My Thoughts on Changes

Total Man V1.0

Much like Don Quixote and his monomania with knights and chivalry novels, my non-fiction "monomania" is with the Yijing (or "I Ching," as popularized by the Wilhelm/Baynes translation and the Wade-Giles transliteration of Chinese). I read extensively on the subject and I know for a fact that I'll never exhaust it in a lifetime. The thing is, for those reading and still stuck in the conceptual visualization of the Yijing as the exotic Oriental version of the Tarot and a hippie Ouija board, the classic is so much more than an usable oracle that the exegesis inspired by it, over thousands of years, is only second to the Bible (although, if I request a recount, it would most likely come up in first place). Unfortunately, most Western media, and users, focus only in the oracular usability of the classic and, because of it, it is often derided and belittled as quackery. Well, their loss, not mine.

In the meantime, my so called "monomania," takes me to the most varied reading paths. Hard to believe for most, I know. See, serious students of the Yijing can find many parallels between the inherent imagery of the classic and subjects that, at first sight, seem unrelated to it. One of the cornerstones of Chinese philosophy is "correlative thinking" and, although it runs against the grain of Western philosophy and its use of logics and analytics, its metaphorical toolbox is a spring of ideas and associations. Carl Jung, to name just one philosopher (yes, philosopher), realized the truth of its potentiality and applicability in Western thought. As the classic, and its exegesis, becomes more available to Western philosophers and writers, its use in metaphorical comparisons and the pursuit of meaning is slowly becoming commonplace. One such writer is the psychologist Stan Gooch. In the early 1970's he published "Total Man, an evolutionary theory of personality" and, in part of it, he touches on the Yijing. The book has fourteen chapters divided within six parts. Part five, "The Rise to Tyranny of Western Consciousness," includes Chapter 11, "The Momentary Universe," which talks about the Yijing from a Jungian perspective.

I had to chuckle at this statement in said chapter:

The foregoing is not in any sense offered as evidence of the value or validity of the Book of Changes. There is nothing to prevent one regarding it still as a very complex folly, as a tragic monument perhaps to the wasted energies of a considerable section of humanity over a considerable period.

Of course, the disclaimer was perhaps needed as part of the natural Western defensiveness against all things outside "rationality and logic" and as a service to the those readers that would automatically take exception to such concepts. Such disclaimers are chicken soup for their sensitive souls, in my opinion. Finding comfortable shelter while confronted with incomprehensibility.

The chapter is actually very good and goes on to explain some points of view on synchronicity.

What I really like to quote though is not directly related to the Yijing. I comes from the preface and I think it is a handy way to put things in the proper perspective, specially for those attached to "rationality and logic" that think they can make a "science" out of everything that can find its way towards an empirical explanation:

The social scientist, erroneously, as I believe, has adopted many of the practices of the physical scientist on the implicit, often explicit, assumption that psychology and sociology are  sciences. I myself on the other hand, together with some other psychologists, consider the wholesale application of the methods of the physical sciences to the study of human behavior to be among the major disasters of our time. This does not mean, however, that I believe those methods have no place at all in behavioral studies--though I have no space here to outline my precise position. The point I do wish to make very briefly--a slightly different one--is this. Because of the fact that we ourselves are the objects of the psychologist's and sociologist's studies, we cannot grant the psychologist the same automatic authority that we grant the professional physicist or chemist. Rather, the position resembles that which pertains in democracies in respect of Parliament. The people elect representatives to govern them--individuals whom they consider particularly suited to do so--granting them by such election a mandate to run the affairs of the country as they think best. It is when a point is reached that government behaves in ways deeply unacceptable to the people that that mandate is withdrawn. So it must be, I think, with the social sciences. We in a sense grant, or have granted, a mandate. But we do not thereby lose our inalienable right as human beings--the objects of the psychologist's study--to reject not merely his findings but, if necessary, even his methods.

The book is out of print and hard to find, cheaply. A good read, nevertheless.

