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Most Yijing translations translate sheng 升, the name of hexagram 46, as ‘pushing upwards’, ‘advancing’ or ‘ascending’. ‘Pushing upwards’ and ‘advancing’ are not good translations to my taste, but ‘ascending’ is perfectly alright. But there is more to this character (as always), if we look at the etymology and the first uses of this character, we can get a picture of what is ascended and why. The text of the Yijing also helps getting this clear. Continue reading →
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…..
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Through several channels the character of hexagram 44, gou 姤, has been brought to my attention. On Hilary’s forum there has been some discussion about it, mainly stirred by the view of Margaret J. Pearson as expounded in her article Towards a new reading of hexagram 44 in The Oracle Vol. 2, no. 11 (September 2000). In this article she says,
“I suggest that this character 姤 be read as ‘queen’ 后, as did Karlgren (GSR 112) or, more precisely, ‘the bride of the ruler’ (king or duke) 王后, as in the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals)”. (p. 25) Continue reading →
The character dui 兌 from hexagram 58 is an old character with many meanings. One of those meanings is ‘happiness’ or something similar, and this is how it is most often translated. But we have a better choice at hand, which might make more sense out of this hexagram. Continue reading →
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