Harmen's Dagboek

The Ten Laws of Proper Yijing Practice Explained

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:37:59 +0100

If you receive the same hexagram three times you have three different answers.

The meanings of the hexagrams are not fixed, they change according to your situation. Hexagram 3 can mean that you are experiencing initial difficulties, but it can also mean that initial difficulties elsewhere have to be addressed. A friend of mine was asked to give a beginners course at the upcoming Yijing Symposium in Ruigoord. He asked the Yijing whether this was a good idea, and he received hexagram 3 (5th line moving). You could see this as a difficult start, leading to a troubled course, and be tempted not to do it. But who were the targets of the course? Indeed, those people who experience difficulties when starting to use the Yijing. Therefore, "if you receive the same hexagram three times you have three different answers".
Moving lines do not move.

Many users have the habit of immediately changing the moving lines in the received hexagram to generate a second hexagram. Apart from the fact that moving lines were probably a later invention and not used in the early days of Yijing practice (Rutt, p. 154-155; Nielsen, p. 22), the habit of generating a second hexagram makes it tempting to bypass the original answer of the Yijing if the second hexagram is more to your liking. But you do not receive the second hexagram as answer from the Yijing, you receive the first hexagram. And that's the hexagram you have to deal with. An example from Clarity's forum:

I got 39.3>8. Then, my I Ching book asks me to throw again when I receive hexa 8, so I asked for clarity and I got 37 "Family".
The querent seems to skip hexagram 39 completely, going right over to hexagram 37 which could be called the third hexagram. But that is not the initial answer that she got from the Yijing and that she should have started with. Therefore, "moving lines do not move".
- Bent Nielsen, A companion to Yi jing numerology and cosmology
- Richard Rutt, Zhou Yi - the Book of Changes
Too much is less than enough.

Can I expect any positive movement from P's corner in the next couple of months?" I got Hex 10 unchanging. I get a sense that 10 means moving with caution. So I asked ..... "Why would he hesitate or cautiously?" I got 53.1.4 > 13 which I assume is about wanting to make gradual progress the natural proper way but I've seen various interpretations of this line so I'm not going to try to work this one out.......any help is appreciated. I also asked "Do I need to do anything more at this stage or should I just wait?" I got Hex 13.3.6 changing to 17. 13 & 17 often confuse me!

When you cling to your question you will lose the answer.

This Law is similar to what I talked about in another article: questions can be misleading and drive you away from what you actually need. Asking questions to the Yijing is not bad, as long as you take care not to frame your question in such a way that the answer that you need can not be given. Questions are a very subjective matter, and questions like "is he the right guy for me" make it easy to ignore your own responsibility. Don't be afraid not to ask questions, the answer from the Yi can be more encompassing if you leave out your own limited understanding of the situation. Therefore, "if you cling to your question you will lose the answer".
If you cling to the answer you will lose the solution.

The symbolic replies from the Yijing can invite you to endless lingering in the field of metaphors, chewing on every possible piece of information that might or might not be meaningful to you. Many users are afraid that they might overlook something in the answer, as if under each insight another insight is hidden which they must uncover. There is no use in wrenching the answer of the Yijing. Once you have what you need you have to decide your next step and move on. Therefore, "if you cling to the answer you will lose the solution".
There is no text in the Yijing.

The words are not important, and although it can be very rewarding to look at the original Chinese text from a historical and philological point of view, you should not be carried away by the endless sea of possibilities that such an undertaking can give. What the Yijing gives you when you use the book are images, an overview, a situation, an idea - not words. Therefore, "there is no text in the Yijing".
When you read the text of the Yijing: read the text of the Yijing.

Many times when I ask one of my students to cite a text from the Yijing they do not give me the text from the Yijing but the commentary from the translator. Most people do not work with the Yijing, they work with the translator's explanation of the Yijing. I find this a strange practice - it's like driving a car but having Hyacinth Bucket - excuse me, Bouquet - sitting next to you giving you directions while you are perfectly capable of driving yourself. I was very surprised when I heard someone say that beginners should start with the translator's commentary, after all, he said, that's what all beginners do. I would say, only read the commentary once you have grasped the meaning of the text yourself. If you make it a habit to immediately go to the commentary, instead of contemplating on the actual text of the Yijing you will never learn to appreciate the direct and illuminating answers that the book can give you. The commentary is just what it says: commentary. It does not hold the answer of the Yijing, and many times the commentary can clash with your actual situation, leaving you more baffled than if you would have taken the time to listen to what the Yi has to say. Therefore, "when you read the text of the Yijing: read the text of the Yijing".
If you want change nothing will change.

