How to Use the I CHING as an Oracle for Wealth (An Introduction to the I CHING Divination)

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These four words, translated traditionally by James Legge as "originating and penetrating, advantageous and firm," are often repeated in the hexagram statements and were already considered an important part of I Ching interpretation in the 6th century BC.

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Edward Shaughnessy describes this statement as affirming an "initial receipt" of an offering, "beneficial" for further "divining". 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, [17] but it is also possible that the line statements were derived from the hexagram names. 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.

Archaeological evidence shows that Zhou dynasty divination was grounded in cleromancy , the production of seemingly random numbers to determine divine intent. 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. 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 BC and 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. 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 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. 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 , 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.

Emperor Wu's placement of the I Ching among the Five Classics was informed by a broad span of cultural influences that included Confucianism , Daoism , Legalism , yin-yang cosmology , and Wu Xing physical theory. 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.

By partaking in the spiritual experience of the I Ching , the Great Commentary states, the individual can understand the deeper patterns of the universe. 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 Ten Wings were traditionally attributed to Confucius , possibly based on a misreading of the Records of the Grand Historian. 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.

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, although in eight cases hexagrams are paired with their inversion.

But the oldest known manuscript, found in 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. The assignment of numbers, binary or decimal, to specific hexagrams is a modern invention.

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. 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. 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.

The principal rival interpretation was a practical text on divination by the soothsayer Guan Lu. Choosing the 3rd-century Zhouyi zhu as the official commentary, he added to it a subcommentary drawing out the subtler levels of Wang Bi's explanations. The resulting work, the Zhouyi zhengi , 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. 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. Below is the information that should be present in these notices. It is designed to make submitting notices of alleged infringement to us as straightforward as possible while reducing the number of notices that we receive that are fraudulent or difficult to understand or verify.

Introduction to the I Ching - By Richard Wilhelm

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Introduction to the I Ching (An Overview of the Book of Changes for Beginners)

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But please note - this is for questions about consulting the I Ching yourself. If you have a question for the I Ching, you need the services page! Yi Jing, by Wu Jing Nuan —. This isn't the book I intended to review this month - but once I got hold of it not easy in the UK! I had to write about it: A note on its title: Yi Jing is just the more modern way of writing I Ching - it's still the same book.

What the book includes There's a long, intriguing introduction before the main part of the book, which is a complete translation of the Zhouyi that is, the names, judgements and line statements. Browse on into the final chapters and the appendix, though, and you find that this is one of the very few I Ching books to include the complete I Ching, with all its traditional Wings. The translation throughout is fluent and straightforward. The introduction This begins with a deeply poetic elaboration of the traditional account of the beginnings of the I Ching, beginning with Fuxi.

Wu is prepared both to embrace the myth and its meanings, and to move smoothly from myth to history when this better serves as a foundation for understanding. If you are most concerned with historical accuracy, this is not the best introduction to read first - but perhaps there are more important things… Wu's work is solidly grounded in etymological research, but this is not allowed to dry up the Well of symbolic riches.

This book is meant for use in divination. Re-reading the introduction for this review is taking longer than I'd expected: I keep on noticing new things and getting absorbed… It covers the basic structure of the Yi in terms accessible to a beginner, but is also crammed full of imaginative thought on that structure's meaning. The lines of a hexagram as marking rising water levels? The drilled circles in oracle bones as 'dragon holes', and the spaces between the hexagram lines as 'cracks in space, gaps in time' where extraordinary energy can be seen and used?

These are ideas to live with and these examples are all from just a couple of pages. Wu goes deeply into divination as a spiritual practice. He gives clear instructions on divination with coins and yarrow, shows the flow of energy through a hexagram, and also writes with knowledge and insight on the etymology of key Yi Jing characters. The experience of divining with this translation Wu says he has aimed to present 'the simplicity of a Daoist translation with a ground of shamanistic practice, and the concomitant complex levels of meanings. If you're used to long, moral expositions on the lines, for example, his approach will come as something of a 'culture shock.

There is that much less to be dismantled before you find your own answer. True, this approach leaves more of the imaginative work to you, but then divination is not about reading the answers from a book. Wu gives you stimulating information and ideas to work with, and involves you closely in discovering your own meaning. Wu reads the Yi as I might read poetry, reflecting on how themes are developed and drawing conclusions from each hexagram's internal patterns: I also like the honesty of the translation, showing the hand-written Chinese character along with the English version.

Combine this with Wu's elucidation of the characters themselves, and you can actually see the images unfold. Wu's version goes beyond the neo-Confucian interpretations of Wilhelm, Legge or Huang, on the basis of historical and intuitive understanding, but without angry polemics against them. Spiritual and magical understanding take over from moral injunctions. Sometimes I find I prefer the traditional interpretation of a line, usually for its greater complexity; even then, though, Wu is invaluable for what he adds to my understanding of the symbolism and atmosphere of the hexagram as a whole.

Who is this translation for? If you are buying your first I Ching, this one could work well for you: It certainly makes an excellent addition to a collection it is always near the top of my own pile of translations!

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They don't all steadfastly convey the same moral message. Some are about savage punishments, others about artistic and spiritual heights or extraordinary shamanistic power. The Yijing as seen by Wu is a dramatic adventure more than a book of wisdom.

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Take Hexagram 49, line 4, and compare… Alfred Huang: Be sincere and truthful; Change the old. This is a pivotal time when destiny itself can be changed. Availability Wu's Yi Jing is available from Amazon. Believe me, it's worth the wait! Or you might like to try the advanced search at Abebooks. A surprisingly high proportion thought that this wasn't an issue at all, with 8 out of 20 respondents so far saying that the answer is always clear in the end. Answers that become clearer over time seem to be a common experience, to judge from the response about problems in divination practice.

Unfortunately the answers are rather blurred from all the people who first said this was a non-question, and then proceeded to answer it anyway! Clearly there's an art to designing surveys…. Haven't answered this one yet? No problem - just click here. Nothing deep or metaphysical here:

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