I-Ching

Roughly translated as "the classic of change", the I Ching is a book that is used in traditional Chinese divination.

History

Originally titled Zhou Yi (the Changes of the Zhou), and still affectionately referred to by that name, the Classic of Change was a tool of leaders of the Zhou tribe during the Shang dynasty, ending around 500 BCE. After that, it was passed along both in written form (and with oral traditions of use) among individuals until the Han dynasty (206-220 CE), where the traditions were codified, updated and made into the I Ching, one of the five Chinese classics. In modern times, the concepts of the I Ching were modified heavily with Confucianism, but the core principles have enjoyed a resurgence in modern times, especially after China permitted the return of old cultural traditions that had been suppressed.

The Classic of Change was soon adopted into the Confucian canon, and the many commentaries on the core text belong mainly to the Confucian tradition, which has been chiefly responsible for its stewardship.

Principles

The I Ching uses the principles of Yin and Yang energy (or Qi) in order to seek guidance about the present or future. By looking at the book, the user uses the book to interpret a pattern that represents this interplay of energy.

Qi is often glossed as "energy", which is only a part of its meaning. Qi can equally be rendered as "breath", "air" or "vapor". The character for qi is a compound of the air and grain radicals, depicting vapor rising from the cooking of grain, connoting transformation, a process intrinsic to the concept of qi. In a broader sense, some works of Chinese philosophy posit that everything that exists can be understood as qi.

Lines of energy

To represent Yin and Yang energy lines are traditionally used. An unbroken line represents Yang energy, since this energy is solid and strong. Meanwhile, a broken line is used to represent Yin energy, since it is supple.

Example:

_____ <- Yang Energy

__ __ <- Yin Energy

--- Changing energy --- This energy is not static; instead, Yang energy grows old and becomes Yin energy, and Yin energy grows old and becomes Yang energy. Young energy remains stable within a reading, while old energy is transforming to the opposite, and divination using the I Ching uses this. With the changing energies, we have four possible lines. A typical shorthand is as follows...

__o__ <- Old Yang energy becomes

__ __ <- Yin energy. While

__x__ <- Old Yin Energy becomes

_____ <- Young Yang energy

Note that these energies are still basically Yin and Yang energies, but the transforming aspects will be used later on as part of the divination

Hexagrams

An actual reading is based upon a single Hexagram, that is a collection of six Yin/Yang lines. With the lines being (at the basic level) Yin and Yang, there are 2^6=64 different hexagrams. The interpretation of each of these hexagrams are found within the I Ching.

Finding Hexagrams

To actually determine the lines that make up a Hexagram, the diviner needs some element of random chance. A few possible ways follow...

Yarrow Stalks

This is the traditional way, which uses 50 stalks of yarrow (a healing herb) to determine the lines used. One can find the full method elsewhere, but the basic idea involves repeatedly splitting the stalks into two roughly equal piles. Taking one pile, the user takes a stalk, then starts grouping the stalks into groups of four (laying them out on the table), until there are 1-4 stalks left. The second pile is then taken and divided the same way without taking the first stalk out. The single stalk plus the two remainders are removed. The non-removed stalks are combined and the process is repeated again. On the third time the process is repeated but the number of groups of four are counted; based on the number showing one of the four possible lines is written down, and the process is repeated for the remaining five lines.

As one can imagine, this takes a while; the whole process has various ritual nuances that make it a somewhat exacting process, so people settled upon a quicker method, namely the coin method.

Coins

This method is much quicker; the person flips three coins and looks at the result; 2 points is given for tails and 3 points for heads (though this might vary if one is using traditional Chinese coins which don't have heads or tails on them; pick a side...). 6 points is old Yin, 7 points is young Yang, 8 points is young Yin, and 9 points is old Yang.

Though this method is much faster, it has some problems; namely, the old (transforming) energy probabilities are equal to each other (2/16) and the young (stable) energy probabilities are equal (6/16). Though this might seem okay at first glance, consider the following: Yin energy is soft, cold and static in nature, while Yang energy is dynamic. Therefore, Yang energy should be more prone to transforming than Yin energy. The Yarrow stalk method takes this into account, with a (1/16) probability of changing yin, (7/16) probability of static Yin, a (3/16) probability of changing Yang, and a (5/16) probability of static Yang. The coin method does not however. Thus, the "16 method" was made to account for speed and probability...

The "16 Method"

The method of 16 involves 16 objects: marbles, stones, poker chips etc. all of the same size but in four different colors. There should be one object of the first color (corresponding to changing Yin), 3 of another color for changing Yang, 7 of a third color for static Yin and 5 of a fourth color for static Yang. All 16 objects are place in a bag and six are chosen, one at a time, replacing the object each time. One can use dice or other randomizes to the same effect, provided the probabilities work out. Regardless, this method keeps the original probabilities but is much faster.

Full Reading of a Hexagram

Though the hexagram found by the diviner is a central part of the reading, this is not the only part.

The central hexagram is the core of the issue in question; that is, it is the strongest aspect of whatever the diviner is trying to find out. After that, however, there are several different possible directions from the reading.

For instance, the diviner can reverse the hexagram (switching Yin and Yang) to find out what is the strongest opposing factor to the question.

One can also look at the top and botton trigram on their own; the top and bottom trigrams can also be read to gain insight into the inner and outer world aspects of the problem.

To find the "hidden possibility", one method is to take the second, third and fourth line and combine them with the third fourth and fifth line to form a new trigram; this trigram represents the core flow of the inner workings of the issue.

Also, one can change all the transforming lines into their opposites and find out what the core hexagram is transitioning to; that is, how the central flow in the reading is changing, and what it is changing to. A more complex step with the transforming lines is to change them one at a time, in order to map the change in flows more gradually.

Some diviners actually track the changing lines of the initially cast hexagram to derive a changing hexagram which reflects the direction of change the matter of the initial query is likely to take.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of readings, and many more methods are probably out there, but these are some of the more common transformations applied to the hexagram.

Associations

The I Ching Inspired Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz to begin his work on binary. The link is quite apparent; by representing Yin as 0 and Yang as 1, one can easily see why Leibniz took this and began thinking about how to represent everything using binary.

It is important to keep in mind that the broken and unbroken lines which represent yin and yang are not numbers or states. Rather, yin and yang are aspects of tai ji, sometimes translated as 'supreme ultimate'. The fact that young and old lines representing yin and yang are part of the system emphasize that yin and yang are constantly in motion and transforming into each other, hence the name Yi Jing, or Classic of Change.

The Chinese martial art of Pa Kua Chang (aka Ba Gua Zhang) was built around the philosophy of the I Ching.

Many prominent ba gua zhang (eight-trigram palm) players, including Adam Hsu, dismiss the notion that their martial art derives from Yi Jing (I Ching) theory. Hsu maintains that eight-directions palm would be a more appropriate translation for ba gua zhang. It is likely the case that the eight trigrams later came to be associated with the original art, which was simply called Turning Palm. The association probably came from the arrangement of the eight trigrams in a circle, since this resembles the circle-walking footwork patterns of ba gua zhang. Yin style ba gua zhang does utilize the eight trigrams as a conceptual reference. Many other styles do not.