Often the Yijing is consulted when a situation is not as we desire it to be. We want change, we want things to be different. But this need can conflict with what the situation, or yourself, really needs. When you consult the Yijing and have interpreted the answer, the need for change should be gone: instead, you should be aware of the necessity of change, or the want of it, and how it can be accomplished in the most natural way, without forcing it. If you need change you will most likely not be willing to wait for it and let it flow into your circumstances. If you can accept your current situation and if you can see how you got there, change will not be a necessity but a simple part of the flow you are in. Therefore, "if you want change nothing will change".
The Yijing does not solve your problems.

I think this is an obvious one. "I have consulted the Yijing and the answer was great. I really understood it. But nothing has changed!" Of course not. The process of change only starts with the Yijing, it will not be accomplished by the Yijing. Using the Yijing means hard work and put in a lot of honesty. So kick your butt and live the answer of the Yi. The Yijing is only a book. Therefore, "the Yijing does not solve your problems".
The Yijing exists to make itself unneeded.

The Yijing is not only a book, it is also a principle. What it shows you is like the air that you are breathing: you are in it, you use it, you need it, but most of the time you cannot see it. Once you are aware of the principle you don't need a tool to make it visible anymore: when you know how to operate the TV you will hardly consult the manual anymore. The Yijing is a learning aid to help you see the underlying principle that weaves the chaotic structure that we experience. But learning aids are not meant to be used all the time. When you have learned the principle you can discard the tool. Therefore, "the Yijing exists to make itself unneeded".

The Ten Laws of Proper Yijing Practice

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:53:51 +0100

This is a teaser; the explanations will follow later, although some of the Laws are obvious, in my opinion.

1. If you receive the same hexagram three times you have three different answers.

2. Moving lines do not move.

3. Too much is less than enough.

4. When you cling to your question you will lose the answer.

5. If you cling to the answer you will lose the solution.

6. There is no text in the Yijing.

7. When you read the text of the Yijing: read the text of the Yijing.

8. If you want change nothing will change.

9. The Yijing does not solve your problems.

10. The Yijing exists to make itself unneeded.

Contemporary I Ching: message from Jan Enuma

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:33:19 +0100

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.

Online Heluo Lishu course

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:36:09 +0100

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:

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

More than just books

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:55:00 +0200

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."

The Fall of Man

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:41:18 +0200

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.

Continue reading "The Fall of Man"

I Ching Study Group in London by Steve Marshall

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:37:17 +0200

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!

Selling Axel Schuessler's 'A Dictionary of Early Zhou Chinese'

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:15:35 +0200

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.

Who's fuling who?

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:04:00 +0200

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.

Im 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.

Cutting through hexagram 23

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:26:00 +0200

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

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 ��, 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 ��: 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.

Exposition of bronzes in the groninger Museum

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:11:53 +0200

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

Yijing Five Element cards

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:55:44 +0200

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.

Vrede en macht (peace and power)

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:53:12 +0200

Irian, kijkend naar een koor op tv wat zingt "iedereen wil vrede":

Als je vrede wilt moet je niet voor macht kiezen.

(Irian, while watching a choir on tv singing 'everybody wants peace': "If you want peace you must not choose for power.")

Working with Yi: a change for the better

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:00:00 +0100

(I first wrote this article in Dutch for my own Yijing study group, and translated it to English. Because of this the language might sometimes sound a little bit, ehrm, awkward.)

When you search for information about the etymology of the character yi 易 you will find several stories which tell about this character's origin. Are these stories all true? Let's see what a little research will come up with.

First, let's get rid of some wrong information which haunts this character for almost two thousand years. The traditional account of this character's origin is that it is a picture of a lizard, chameleon, or gecko. This comes from the Shuo Wen 說文 dictionary, which says:

易. 蜥易，蝘蜓，守宮也。象形。

易. Lizard, gecko. Pictogram.
(漢語大字典, p. 1494)

And Duan Yucai 段玉裁 adds in his commentary that it is a picture of a head, and four legs. But this is not the only explanation the Shuo Wen gives. It also says:

祕書說：日月爲易，象隂陽也.

