I

I Ching :

The King Wen (1150 BC.)

I Ching is a chinese system of divination, very ancient in origin, consisting of sixty-four patterns called hexagrams. The I Ching is the foundation of the Chinese culture, and the origin of Chinese philosophy, and as such, is the wellspring of both Confucianism and Taoism. Its philosophy is at the root of all Chinese medicine, and acupuncture, and it has influenced many offshoot applications such as T’ai Chi, Chi Gong, Feng Shui, and Chinese alchemy. More precisely, the I Ching is an ancient oracle that is designed to answer people’s most fundamental questions. Put in its own terms, it is a way of mirroring what is contained in our DNA, which the I Ching calls our inner truth. It is the knowledge stored in our deepest cell structures that tells us about ourselves, about our place in the Cosmos, and about the Cosmos itself. Confucius, who lived some two thousand five hundred years ago, regarded it even then as an ancient work and it is safe to assume that some parts of it are at the very oldest extant books in the world. The authorship of the basic text is attributed to King Wen (1150 BC) and his son Duke Chou and that of the Commentary which now forms an integral part of the whole to Confucius and his disciples.

I Ching is said to gauge the flow of yin and yang energies and offers the seeker an appropriate course of future action based on the interplay of positive and negative forces that shape our destinies. Yin Yang is a materialistic concept of Taoism, which dialectically describes every thing in the world has contrary sides and these contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world. For example, the south of a mountain refers to Yang, similarly the north of a river, upper side of a leave, man and the sun, and conversely Yin refers to the north of a mountain, south of a river, reverse side of a leave, women and the Moon. Seen from the Tai Chi symbol, when the yang energy is at the peak time, the yin energy has gradually shown up. This is a profound philosophy saying that things at the worse will mend. Many branches of traditional Chinese medicine and philosophy adopted the Yin Yang theory as their primary guidelines.

In ancient times the holy sages made the I Ching thus: Their purpose was to follow the order of their nature and of fate. Therefore they determined the Tao of heaven and called it the dark and the light. They determined the Tao of the earth and called it the yielding and the firm. They determined the Tao of man and called it love and rectitude. They combined these three fundamental powers and doubled them; therefore in the Book of Chaneges a sign is always formed by six lines. – I Ching, Discussion of the Trigrams, 2.

The sixty four exagrams upon which the forecasts are based are each composed of two trigrams making a total of six lines. Each line is either broken (- -) and therefore yieldint or unbroken (––) and therefore firm. The broken ones are generally called Yin lines; thw unbroken are reffered to as Yang lines. The Eight Trigrams is a set of symbolic signs. Each of the eight trigrams consists of three signs, having the special meaning. The combination of the eight trigrams produces 64 exagrams which symbolize all the things and phenomenon in the nature and life.

The Eight Trigrams.

How the I Ching is capable of delivering these predictions has been a mystery for eons. Even the world renowned psychologist Carl Jung who was an avid prescriber of the I Ching, is said to have agreed with Confucius who reportedly said: “If I had had more years added to my life, I would devote them to studying the workings of the I Ching.”

The core philosophical question that the I Ching oracle address is: How can humans live in harmony with the Cosmos? Behind this question lie two profound and true realizations on the part of the ancient Chinese: (1) that human nature is only good, and (2) when we are in accord with our true nature, we are in harmony with the Cosmos. When we are in harmony with the Cosmos, our acts have the quality of being spontaneously correct, meaning appropriate and fitting, without any conscious intention.

The person who consults the I Ching over a period of time begins to understand which ideas or beliefs taken on during his education and conditioning, have created his misfortunes. The true purpose of the I Ching is to help him return to his true nature.