Structure of the I-Ching

The hexagrams of the I Ching form symbolic images of the equinoxes and solstices.

The author has assigned the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching to the 24 solar periods (See weblog from Oct 17 to Nov 06, 2010!)Thus the 64 hexagrams represent two years and eight months. The hexagram with an odd atomic number is the partner of the following hexagram with an even atomic number. These pairs of hexagrams represent the equinoxes, solstices and the beginnings and ends of the four seasons.

A hexagram can be represented graphically. Further down this is done for the hexagrams of the equinoxes, solstices, early spring and early winter. A hexagram is made up of two trigrams. These two trigrams are in the circle of the Early Heaven connected by a straight line. This line is a picture of the hexagram. On the straight line, representing a hexagram, the atomic number of the hexagram is attached in the vicinity of the trigram, which has its place at the bottom of the hexagram. A hexagram, consisting of two identical trigrams, is represented by a circle around the corresponding trigram. Drawing the images of the hexagrams for the equinoxes, solstices, early spring and early winter results in the following emblems:

 

The graphical representations of the hexagrams of the equinoxes and solstices show the following: The equinoxes are preferably represented by horizontal lines, because then day and night are of equal length and are balanced. Of the six possible horizontal lines four belong to the equinoxes. At the solar periods of the summer solstice the lines preferably extend upward in the direction of the trigram heaven and back. They thus represent the peak of the annual solar cycle, the sun reaches at the summer solstice. Afterwards the path of the sun is going down again. At the solar periods of the winter solstice the lines preferably extend downward toward the trigram earth and back again. Thus they represent the lowest level of the sun at winter solstice. Afterwards the path of the sun is going up again.  To the summer solstice Yang dominates with 26 (continuous) lines. Yin has only 10 (broken) lines. For the winter solstice Yin dominates with 14 lines. Then Yang has only 10 lines. Early spring, like the summer solstice, has many Yang-lines (22), Yin has few lines (14). In the emblem of early spring one line runs up to the trigram heaven and one line back, forming an open triangle, as well as in the emblem of the summer solstice. In the emblem of early winter one line runs down to the trigram earth and one line back, forming an open triangle, as well as in the emblem of the winter solstice. Between early spring and early winter are laying nine months, between summer solstice and winter solstice only six. The months between early spring and early winter, the vegetation period, is thus emphasized. The vegetation period was in old China, an agricultural country, of great importance. In the emblem of early spring two lines run from the top to the trigram fire at the left; to the winter solstice two lines run from the bottom to the trigram fire, symmetrically to the two lines above. The trigram fire represents inter alia the fire of the sun. The coming together of these four lines should probably say, that without the return of the sun to the winter solstice, there would be no spring-time.

 

 

 

 

Each of the 64 hexagrams of the I-Ching consists of two trigrams, of which there are 8. The 8 trigrams represent inter alia Elements of nature processes. In a figurative sense, they mean a lot of other things.Trigram Heaven for example is the Creative, Dynamic and Strong, trigram Earth the Receptive, Adaptive and Yielding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dragon is the master of thunder, by which all things come forth/

The rhythm of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching

Dragon is the master of thunder, by which all things come forth/

The rhythm of the 64 hexagrams of the I ChingThe rhythm of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching

The highlight of the sum 10!

The 64 hexagrams of the I-Ching probably show the rhythm of the 24 solar periods of two years and 16 month. Each hexagram stands for a solar period.  In the following, therefore, the 64 hexagrams are divided into three parts. Their numbers are put on three circles. On the first and second circle are 24 each and on the third circle 16 hexagrams. Each hexagram is composed of two trigrams. The differences between the trigrams in these three groups show that the I-Ching is based on a tripartite division. The hexagrams 1-24, 25-48 and 49-64 form these three groups with different characteristics. The distribution of the trigrams and double signs show this and also the meaning of the hexagrams. (A double sign is a hexagram, composed of two identical trigrams. There are eight of them.)
One main difference between the trigrams and hexagrams of the three groups is the following: On the first 24er circle the number of hexagrams with the trigrams heaven or earth amounts to 20, on the second 24er circle the number amounts to 10 and on the third circle with 16 hexagrams the number of hexagrams with these trigrams is zero. (The hexagrams 11 and 12 are to be counted twice here, as each of them containing the trigrams heaven and earth.) The amount of hexagrams with the trigrams heaven or earth is thus twice reduced by 10.
The influence of heaven and earth, standing also for father and mother is, when the sum of hexagrams with these trigrams measures the years, on the first circle twice as large as on the second and on the third circle disappeared. Up to the age of 24 a human being needs the help of his parents most. Between the age of 25 and 48 they help him still, but being older, he has to cope alone.
While the trigrams heaven and earth in the third annual circle are gone, the sum of the other trigrams is larger than normal, except for the trigram water. The trigram fire, which symbolizes the sun as well as mental power and clarity, is located on the third cycle by 50% over the value you get,
when the trigrams are equally distributed. The same is the case with
the trigrams wind and sea. Wind is the eldest daughter,
but also a gentle and penetrating mind. The trigram sea stands for the youngest daughter and for serenity and joy.
The listed features characterize according to the I Ching primarily
the older generation 49-64 years. The final two hexagrams 63 and 64 of the  I Ching also speak of perfection.

Furthermore the amount of the number of hexagrams with the trigram water plus the amount of the number of hexagrams with the trigram fire is on all three groups ten.
The sum 10, the amount of the number of fingers, the
decimal system is stressed here again.
The amount of the number of hexagrams with the trigram fire increases from the first to third circle from 4 to 6, the trigram water diminishes from 6 to 4. According to the I Ching mental is greatest after the age of 49. Instinctive behavior then is lowest.

