hope I can welcome you as a student!

I was watching Transformers 2 with Irian (9), which has a scene where a library gets destroyed by a Decepticon Pretender.

Me:
"What a great loss of all those books!"

Irian:
"What a great loss of all that wisdom."

In January I am starting an online course about Heluo Lishu 河洛理數, a form of astrology which takes the bazi 八字 from your Chinese horoscope as a starting point and turns them into hexagrams of the Yijing which tell about your personality and your life. Although the basic material is ready I am still investigating several facets of this system, looking for information about its background and observing how others use and interpret it. This leads to interesting and instructive findings - especially about how you shouldn't do it.

If I lived in or near London I wouldn't want to miss this: Steve Marshall is starting a I Ching study group. See for more details his website. If you have any chance to join, please do so because it will definitely be a worthwhile experience. Steve is very knowledgeable, his ideas are thought-provoking, his insights stimulating. And a study group in itself, with regular meetings, can be very rewarding. So don't miss this!

I am selling my copy of Axel Schuessler's A Dictionary of Early Zhou Chinese. Good condition. If you're interested, send me an email.

The Yi often talks about fu 孚, a character which is many times translated as 'trust', 'confidence' or 'truth'. But what is fu? With many hexagrams the Yi mentions that there is fu: 有孚. But where is it?

On bronze inscriptions we see 孚 mainly used as a verb: to capture people, chariots, or other materials during a battle (see the entries in 金文引得, 春秋戰國卷 on p. 100). It was the act of acquiring war booty, and sometimes it also referred to the booty itself. But it mainly was a verb. This meaning was lost in later centuries, instead of a verb it became a quality. The Shijing 詩經, The Book of Odes, contains a good example of fu as a quality:

王配于京、世德作求。
永言配命、成王之孚。

King [Wu] was their worthy successor in his capital,
Rousing himself to seek for the hereditary virtue,
Always striving to accord with the will [of Heaven] ;
And thus he secured the confidence due to a king.
Shijing M243

Here Fu is translated as ‘confidence’, but it is not the confidence of the king, it is the confidence that the king inspires in his people. That is the quality of fu: through sincerity you inspire confidence or trust in others, the others have confidence in you. Fu is a quality, just as de 德, ‘virtue’, is a quality. This quality is visible in the fifth line of hexagram 14:

厥孚交如威如吉
He inspires confidence which connects and creates reverence.

I’m reading jiao 交 as “兩者相接觸” (漢語大詞典-2.327) and wei 威 as “顯示的使人畏懼懾服的力量” (漢語大詞典-5.218). The quality of fu enables the king to connect with his people and make them stand in awe with respect and trust.

At the sixth line of hexagram 37 fu again is connected with wei, ‘creating awe/reverence’:

有孚威如
Having fu, (thereby) creating reverence.

At the fifth line of hexagram 51 there is again mention of a connection:

有孚攣如无咎
Having fu which joins together. No fault.

Reading luan 攣 as “牽繫不斷；連綴” (漢語大詞典-7.799).

At the fifth line of hexagram 58 the fu is severed:

孚于剝有厲
The fu is harmed, giving trouble.

Reading bo 剝 as “傷害” (漢語大詞典-2.713). If the king was not able to inspire confidence this surely would lead to trouble.

The link between fu in the old meaning of ‘capturing’ or ‘captive’ and the meaning of 'inspiring confidence in others' can be seen in the bronze inscriptions: these inscriptions often commemorated the captures that were made during a siege. The captures were trophies, which had to be recorded to inspire confidence in the current generation and the ones to come: the king was/had been a trustworthy and reliable leader.

So what does it mean when you read in the Yijing that there is fu? It depends on the situation, but it could indicate that there is sincerity (genuineness, naturalness, authenticity), which enables to connect with the goals that are set, or with the means that can be put to use. Without fu there is no connection and it will be very difficult (though not impossible) to achieve anything. Fu works on the long term, without fu you are only able to achieve limited goals on the short term. Fu enables you to get and keep processes going, it is the oil that keeps the motor running smoothly and avoids damage. If there is no fu in you or the person(s) involved, it is better to reconsider your plans and think about your motivations and intentions. Fu is a quality that is essential when you work with other people. Without it, cooperation can be pretty tough.

(The following article mainly serves as an exercise in showing the importance of the variant texts of the Yijing, loan characters and homonyms.)