The Secret Books (mishu 祕書, according to Duan another name for weishu 緯書, the apocryphal books HM) say: sun and moon become yi, it is a picture of yin and yang.
(漢語大字典, p. 1494)

Duan explains that the phrase 日月爲易 comes from the Can Tong Qi 参同契, a cryptic Daoist alchemical text attributed to the Daoist immortal Wei Boyang 魏伯陽 from the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220). The supposed dates of the Shuo Wen and the Can Tong Qi do not seem to match, however. The Shuo Wen is written in 121 AD, and the Can Tong Qi in 142 AD (although others maintain a much later date; see Roel Jansen's introduction to the Dutch translation of Bertschinger's Can Tong Qi, p. 13-14). Nevertheless, the phrase is supposed to describe the composition of the character yi: the top part is the sun 日, and the lower part is the moon 月, written in its old form as 勿.

In my electronic version of the Can Tong Qi there is one paragraph where I find the sentence 日月爲易, a paragraph which deals with opposites and the harmony between them:

坎戊月精 Kan wu yue jing
離己日光 Li ji ri guang
日月為易 Ri yue wei yi
剛柔相當 Gang rou xiang dang
土旺四季 Tu wang si ji....

Kan 坎 and wu 戊 are the essence of the moon
Li 離 and ji 己 are the radiance of the sun
Sun and moon make yi 易
The firm and yielding are balanced
Earth prospers in the four seasons...

In the first line the trigram Kan, Water, is linked to the fifth Heavenly Stem, wu of the Chinese calendar, and to the moon; in the second line the trigram Li, Fire, is linked to the sixth Heavenly Stem ji and to the sun (see also my article about the Eight Palaces, p. 13. The paragraph from the Can Tong Qi mentioned here does not appear in Bertschinger's translation). 'Sun and moon make yi 易' is the next line, and seen in the light of the foregoing two sentences it is clear that this sentence does not describe the composition of the character yi 易 but is a philosophical explanation of the principles of yin and yang, mainly for the purpose of alchemical practices. If you take the sentence 日月為易 out of this context you could see it as an explanation of the character yi 易 and its components, but I don't think this was the intention in the Can Tong Qi.

The two explanations from the Shuo Wen do not agree with the latest findings about the etymology of the character yi and may be regarded as outdated.

The character yi 易 on oracle bones
When you look in jiaguwen 甲骨文 dictionaries you will notice that most books only mention one version as the precursor of yi (see left picture). Even the book 殷墟甲骨學-帶走進甲骨文的世界 by Ma Rusen 馬如森, published in 2007, gives this one version, and says that there are several explanations for the shape of this character (p. 413). The most remarkable explanation that is mentioned by Ma is the one given by Sun Changxu 孫常敘, who says that it is a picture of a bird spreading its wings. However, this explanation does not refer to the oracle bone character, but to a later version found in bronze inscriptions (see right picture). With a little bit of fantasy you can see a bird in it, but this explanation is not compatible with the earlier oracle bone version.
Most dictionaries do not dare to give an explanation of the form of the character; stronger put, they say that it is not clear what it depicts (see for instance Zhao Cheng 趙 , 甲骨文簡明詞典-卜辭分類讀本; p. 334). Steve Marshall gives in his book The Mandate of Heaven as explanation that the character is a drawing of the sun coming from behind a cloud, with rays of sunlight breaking through; an explanation which according to Marshall is also given by Yang Shuda 楊樹達 (p. 15). This explanation is quite plausible if we look at the context in which this character is used. Later on we will see that another explanation is also possible.

Give us the sun
On oracle bones we often find yi 易 combined with ri 日, 'sun'. Zhao Cheng 趙 talks in length about the combination 易日:

易即賜. 天氣陰況、晦暗, 商代人希望上帝能把太陽賞賜給人間, 所以叫作賜日. 卜辭中的易日常和霧相對而言, 如『壬寅賜日, 壬寅霧』. 商代人認為, 太陽出來與否, 一定受某一種神力的支配, 所以, 為了使太陽出來, 也就是使神賜給人間以太陽, 常祈求先祖以賜日, 如『中丁易日 - 對仲丁進行祭以求賜日』, 『歲大戊卄牢易日 - 用卄牢向大戊進行歲祭以求賜日』. 既然希望賞賜一個太陽, 則這種天氣一定是沒有出日: 可能是陰況、晦暗, 也可能是烏雲滾滾, 也可能是時陰時雨, 也可能是多雲蔽日. 有人把 '易日' 簡單地看成是陰天, 不能說沒有道理, 但不完全合符實際.