 

Why the emphasis on the sum 10!

Why the emphasis on the sum 10 in connection with the three
annual cycles?
One finds an explanation if one considers that
the sum 10 has significance, even as a figure and as a symbol.
The sum of fingers of both hands is 10, a
manageable sum, not too big and not too small.
The decimal system is based on this amount of numbers. The system is mentioned in Europe for the first time in a Spanish manuscript from the year 976.
In China, the decimal system is much longer in use. It was as the number system of today, a positioning system, the position of each digit determines its value. In ancient China also a symbol for zero was used, but in other form than in ancient India.
In an inscription of the 13th Century BC, the number 547 is written in the following way:
Five hundred plus four tens plus seven days.
That is the first known example of a dezimal sytem, the
number system, which is now present virtually all over the world.

The number 10 as a symbol
As a symbol in ancient myths outside China, 10 characterized
completion of travel and the return to the starting point.
Odysseus wanders for nine years and returns home in the tenth year. Troja was nine years under siege, and fell in the tenth. When the name Elohim – a Hebrew name for God – in the biblical story of creation occurs the tenth time, it says:
„The water under the heaven be gathered into one place so
the dry land appear.“
In these examples, the ten characterizes completion and the beginning of a new rhythm that starts with that number.
On Mount Sinai Moses received the Ten Commandments.
Here is 10 the perfect sum and the law.
The 10 is obviously a symbol of perfection, simultaneously it represents a new beginning, but at a different level than the previous one.
In the commentaries to the hexagrams of the I Ching, 10 appears at four
times. In hexagram 3.2 (the second line of text below in Hexagram 3) had the free to wait 10 years for the bride. Ten years is here a fulfilled cycle of time.
Hexagram 27.3 says: „Do not act thus for 10 years“. In both cases, this should not mean that you have to wait exactly 10 years.
10 holds here is no precise time quantity, but
means wholeness and completeness, perfection and integrity.
According to R. Wilhelm 10 years are a perfect cycle.
Hexagrams 41.5 and 42.2 are speaking of 10 pairs of turtles or turtle shells. Tortoise shells were used for divination purposes.
The carapace of the turtle is a symbol of the macrocosm:
the curved upper tank shell represents the heavens, the bottom surface symbolizes the earth. 10 means a harmonious closed totality.
The 10 stands thus in ancient China as well as in the West for both
perfection – it is the end of the simple numbers – and for the
return to the starting point and a new beginning – on a
higher level than the previous one.
In this double sense is also the amount 10 of the number of
hexagrams with the trigram fire ore water in all three groups and the decrease of 10 in the amount of the number of hexagrams with the trigram heaven or earth from the first to the third circle to be seen. The sum 10 means that on each circle a new rhythm on a different level begins.
The trigrams heaven and earth are known as the great parents, fire and water as the little parents of the other trigrams.
As the hexagrams with the trigrams heaven or earth
disappear on the third circle, so the amount of the number of hexagrams with the other trigrams increases from circle to circle. On the first circle, there are only 6 hexagrams without the trigrams heaven or earth, on the second circle already 14 hexagrams without these trigrams and on the third circle all 16.

 

The distribution of the eight double signs on the three circles of two years and 16 months.

(Double signs consist of a doubling of one of the 8 trigrams.)

The eight double signs are distributed symmetrically on the three circles. On the first circle (diagram above) is the double sign
Heaven or father at the highest point above the double sign2) earth or mother at the lowest point below.Heaven and earth are not randomly at these two different places. Richard Wilhelm writes about it: “There is heaven, the upper world of light, which, though incorporeal, firmly regulates and determines everything that happens, and over against heaven there is the earth, the lower, dark world, corporeal, and dependent in its movements upon the phenomens of heaven. With this differentiation of above and below there is posited ,in one way or another, a difference in value, so that the one principle, heaven, is the more exalted and honored, while the other, earth, is regarded as lesser and lower.”
The two double signs are displayed as circles around the two trigrams heaven respectively earth.
At the second annual circle, there are two double signs
horizontally opposed,
the double sign 29) The water, the abysmal and the double sign
30) The fire, the radiating
They are as circles around the two trigrams fire and water
shown, which are considered the „small parents“ of the remaining four trigrams.
On the third circle, the four „children double signs” are
to be found in the four „corners“. They form a circle around the
trigram thunder, the arousing, the dragon, the trigram mountain, the trigram wind and the trigram sea. In this third group the children of heaven and earth are acting, in the family the children, the sons and daughters, which are now grown up.The trigram thunder, the arousing is the eldest, the trigram mountain the youngest son, the trigram wind is the eldest daughter, sea the youngest, water and fire is the middle son and the middle daughter.

 

Dragon, the master of thunder, by which all things come forth 

The trigram thunder is the symbol of the dragon, by which all things come forth.The qualities of the trigram thunder are energetic, arousing and moving. The trigram thunder is the symbol for the dragon, by which all things come forth. It is this dragon that awakens the seed of the old year in springtime. In winter he is “sleeping” in the earth. Those who concentrate on the ground in winter can feel his great energy below the surface, even in town.The root crops are then filled with his Chi power. In springtime the dragon rises above the surface of the earth. For this reason the trigram thunder, the symbol of the dragon, has its place in the winter half year at the bottom of the hexagrams, but in the summer half year on top of it.