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There are several stories about the etymology of bo 剝, the name of hexagram 23. Han Boering says:

Left: a tree ( lower part) cut down by an axe (upper part, left). Right: a knife. Derivation: peel a cut-down tree.
(De I Tjing voor de 21ste Eeuw, p. 175)

Alfred Huang says:

The ideograph of bo consists of two parts. The main part, on the right, is a picture of an ancient weapon, dao, a knife. The left part was originally the character bo, providing the sound. Later this character was replaced by lü, the name of King Wen's famous sword. Lü also means a piece of carved wood. These two images represent an act of carving and engraving. During carving and engraving, pieces of wood or stone fall away.
(The Complete I Ching, p. 206)

These explanations are based on the form as found in the Shuowen, which is written in small seal script.The Shuowen itself says:

裂也. 从刀从彔. 彔, 刻割也. 彔亦聲.
Split/crack. From 刀 ('knife') and 彔. 彔 means 'carve' and 'cut'. 彔 also indicates the sound.

When it comes to meanings of characters the Shuowen can be considered reasonably reliable, but for etymological information you should not turn to this book, the given explanations are often wrong or incomplete. But in the case of bo the Shuowen is right when it says that the 彔 part  represents the pronunciation.  We will talk about this later in this article.

The character bo in its complete form does not appear on bone inscriptions, but the component 彔 does. On bones it looks a bit like the small seal form. The 新編甲骨文字典 dictionary says about the form of this character:

象汲水之轆轤形, 象桔槔, 象汲水之具,  象水滴. 卜辭彔借用作麓, 彔、㯟、麓混用.
Picture of a winch for lifting water (from a well), is the handle, is the means which carries the water, are drops of water. In bone inscriptions 彔 is used as loan for 麓; 彔, 㯟 and 麓 are used mixed.
(新編甲骨文字典, p. 418)

The last three characters from this quote, 彔, 㯟 and 麓 are variant characters from each other, and all three mean '(a place at) the foot of a hill or mountain'. This is the meaning that is most used in bone inscriptions. All three characters are pronounced lu, and this is probably the reason why they are used as loans for each other. In later periods we find the component 彔 on bronzes in almost the same form as on bones, but then the most used meanings are lu 祿, 'good luck' and lu 麓, 'a name for an official position regarding mountains and forests' (金文常用字典, p. 712-713).

But is the component 彔 important for the meaning of the character bo 剝, the name of hexagram 23? We have seen that the description of the form, the shape of this character, does not have any connection to the meanings for which the component was used. This is a strong clue that this component (as the Shuowen indicates) has a phonetic function: it is a pointer to the pronunciation. Not that it ends here, in the case of 剝 it makes things more complicated. Most characters which have 彔 as (main) component are pronounced lu, but 剝 is pronounced bo or bao. This is probably a clue that 剝, or its component 彔, should be considered a loan for another character which has the sound bo, bao, or something close to that.

There are other facts which point to this. The Shuowen gives a variant of 剝 which contains the component bu 卜 (see the long image right to the quote from the Shuowen above, click to enlarge). Where the Shuowen gets this from is not known, there are no known texts in which this character is used. But there is one (yes, one) fragment of a bone inscription in which this character is used. Ma Rusen 馬如森 says of this character:

字象刀刻卜字之形，卜標聲，本義應是刻裂. (...) 卜辭義: 待考. “...剝...七月...”. 現只見此一條.
The picture of this character has the appearance of 'carving bone characters', bu 卜 marks the sound, the original meaning might be 'carve and split'. (...) Meaning on oracle bones: has yet to be researched. "...carve...seventh month..." This is the only line of text that we have.
(殷墟甲骨學-帶你走進甲骨文的世界, p. 304)

This little information would be hardly useful if we didn't have some other texts which, in combination with this variant 𠚩, put the meaning of 剝 and hexagram 23 in a different light. For this we have to look into a few Yijing texts which have been excavated during archaeological digs in the last 30 years. The Fuyang Yijing which has been excavated in 1977 in the vicinity of Fuyang 阜陽 gives a different name for hexagram 23. In this variant text it is called pu 僕. The most significant meanings of this character are:

• 侍從，供役使的人
  a servant, a person who does labour
• 古代把人分為十等，僕為第九等
  with people one of ten ranks (between employer and employee; starting with the king and ending with the cheapest slave HM), pu 僕 is the ninth rank.
• 駕車的人
  driver
• 謙詞. 用於第一人稱
  humiliating title. Used in first person.
• 古代官名
  in antiquity the title of a government position (like driver, servant or slave;  Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, p. 394 HM)
  (漢語大字典, p. 218)

These meanings show that a pu did not have a high position. But more important is the pronunciation of this character, pu, and the fact that it is another name for hexagram 23. The Fuyang Yijing is not the only source in which 剝 is replaced by 僕. The version of the Guizang 歸藏 which was excavated in 1993 does not contain hexagram 23, but there are sources which quote hexagram 23 from the Guizang - and mention that this hexagram is called pu 僕 (Han Ziqiang 韓自強, 阜陽漢簡《周易》研究, p. 121; Zhu Xingguo 朱兴国, 三易通义, p. 341).

