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A few years ago I bought a book called Zhouyi Tu Jing Guang Shuo 周易圖經廣說, ‘Extensive Discussion of Zhouyi Pictures and its Scriptures’ by Wan Nianchun 萬年淳 (1761-1835). The book is more known by its original title Yi Mu 易拇, ‘The Great Toe of the Yi’. It contains Yi related pictures, and one of these pictures is an arrangement of the 64 hexagrams that I had not seen before. It is called Milun Tiandi Tu 彌綸天地圖, ‘The picture that covers Heaven and Earth’ (‘covers everything’).

At first the arrangement might look a bit arbitrary, but the key to the sequences in the four circles is to be found in the vertical hexagrams in the center: here we see the Xiantian Bagua 先天八卦 circle of the eight trigrams, doubled to make the Pure Hexagrams (chungua 純卦). In the first (outer) circle we have the hexagrams with Heaven and Earth either as top or base trigram, in the second circle the hexagrams with Lake and Mountain are given, but without the hexagrams which have Heaven or Earth in them (as these are covered in the first circle), the third circle is for the Fire and Water hexagrams (without hexagrams containing Heaven, Earth, Lake and Mountain), and the last inner circle has the hexagrams with Thunder and Wind (leaving out the hexagrams that contain one of the other six trigrams).

The circle is also mentioned with another title, Liushisi Gua Fang Zhong Zang Yuan tu 六十四卦方中藏圓圖, ‘The circular picture of the sixty-four hexagrams in (four) regions’. In the 彌綸天地圖 the twenty-eight hexagrams of the outer circle are linked to the twenty-eight xiu 宿. In the 六十四卦方中藏圓圖 the outer circle has hexagrams linked to the twelve Branches of the Chinese calendar.

To make the inner workings of the picture visible I have redesigned it with a color for each trigram. More information about the Yi Mu 易拇 and it’s sources see this dissertation.

A few years ago Frank Coolen told me he had bought a book by W.A. Sherrill which was quite unknown in the world of Yijing students. Indeed, the book is so rare that isn’t even listed in I Ching – An Annotated Bibliography. Naturally I also wanted to have a copy of this curious book, so with a lot of searching on the internet, and by paying way too much money, I was able to obtain this book.

Sherrill is mostly known by his co-authorship with W.K. Chu. They wrote An Anthology of I Ching, which gives some divination techniques that are (sometimes loosely) associated with the Yijing,  and The Astrology of I Ching, which is their adaptation of Heluo Lishu, a kind of numerological system that calculates birth and life hexagrams. They were both good friends with Nan Huaijin 南懷瑾, a well-known Buddhist teacher.

Sherrill’s book Heritage of Change – a Background to Chinese Culture and Thinking is written as an introduction in the Yijing and Chinese culture and philosophy from a Westerners point of view. I must confess I have never read it thoroughly. The contents does not really appeal to me, I am not interested in philosophical explanations. But I am sure others will find it a joy to read and many might find the book stuffed with a lot of intriguing concepts and information.

That is why I made a scan of the book. It can be downloaded here:

In every Yi book that teaches you how to consult the oracle you read the same thing: you must ask a question, and the Yi answers that question. It is necessary to formulate that question as specific as possible – an accurate question gives an accurate answer, etc.

I don’t know where and when this practice of asking questions originated. All I know is that in all the old Chinese Yi books that I have read there is no mentioning of ‘asking a question’. In the old days you consulted the oracle not by asking a question, but by addressing a (potential) situation. You described in short what was going on, what elements were involved, how you got there, and then you consulted the oracle to find out how the spirits thought about all this, and if their judgment would help you to accomplish what you desired. If the spirits condemned the situation and the actions that lead to it you could try to change the course of the developments and/or gain approval by doing sacrifices. But you did not ask specific questions to the oracle; at the most you asked for approval – not by asking a question but by posing a situation you desired: “Would it be that I become king”. This reminds us of the charges that we find on the oracle bones: “The next ten day period there will be (no) harm”.

There is a lot to say for this method. A question that focuses on a specific part of the situation discards a lot of elements because of this focusing. Focusing is what you want, but the risk is that because of this (subjective) focusing you will not see other elements that might be important. A question like “is X the right man for me?” focuses on a person, but it is also possible that circumstances play an important role in the situation. But if you ask about a person you will see the answer of the Yi as saying something about that person. And you will not see everything else, like time and circumstances, means and matter, that are involved.

By addressing a situation to the Yi you allow every aspect of the situation to play an equally important role. The Yi will help you to find what you really need to focus on, it will point to the aspects that do deserve your attention. Without a question you will get the most objective answer possible.

(Click pictures to enlarge)

At first glance the houtian bagua 後天八卦trigram circle seems devoid of any symmetry. It seems as if the trigrams follow each other in a random order, and that there is no logic behind it. But if we look at the circle in the way we are taught in the Ten Wings, namely as an order linked with time, patterns start to emerge.

In the Ten Wings the trigrams are described in the sequence of the houtian circle, starting with Zhen 震 and going clockwise, ending with Gen 艮. The trigrams are supposed to follow each other in time – Zhen 震 and Xun 巽 are linked with Spring and morning, Li 離 and Kun 坤 with Summer and midday, Dui 兌 and Qian 乾 with Autumn and evening, and Kan 坎 and Gen 艮 with Winter and midnight. In time, the trigrams change in each other – Zhen changes in Xun, Xun changes in Li, etc.

We can mark these changes in every trigram. When Zhen changes in Xun, all three lines change. When Xun changes in Li, the lower and the middle line change, etc. We can mark the lines that are going to change in every trigram:

In Zhen 3 lines change to make Xun; in Xun 2 lines change to make Li; in Li 2 lines change to make Kun, etc. There is a balanced sequence in the amount of changing lines: 3 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 1 – 2 – 2 – 2. The major change takes place in Zhen: the start of a new year and a new day.

It seems as if the line created by the pair Zhen – Dui, the symbols of sunrise and sunset, divides the circle in half. The trigram pairs created in this way are each others pangtonggua 旁通卦 and fangua 反卦. A pangtonggua is the inverse of a trigram: a yin line becomes a yang line and vice-versa. A fangua is the trigram turned upside down.

Xun is the combined pangtonggua and fangua of Gen; Li is the ptg and fg of Kan (although the fg is not visible because the trigram is symmetrical); Kun is the ptg and fg of Qian; Dui is the ptg and fg of Zhen.

If I would switch the trigrams Zhen and Gen the circle would even be better: that way every trigram would be opposed to its ptg, and no fg would be necessary. Also the changing lines sequence would become more symmetrical: 1 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 1 – 2 – 2 – 2. It surely makes room for speculation…..

One of my favourite sites is the site of the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. Beautiful pictures and a lot of information. Check for instance the section with past exhibitions. My favourite one is A Special Exhibition of Bronze Inscriptions from the Western Chou. The introduction is a good entry into the world of bronze inscriptions. Other ones are Ancient Writing from the Ruins of Yin (about oracle bones) or a Special Exhibition of Shang Period Ritual Bronzes.

I can spend hours on sites like this.