Interlude 1

From today on, I'd walk you through a fundamental text of Chinese culture: Yi or Yijing, i.e. Change or the Classic of Change (no need to say "Changes" as most English translations do). 

The book is said to be initiated by the mythological figure Fuxi some 5000 years ago, reworked on by King Wen of the Zhou Dynasty (106-256 B.C.), and finally fixed by Confucius (551 - 479 B.C.) and his disciples.  The most commonly used version today is based on Zhouyi, Change of the Zhou Dynasty which came to its final form probably in the Han era (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.) via generations of Confucian work.

The main body of the book is no more than 64 hexagrams called 卦 gua, each made up of 3 non-broken lines like and — 3 broken lines like －－ in different combinations (see Fig. 3 for example).  A hexagram can also be taken as a compound of two trigrams,with the bottom one being the inner and the top the outer.  In total, there are eight trigrams as shown in Figure 1, which models how Heaven (qian) and Earth (kun), as well as major elements like fire (li), water (kan), mountain (gen), precipitation （dui), thunder (zhen), and wind (xun) emerge out of the empty core -- the unified field of taiji -- in the center:

Fig. 1 (From) Paul Carus, Chinese Astrology, Open Court, 1974; image available via Google search)   
Fig. 2.  ((From Pieng-Lam Kho's webpage at www. myweb.usf.edu)

When one trigram doubles on another, 64 hexagrams (Fig. 2) are formed to model how ten thousand things emerge from, grow, flourish, decline, and then dwindle back into, the unified field.  Each hexagram is given a name such as qian or kun; a definition named guaci; a brief explication of the definition called tuanzhuan; a short summary of the leading analogy or association the hexagram suggests, namely xiangzhuan; line statements called yaoci; and explications on line statement called xiao yaoci.

In addition to the main body, the book also contains several appendices referred to as follows:

1)  General Appendix, named xici (consisting of two parts), is an important Confucian document exploring the over-arching philosophy behind the hexagrams.
2) The second appendix, named wenyan, contains an explanation of the qian and kun hexagrams,  forming  another major Confucian document.
3) The next appendix, named shuogua, provides an elaboration on the eight trigrams.
4) The fourth appendix, named xugua, explains why the 64 hexagrams are sequenced as they are.
5) The final appendix, named zagua, details how one hexagram can be paired with another to make up 32 pairs.

These appendices, together with tuanzhuan (of two parts) and xiangzhuan (of two parts), constitute the total interpretation of the hexagrams.  These interpretation pieces can be taken out and compiled as a separate volume called YiZhuan or Ten Wings.

We shall see if we can use these wings to dive down or shoot up in the airy blue between heaven and earth.

Prelude

From today on, I'd walk you through a fundamental text of Chinese culture: Yi or Yijing, i.e. Change or the Classic of Change (no need to say "Changes" as most English translations do). 

The book is said to be initiated by the mythological figure Fuxi some 5000 years ago, reworked on by King Wen of the Zhou Dynasty (106-256 B.C.), and finally fixed by Confucius (551 - 479 B.C.) and his disciples.  The most commonly used version today is based on Zhouyi, Change of the Zhou Dynasty which came to its final form probably in the Han era (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.) via generations of Confucian work.

The main body of the book is no more than 64 hexagrams called 卦 gua, each made up of 3 non-broken lines like and — 3 broken lines like －－ in different combinations (see Fig. 3 for example).  A hexagram can also be taken as a compound of two trigrams,with the bottom one being the inner and the top the outer.  In total, there are eight trigrams as shown in Figure 1, which models how Heaven (qian) and Earth (kun), as well as major elements like fire (li), water (kan), mountain (gen), precipitation （dui), thunder (zhen), and wind (xun) emerge out of the empty core -- the unified field of taiji -- in the center:

Fig. 1 (From) Paul Carus, Chinese Astrology, Open Court, 1974; image available via Google search)   
Fig. 2.  ((From Pieng-Lam Kho's webpage at www. myweb.usf.edu)

When one trigram doubles on another, 64 hexagrams (Fig. 2) are formed to model how ten thousand things emerge from, grow, flourish, decline, and then dwindle back into, the unified field.  Each hexagram is given a name such as qian or kun; a definition named guaci; a brief explication of the definition called tuanzhuan; a short summary of the leading analogy or association the hexagram suggests, namely xiangzhuan; line statements called yaoci; and explications on line statement called xiao yaoci.

In addition to the main body, the book also contains several appendices referred to as follows:

1)  General Appendix, named xici (consisting of two parts), is an important Confucian document exploring the over-arching philosophy behind the hexagrams.
2) The second appendix, named wenyan, contains an explanation of the qian and kun hexagrams,  forming  another major Confucian document.
3) The next appendix, named shuogua, provides an elaboration on the eight trigrams.
4) The fourth appendix, named xugua, explains why the 64 hexagrams are sequenced as they are.
5) The final appendix, named zagua, details how one hexagram can be paired with another to make up 32 pairs.

These appendices, together with tuanzhuan (of two parts) and xiangzhuan (of two parts), constitute the total interpretation of the hexagrams.  These interpretation pieces can be taken out and compiled as a separate volume called YiZhuan or Ten Wings.

We shall see if we can use these wings to dive down or shoot up in the airy blue between heaven and earth.