Technorati Tags: I Ching, Yijing

Parisology and Perissology pits

I admit it, it is my fault. The haiku-like nature of Twitter lends itself to the dangers of open interpretation by others. Furthermore, the two-way nature of the medium, practically assures the immediate feedback of those waiting in the background with specialized nets that fish for specific words of their liking. It is like one of those Sushi restaurant with a carrousel, immense in size, where all kinds of fish pass in front of the patrons and, occasionally, their favorite fish appears and they take it front the carrousel. Then, they eat it, digest it for a couple of seconds, and, if bad, instead of blaming the fish or their own predisposition for properly digesting it, they blame everything else between the happy life of the fish at sea to their own teeth.

Now, the specific issue at hand, and the raison d'être for this post, is that yesterday I posted this in Twitter:

Question of the day: what's the attraction of "individuals" to find their own label? Thinking of MBTI tests, Eneagrams, etc. Note quotes
9:19 AM yesterday from web

A few minutes later I get this in reply:

@yijingman Your assumption seems to be that ppl are looking for labels perhaps they are seeking something else entirely -

Ah, the Blue, always prolific, didn't disappoint. Quick search of the "Blue" told me that yes, in effect, the person had a subjective reason for the defensive posture. Needlessly so, in my opinion, because I placed one caveat in my post (the " ") and I ended it with a big arrow pointing at it for good measure ("note quotes"). She missed both, apparently. Before I explain a few things, let me quote the next two exchanges. First my reply--two twits in length--and then her follow-up. I will also use bold and underline here, which isn't available in the medium.

:-) You're missing context but yes, my opinion is that certain taxonomy isn't useful at street level. Self knowledge

isn't attained by classificatory tests. Mind you, they are useful in other environments (thinking corporate and counseling)

To which she replied this morning:

@yijingman Self knowledge is emergent assessments+conversation+reflection+selfobservation+feedback My rant onthis http://tinyurl.com/9axdwg

The rant, as she put it, isn't bad but, pointing to it (it was written days before these exchanges) perpetuates the defensive posture that prompted it, and, in the process, misses my point, again.

Now, I suppose, is time for some clarifying thoughts. Alas, my initial comment in Twitter wasn't a criticism of MBTI or the Eneagrams as tools. I align myself with Jungian thought so I could hardly fault a "tool" that was inspired by him, albeit grossly trademarked by commercial interests. What's happening with the whole MBTI environment reminds me of scavenging pharmaceutical companies taking patents on the active ingredients of ancient medicinal potions still in use in many Third World countries, which is akin to "ZYX Energy Co." filling for a patent for fire and water..., and getting it granted. You get my drift. Shameful, in my opinion, and far from the intention of Jung when he published his "Psychological Types" in 1923. Proverbially, the man must be turning in his grave.

The missing context I talk about comes from a conversation in another forum--which does not deserves any negative feedback from those outside of it and shall remain anonymous--in which participants were quick to test themselves, comment about it..., and comfortably fall in place in their newfound little niches, like pegs on a board, wearing a badge that, for them, should obviate any conversation of whom or what they are or where they come from in a conversation. Thus, my twit/comment, was for those few that follow me there that are also participants in said forum. None of them took the bait, but, alas, the words MBTI and Eneagram got caught in "Blue Selective Net" and the fisherman manning it, instead of allowing the small fish to swim away, got it from the net and threw it back to the last fisherman.

As I implied in the original twit/post, and my follow up to the lady's comment, the real usefulness of the named tests isn't at the street/individual level but as corporate and counseling tools. To obtain one's own MBTI label, just because it is freely available, does nothing to further one's personal quest for self-knowledge. It provides nothing specific that would serve as a ladder rung to descend into the depths of your self--or to step out of it if you find that your nature isn't of your liking--nor will it help you improve it. It will, though, provide you with branding label. Unfortunately, branding labels, much like those in cattle, are mainly used by third parties to place you in your proper place. Thus, labels, in my modest opinion, diminish the self, rather than helping it to improve, by taking your freedom of movement within a given environment out of the equation. Which is why corporations love MBTI testing their current and prospective employees.

She points

When you need to open a conversation on differences between people an assessment tool like the Myers Briggs is an excellent starting place and provides a common language for people to begin to have a new understanding.