Yi 易 means ci 賜, 'give, gift'. When there was cloudy and dark weather the Shang people wished that Shangdi would give the sun to humanity, this is ci ri 賜日. In bone inscriptions 易日 often appears in combination with wu 霧, 'fog', for instance: '(day) renyin - give - sun, (day) renyin - fog' (see right picture).
The Shang people believed that the appearing of the sun was controlled by supernatural powers, therefore to let the sun appear, to persuade the spirits to give the sun to humanity, they begged the ancestors to '賜日', give the sun. For instance ' offering - middle - Ding - give - sun': 'a offering to middle ancestor Ding to be given the sun'; 'sui offering - Da - Wu - twenty - oxes - give - sun': use twenty oxes during the sui offering to pursuade ancestor Da Wu to give the sun'. Because it is hoped that the sun will be given it means that in the weather the sun had not appeared: maybe because it is dark, or because it is twilight, or there are dark clouds in the sky, or maybe it is raining and cloudy, or dark clouds are covering the sun. Some see 易日 simply as 'clouded sky', it cannot be said that this is not plausible, but it does not completely agree with what we know.
(甲骨文簡明詞典-卜辭分類讀本, p. 191. The last sentence could refer to Guo Moruo 郭沫若, who suggested that yi 易 can be read as yi 晹, 'the sun alternately shining between and behind the clouds'. According to Guo 晹日 would mean 'clouded sky'. See 甲骨文字典, p. 1064. For information about the offering, see 甲骨文簡明詞典, p. 242; Liu Xinglong 劉興隆, 新編甲骨文字典, p. 996; 甲骨文字典, p. 986)

This explanation agrees with the picture that Marshall gives about the shape of the character. On oracle bones yi often has the meaning of 'to give, to grant', with or without ri 日, and it alway refers to a high placed person who grants something to a person with a lower status. This specific meaning is still found in the earlier mentioned ci 賜, the successor of yi (Matthews' Dictionary 6988).

Another explanation
When we divide the old character in two halves we get two parts: left we have and right we have . Both components are separately found on oracle bones, and they can give an explanation for the complete character. As component the left part occurs in several other characters (see right picture); we do not always know what these characters mean - sometimes it is the name of a person, but more often the meaning is not clear. What we do know is that is the name of a certain sacrifice (甲骨文字典, p. 995; 新編甲骨文字典, p. 528), and it is possible that all the characters with as component have to do with offerings or the rituals that accompany it. We have seen that this applies to the old form of yi 易.

The right part of the character, , is harder to interpret because during Shang times it had two meanings: it is the old character for yue 月, 'moon', but it as also used for xi 夕, 'evening, sunset'. Liu however says that on oracle bones yue 月 was written as , while xi 夕 was mostly written as , with an extra dot in the center (see also Yu Shengwu 于省吾, 甲骨文字釋林, p. 449). If we combine this with what we know of the component , then it is possible that refers to an offering to the moon, or at least in the dark, to get the sun back. Yi 易 could have been a sacrifice to the ancestors or spirits (indicated by ) during the evening or in the night (indicated by ) to make sure that the sun is returning, that it is 'given' by the ancestors or spirits.

Change
The 'giving' in the way it is mentioned in the inscriptions is connected to an action, mostly a sacrifice, which purpose was to change a bad situation to a good one. This comes close to the meaning that is familiar to most Yijing users: 'change'. Zhao Cheng writes in his book:

甲骨文用作動詞, 其中的一種意義近以於後代的 "平安" , "痊癒". (...)易的這種用法, 有人以為當讀作化險為夷之夷, 則為借音字.

In bone inscriptions [is yi also] a verb, which comes close to the meaning of the words ping'an 平安 - (become) stable and quiet, and quanyu 痊癒 - recover from an illness. (...) Some people think that yi in this usage can be read as the yi 夷 from the saying '化險為夷', 'change danger into safety', in which case it is seen as a phonetic loan character.
(甲骨文簡明詞典, p. 369)

This description tells us what a yi change means: a yi action or happening should lead to a better situation. You change from something which is (potentially) harmful to something which is favorable, positive. This corresponds with the earlier mentioned offering to the ancestors, with the wish to get the sun back - here we also have an unfavorable situation which by yi has to change for the better.

