legendary personalities are credited with the authorship and evolution of the I Ching: Fu Hsi, King Wen, the Duke of Chou (King Wen’s son), and Confucius – the most famous of China’s great thinkers.
FU HSI, a mythical figure associated with much of China’s ancient wisdom, is said to have observed the heavens and the universe, the changing of the seasons, and the change from night into day, and from his observations invented linear representations which became the three-lined trigrams. The trigrams are the roots of the hexagrams which came later.
KING WEN, the forefather of the Chou dynasty (1105–249 BC), was the man credited with the invention of the 64 hexagrams. He did this by doubling the trigrams from three lines into six lines. King Wen spent a great part of his life in prison before ascending the throne, and during that time he appended judgments to the hexagrams which became the ground work for what was later to evolve into the great wisdom of the I Ching.
THE DUKE OF CHOU, King Wen’s dynamic son, authored the texts which were later to become the individual six changing lines of the hexagrams. He assigned meanings to them as and when they changed from Yin to Yang, thereby manifesting as broken or unbroken lines and vice versa. The Duke of Chou’s contributions were entitled the Changes of Chou, and these subsequently came to be used as oracles. These changes, which are contained in a number of ancient texts, altered the complexion of the I Ching quite substantially and expanded it into a book on divination. This was the status of the book when Confucius come upon it.
CONFUCIUS devoted his life to studying the texts, the judgments, and the images of the I Ching. A great sage, he and his disciples also expanded its scope with a series of masterful commentaries. A great deal of literature about the book flourished during this period, and large portions of this were incorporated into the modern day I Ching.
The I Ching and modern science
There have been major discoveries made concerning the similarities between the lines of the hexagrams and the binary code of numerations. The latter is the foundation of computer technology, so the similarities offer tantalizing potential for speculating on the relationship between the lines and modern technological breakthroughs.
The broken and unbroken lines correspond to the dots and dashes of the binary code exactly. This alone is an amazing discovery and it surely cannot be a coincidence. Scientists have also discovered that the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching correspond exactly to the 64 DNA genetic codes that are the basis of all life on the planet. It is thus possible that in the I Ching lie the hidden meanings to life’s existence.
What has been accepted for hundreds of years, however, is that the I Ching contains many clues to the way energy moves, flows, and accumulates. Hidden within the lines of the hexagrams and their arrangement around a compass of orientations are secrets that explain these flows of energy.
Understanding Yin and Yang
The Chinese have long believed that the creative process goes from one extreme to another, manifesting in endless cycles. So the two extremes of fundamental reality can be expressed as motion (Yang) and quiet (Yin). When one reaches its limit, it becomes the other. So from quiet there is motion, and from motion there is quiet.
It is also written that from this cycle of limits stem the Six, and from the six appear the Five, and then from the five come the Ten Thousand Things. This cryptic sentence is simple to understand when we know what the numbers are referring to. The “Six” refers to the subtle levels of universal Yin and Yang energies. There are three categories that define the qualities of Yin. These are great Yin, balanced Yin, and reducing Yin. Similarly Yang energy can also be classified as great Yang, bright Yang, and diminished Yang. The “Five” are the five elements that express the five manifestations of energy. The Chinese term for energy is chi. These five types of chi are fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. They each have a productive, weakening, or destructive relationship with one of the other elements. Each element also has a Yin as well as a Yang aspect. The “Ten Thousand Things” encompass all the things that make up the material and physical world. The forces of Yin and Yang express the manifest universe from voidness or ultimate nothingness to the material ten thousand things. One becomes two. Motion becomes quiet. Yang becomes Yin and vice versa. This creative process of the universe is illustrated here in sequential order. This is the fundamental origin of how the trigrams and then the hexagrams were discovered.
Yang is described as the vibration, pulse, and movement of the universe – energy rotating, moving, and vibrating at different rates. All of this motion takes place against a background of varying manifestations of Yin. Yin is silence, stillness, non-movement, and quiet. The key to understanding Yin and Yang is to realize that one cannot exist to the exclusion of the other, and that one gives rise to the understanding and manifestation of the other. Yin and Yang are interdependent concepts relative to each other. There is simply no Yang without Yin, and no Yin without Yang. Both must be present, otherwise there is nothing. If you remember this concept alone, you will know about balance, your practice of feng shui will be considerably improved, and your interpretation of the five elements and their symbolic meanings will be incredibly enhanced.
When you understand the concept of Yin and Yang you will understand the theory of relativity and its aggregates. It then becomes easier to understand that everything in the universe exists as interdependent aggregates. Nothing exists of its own accord. When there are no aggregates, things simply cease to exist. Everything exists in relation to something else. It is impossible to completely obliterate either Yin or Yang since this will simply cause both to become nothing.
Yin is said to be denser, less energetic, and more material. Yang is lighter, more energetic, and less dense. In the interplay of Yin and Yang, there are a zillion manifestations and variations. The two forces are primordial and everything on earth is an expression of this interaction between the two forces. Despite this, however, earth is regarded as all Yin and heaven is regarded as all Yang. But the things in heaven are regarded as both Yin and Yang when compared to each other. It is the same with all the things of the earth which can be either Yin or Yang and yet when compared with heaven, things of the earth are all Yin.
The correct appreciation of these two supposedly opposing forces is what gives practitioners of feng shui, Taoism, martial arts and other esoteric practices the real potential to make progress in their practice.
In feng shui a genuine understanding of Yin and Yang forces within any environment is often sufficient to cause good levels of energy to be created. It is the same with the practice of Taoist meditation and in the practice of difficult physical exercises that raise the fire of inner chi. When one understands how Yin and Yang energy flows within the human body one becomes exceedingly healthy. And when one understands their flows in the environment one can arrange things to enjoy exceptional good fortune. Meditation based on a good appreciation of Yin and Yang also creates fertile ground for perfect understanding to grow (referred to as divine realizations by religious meditators).
Yin and Yang cosmology also suggests that idea precedes manifest reality. Nothing exists without it first having been conceived in the mind. So the idea of motion precedes actual