Really? I mean, yes, I suppose it does help in certain ways and in certain environments, but, are we, as a society, arrogant enough to believe that a classification label will explain the complexities of other selves to us or that those other selves would get a glimpse of our selves from an artificial label? I don't think so. I don't even think it is "an excellent starting place."

Having said that, I wonder if those popularizing and commercializing the MBTI tests--I'm talking about those who know enough to get in trouble and misstep in an in-depth discussion by lacking proper exegetical reading--are familiar with the modern works of Richard D. Grant Jr. and Chris Lofting. Furthermore, how many of those have even a clue that the real root of the so called MBTI test, which is a modern trademark, in good old Western fashion of legally appropriating ideas, is a few thousand years old and from a far away land?

As for the statement "self-knowledge is emergent assessments+conversation+reflection+selfobservation+feedback," yes, I agree, those are some of the steps, but, if it were only so simple to find your way within, we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?

The title is an allusion to the dangers that lurk in throwing words to their own fate into the Blue. Alas, I've fallen into those yonder pits myself.

Technorati Tags: perissology

"Word Magic" and mavericking votes

While feeding my Yijing OCD of reading all I can get my hands on related to it, I found the following passage in Richard Smith's latest book, "Fathoming the Cosmos and ordering the world":

A certain "word magic" gave early hexagram line statements social and psychological power. Long ago the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski pointed out that word magic could be found not only among so-called primitive peoples such as the Trobriand Islanders, whom he had studied, but also among Westerners in his own time. Advertising slogans, political campaigns, and legal formulas, for example, al provided illustrations for Malinowski of the magical power of words. They represent, more or less, what more modern scholars describe as "performative" utterances, statements that have the ability to create what they refer to, such as the seductive phrase I hereby promise.

Word magic, as Malinowski observed, can describe conditions that are "objectively" false but subjectively true. That is, language is capable of reflecting a kind of "pragmatic" truth that is "reasonable" in terms of addressing certain psychological needs of the individual and "sociologically true in the sense that it affects intentions, motivations and expectations." Much of the appeal of the Yijing as an explanatory device can be understood as a product of this sort of word power, specially in a society such as traditional China's, where plays on words were so powerful and where the written language exerted inordinate social influence by virtue of its seemingly intrinsic magical qualities.

All of a sudden, "maverick," "9/11," "terrorism," "change," "country first," "fight with me," "McCain," "Obama," "Biden," "Palin," started making a different kind of sense to me.

By the way, it was interesting to find out that "maverick," as a transitive verb, means:

1 West : to brand and take possession of (an animal) as a maverick
2 West : to obtain by dishonest or questionable means

Technorati Tags: parrhesia, maverick, Yijing

Terence McKenna on the Yijing

Don't mess with Yeeks

Now, this is something I believe couldonly happen in China. Mr. Fang Shi-Min, aka Fang Zhouzi, a scientific debunker from China, has been sued by the family of late Liu Zihua (he's mentioned in the linked article) for libel. The family won...

I learned about it in Science Magazine online and paid $10.00 for the article, which is copyrighted and all that jazz. I cannot reproduce it here in its entirety, but, I can quote the relevant portion of it concerning the Yijing.

Fang's recent setbacks came on consecutive days. On 21 November, a Beijing intermediate court ruled that an article Fang wrote in 2005 defamed the late Liu Zihua, a Sichuan provincial government employee. In a dissertation written in France in the 1930s, Liu presented calculations based on the eight trigrams of an ancient divination text, I Ching (Book of Changes), predicting the existence of a 10th major planet in the solar system. Liu's prognostication was resurrected after last year's announced discovery of 2003UB313 (now officially a dwarf planet named Eris). A Sichuan newspaper ran a story extolling Liu's prophecy.

In an essay, Fang labeled Liu's prediction "pseudoscience" and noted that a Chinese astronomer discredited it in the 1940s. Liu's widow and son sued Fang and several newspapers and Internet content providers for libel. The court judged Fang's words "insulting" to Liu and ordered him to apologize publicly and pay Liu's family $2500 plus legal fees. The family did not respond to an interview request.