The two characters are also exchanged in another excavated text. At the second line of hexagram 56 the text mentions 僕:

得童僕
Gets a young servant.

But the Mawangdui 馬王堆 version mentions 剝 instead of 僕 (Deng Qiubai 邓球柏, 帛书周易校释, p. 375).

Lu Deming 陸德明 (556-627) read 剝 as 撲, a variant of 僕, in Song M154 of the Shijing 詩經:

八月剝棗.....
In the eighth month we beat the jujube....

Lu translates 剝 as pu 撲, meaning 'to beat' (Karlgren, Loan Characters in Pre-Han texts, entry 1264. Karlgren does not agree with Lu's reading). 撲 is a variant of 僕 (阜陽漢簡《周易》研究, p. 121. In his translation of the Fuyang Yijing (forthcoming) Edward Shaughnessy translates 僕 also as 'to beat'). We also know that 剝 is used in the meaning of pu 攴, which means 'to beat' (漢語大字典, p. 346; Wang Li 王力, 王力古漢語字典, p. 73).

剝 and 僕 are exchangeable, which brings us to the earlier mentioned variant character from the Shuowen and the bone fragment, the character 𠚩: the assumed pronunciation of this character, bu, is almost the same as the pronunciation of 僕, pu, which strengthens the link between the characters. But reading bo 剝 as pu 僕 has consequences for the translation of the text of hexagram 23. The character bo 剝 appears in five of the six line texts, and these texts will get another reading.

	Received text	MWD text	Fuyang text
1.	剝牀以足.蔑貞.凶.	剝臧以足.貞.兇.	僕........足.貞兇.卜...
2.	剝床以辨.蔑貞.凶.	剝臧以辯.貞.兇.	僕牀以辨.貞...
3.	剝之.無咎.	剝.無咎.
4.	剝床以膚.凶.	剝臧以膚.兇.	僕牀以父.兇...
6.	碩果不食.君子得輿.小人剝廬.	石果不食.君子得車.小人剝蘆.	碩果不食.君子...

We have seen that 剝/僕 has the meaning of 'servant (of low rank)', and that would make 剝 a noun. But that gives a problem with certain line texts, because the context of these texts show that it is a verb:

(3) 剝之.無咎.
剝 it. No mistake.

The character zhi 之 can have the meaning of 'it' as personal pronoun ('he makes it') at the end of a sentence, and in that case the word before it becomes a verb.

(6) 小人剝廬.
     The little man 剝 the hut.

Xiaoren 小人is a noun, just like lu 廬. Because of this the sentence gets the standard subject-verb-object pattern.

This shows that 剝 is a verb in the Yijing. The most used meanings of this character are 'peel/cut (fruit and vegetables), remove the outside, cut in halves', but a hut is not easily peeled or cut in halves. The Mawangdui text doesn't talk about a lu, 廬, a hut, but about a lu 蘆. The characters look almost the same, but the latter has the 艹 component instead of the 广 component. The component 艹 is the 'abbreviation' of the full form character 艸, and characters with this component often have to do with vegetation and crops, while 广 has to do with housing. According to the 漢語大字典 some of the meanings of 蘆 are:

• [蘆菔]菜名. 即蘿蔔
  lufu 蘆菔, the name of a vegetable, namely luobo 蘿蔔 (radish)
• 薺根
  the root of several kinds of plants
• 漏蘆
  the same as loulu 漏盧 (a plant with long stems and small flowers. Used for medical purposes)
  (漢語大字典, p. 3325)

The most plausible meaning might be the first one, 'radish'. Probably it refers to the white radish with large roots, which is quite common in China. In Song M210 from the Shijing 廬 can also be read as 'radish', where the traditional rendering is 'hut':

中田有廬(蘆), 疆場有瓜.....
In the centre of the field is the radish, at the borders the melons.....

The complete text of line six will then be translated as

(6) 碩果不食.君子得輿.小人剝廬.
     A large fruit is not eaten. The junzi obtains a carriage. The xiaoren cuts the radish.

Here we translate 剝 as 'to cut'. Let's see if this also holds for the other lines which have 剝:

(1), (2), (4) 剝牀.....
                 cut - bed .....