On oracle bones we see this a lot in sessions about diseases, often concerning diseases of the teeth (see right picture):

王疾齒, 亡易.

The king has a tooth disease, this will not change (for the better).
(新編甲骨文字典, p. 607. According to Liu yi should be explained as getting permanent teeth (see also 甲骨文字典, p. 1064). In that case the translation would be 'the king has a tooth disease, this is not because of getting permanent teeth'.)

In this case the outcome was unfavorable and more sacrifices would be made to the spirits and ancestors, until they were in the proper mood and a hopeful answer would be received.

The other variant
The character we explored so far is the one you will see most in the specialized dictionaries. But some dictionaries give an additional form as precursor of yi. In this character the meaning of 'to give, giving' is very clear. The main components are two vases; liquid is being poured from one vase into the other. Sometimes there are two two hands visible who hold a vase, sometimes there is only one hand, and sometimes the liquid is missing as well. The 甲骨文字典 dictionary says that this is the precursor of yi, and that the other form we discussed in length earlier is a simplification of it (p. 1063). The opinions are divided about this, and many dictionaries do not share this variant under yi 易 but under yi 益. It will be noticed that in current standard Chinese the pronunciation of both these characters is the same; in the early Zhou period the pronunciation wasn't exactly the same, although the endings were the same (GSR 849a and 850a; Axel Schuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese, p. 566 and 569).

Indeed the oracle bone form of yi 益 is very similar to this presumed variant form of yi (see right picture). However, of many oracle bone characters which have a 'vase' component the modern form has the component 皿. If really was a precursor of yi 易 you would expect that the modern form still contains the 皿 component. The fact that this is not the case might be a clue that has nothing to do with yi 易.

There were times when I said the opposite. The small book 周易：古代中國的世界圖示 by Wu Enbo 烏恩博 mentions oracle bone and bronze forms of yi (p. 1-2), and I turned this into the following picture:

This picture seems very plausible, but actually it is not true. It gives the impression that the version was used before the form, and that is simply not correct. Both forms were used during Period I according to the system of Dong Zuobin 董作賓 (see table below; based on 甲骨文字典, 凡例 p. 1 ; David N. Keightley, Sources of Shang History, p. 23 table 14 and 228 table 38).

Period	Starts with king		Ends with king
I	武丁 Wu Ding	1250 - 1181
II	祖庚 Zu Geng	1180 - 1171	祖甲 Zu Jia	1170 - 1151
III	廩辛 Lin Xin	1150 -	庚丁 Geng Ding	- 1131/1121
IV	武乙 Wu Yi	1130 - 1116/ 1120 - 1106	文丁 Wen Ding	1115 - 1101/ 1105 - 1091
V	帝乙 Di Yi	1100 - 1081/ 1090 - 1071	帝辛 Di Xin	1080 - 1051/ 1070 - 1041

During the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600 BC - ca. 1046 BC) probably had the meaning of 'give, grant' without religious connotations, while was used with a religious meaning, and emphasizing positive change. The religious meaning of disappeared when the Shang dynasty was thrown over and the 易日 sacrifice became disused. Both forms and got the meaning of 'give, grant', as can be seen in bronze inscriptions from later periods.

On the site of Donald Sturgeon (www.chineseetymology.org) the 'vase' variant is seen as a precursor of yi 匜, the name of a low type of vessel/basin for pouring out liquid. In the 金文引得 index of bronze inscriptions an inscription is mentioned in which 易 is read as 匜 (p. 351 entry 5421), but I have not found other sources which motivate that is the old form of 匜.

Conclusion
You might wonder if this is all relevant for the use of the Yi as an oracle. What I personally like about the old meaning of yi 易 is the emphasis that is put on positive change. A situation might be bad or unpleasant, but with yi you have the tool to change that. The old usage of yi makes us aware of our ability to bring positive changes to our lives. Maybe you will have to sacrifice a little bit, but in the end the outcome will be an improvement of the situation you started with. Change is not something which befalls you. Change is a verb: you do it, and by doing it, you change your situation for the better.

The Yijing section of the Siku Quanshu Imperial Encyclopedia available for download

nospam@example.com (Harmen Mesker) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:26:12 +0200

If you would like to know which collection of Yi books is in the Siku Quanshu 四庫全書 Imperial Encyclopedia, look here. The Center for Zhouyi & Ancient Chinese Philosophy from the University of Shandong has made this treasure available as PDFs, in fine quality. Enjoy.