Chuang 牀 means 'bed', which would turn the translation of these three lines start with 'cut - bed', 'cut the bed' or something like that. That sounds a bit strange, 'bed' doesn't really fit 'to cut'. The MWD version doesn't talk about a bed but about zang 臧, a character with almost the same pronunciation. The Fuyang Yijing does mention a bed, but in his book 阜陽漢簡《周易》研究 Han Ziqiang 韓自強 gives a detailed exposé about homonyms and he concludes that characters like chuang 牀, zang 臧 and zhuang 壯 can all be read as qiang 戕, 'to kill' or 'to wound'. The composition 僕牀 in the Fuyang Yijing is read by Han as 'wounding the servant' or 'the wounded servant', and the harm to the servant is inflicted by beating him (as we have seen 剝/僕 is also used in the meaning of 撲 or 攴, 'to beat'). Han then subtly remarks that earlier many people arrived at statements that where not convincing, but because of the Fuyang and Mawangdui Yijings it suddenly is all so obvious. That is somewhat exaggerated, because the grammar of the line texts show that 剝/僕 should be translated as a verb and not as a noun, like Han does. If we sustain that for 剝/僕, but accept his assumption that 牀 should be read as 戕, 'to wound' (and Han knows to substantiate this quite well; it should also be noted that the component 爿 is a picture of a bed, and it is related to 疒, which on oracle bones depicted a person lying in bed; characters with this component often have to do with illnesses or other inflictions to the body), then the remaining lines are translated as follows:

(1) 剝牀以足.蔑貞.凶.
     By cutting wounded at the foot. Insignificant, contemptuous divination. Misfortune.

(2) 剝牀以辨.蔑貞.凶.
     By cutting wounded at the kneecap.
     (Following Han, who says that bian 辨 and MWD bian 辯 have to be read as loan for bin 髕)

(3) 剝之.無咎.
     Cutting it. No mistake.

(4) 剝牀以膚.凶.
     By cutting wounded at the jaws. Misfortune.
     (Following Han, who dictates that fu 膚 should be read as loan for fu 輔, 'jaw'. It can also mean 'the back of the knee'; 漢語大字典, p. 3533)

Conclusion
The contexts for which these line texts are meant are not explicitly indicated, as is so often the case with the Yijing. But there is a practice which is often mentioned in the Yijing and which could have a connection with hexagram 23: the practice of ancestor worship. We know that the ancestors often received copious offerings with all kinds of food - meat, fish, vegetables, fruit. The preparation of the food was also part of the ritual. Imagine that during the cutting of the food you would wound yourself: a bad omen: misfortune! At the third line it is going okay, so 'no mistake'. At the sixth line the meaning of the text is also symbolic: a large fruit will have to be cut before it can be eaten. In the same text, as well as in other instances in the Yijing, the junzi is mentioned against the xiaoren. The junzi has transport and does not have to work, the hard labour passes him by. The xiaoren, the common people have to do the hard work. Both have there function and use, and for the right execution of the ritual both will have to take their proper position. That is how the high is connected with the low.

The Groninger Museum has an exposition of bronzes from the Shanghai Museum. During my vacation we visited the museum, and I made pictures with my mobile camera. It is a beautiful exposition, and I can advise everyone to go and visit it if you have the chance. For me it has been very exciting to actually see the objects that I read so much about. Unfortunately my mobile phone doesn't make very good pictures, and I was not allowed to use the flash. That's way certain pictures are blurry.

There was also an exposition of contemporary Chinese art. I especially enjoyed the Book from the Sky: hand-carved wood prints with 4000 non-existent Chinese characters!

Click on the picture below to see all the pictures.

Exposition Groningen

Some years ago I designed a set of cards as an aid to the wenwanggua 文王卦 method of Yijing usage. I never found an affordable way to publish them, but last week I found a manufacturer who is able to print the cards in the size I want and in small quantities - say 20 decks. The limited quantity makes one deck quite expensive, but at least I am able to produce the cards without a huge investment and I am not getting stuck with a ridiculous amount of decks which I will never be able to sell (regular card manufacturers usually have a minimum of about 1000 decks).

Without an explanation the cards would be difficult to use, especially for novices. I am now in the process of writing the book which comes with the cards. It will explain the intricacies of the wenwanggua system, it's elements and subsystems, with examples from traditional sources. The cards will be used as a guide through the wenwanggua system, every element of a card has its own chapter in which the background and usage of that element is explained. The book will also have chapters that will suggest ways to use wenwanggua for other uses than fortune-telling. The book will follow a step-by-step approach, but with every chapter you will be able to use the given information immediately in daily practice.

If you want to see all the cards you can take a look here. I expect to sell the cards with the book for about $ 50,-- (excl. shipping; the book will also be available as a pdf download to save on shipping and printing costs). If you would like to be informed about the progress and receive a mail when the cards are available you can send a mail to cards-join@itcn.nl.