Now, this is interesting. I wonder how much of the judgment has to do with actual libel and how much it has to do with defending tradition. In the last few years, there has been a strong and proudrevival, in China proper,of ancient traditional teachings. I believe the line between what's considered superstition and science has become increasingly blurred. We are indeed, living in interesting times.

 

Yi-Toons: 21.4 > 27

About the Yi and what it is (not)

Last night I posted the following in a forum I read, and write on, about the Yijing. Write is mostly an euphemism, of course, although I take the Yi very seriously, I mostly kid around in forums. Here is what I posted and why I tend to act like that:

Yesterday I was driving with my family in Delaware, close to Wilmington, when I noticed the tag of the car in front of me. It was a new series of Delaware tags, six digits long, no hyphens. The striking synchronicity, in my Yi oriented mind, is that the number was all 0's and 1's and yielded the following: 110101 (Hexagram 38)

Aha! -I said to myself- there you have it! For the past few... what?, months? years?, I've been struggling, in my forum participation, here and elsewhere, with what I perceive as absolutisms in others' opinions. My own point of view is that you cannot find anything more open-ended than the Yi. On the other hand, this is a statement that perhaps can be twisted, only twisted, as an absolutism itself. Therefore, whenever I read: "the Yi is this", "the Yi is that", "you can't use the Yi for this or that", "you must formulate your questions like this", "you cannot accomplish this or that with the Yi", and so on, I start gritting my teeth and the only possible way for me to deal with it is to either smile and ignore or smile and make fun of it. The alternative would be to take positions and add my own absolutisms to the fray, which I decided early on is not worth the energy and effort.

I've been chewing on that paradox for quite a while and I was as I was driving. Those kind of thoughts have a tendency to chase me and are slow to die of exhaustion... Help was on the way, though. The hexagram that popped right in front of my car made me realize that Homo Sapiens are, and will for ever be, contentious creatures and there is nothing this specimen can do that is going to change that on a grand scale. On a personal level, though, I can find some peace.

A Yi interpretation I did for a friend...

Quote:

I asked the yi what is holding me back in my professional life. (i believe this question is a mix of a inner-self/every day life issues). i got as an answer 60 changing to 27.

If you allow me the inside joke, and without Yi interpretations: IT'S THE PLACE YOU ARE LIVING IN, MAN!! LOL! (For those who don't know it, him and I come from the same corner of the world...)

Seriously though, here is how I see the Yi replying to you:

60:2,5,6>27

A. 60 is the image of "restriction"; of things that are proyected big but are held back by surrounding circumstances. We have the image of rain falling on a lake; the image of danger and uncertainty over happiness and fulfillment. In the nuclear trigrams we have a mountain over thunder; immobility stumping and precluding mobility. This is where the name of the Hexagram comes from.
In my experience, this hexagram is a call to examine the roadblocks that are holding you back; find their weaknesses and use them to pry them open. This may seem obvious under the light of your question but in reality is very tricky. There are impediments that we deny ourselves to see them as such. In the end, because of this, the resolution to break through the impediments rest in yourself. Try to be as objective in your goals and your personal circumstances as possible.

You should know that I like to play a lot with the imagery of the trigrams (some are reluctant to play like this because it may make it look like a Tarot reading)... I may sound a little like the Yi itself in obscurity but try to play with the metaphors. Threading along this line: I see you as the proverbial crane, the one who loves to live by the water but hates rain. Legend says that cranes fly above the clouds to avoid being rained on. You are shown as being unable to take flight. Perhaps snared by something. Perhaps, it is not that you are unable to take flight but the lake is giving you a false of sense of security; that if you hang on close to your source of nourishment you'll be able to weather the rain. I guess it is possible, it doesn't rain forever, but one solution takes longer than the other. Alas, if you don't move, you are also at the risk of being run down by a flood. Do you know for how long or how much is going to rain? Being complacent in one's situation also carries many risks. It is better to take your own risks and not to wait for the risks to reach you on their own... The image also shows three brothers and the youngest sister. The elder brother is seeing as protecting the youngest sister (they are both together and have an upward movement and the elder is positioned above her in the direct path of the other two males). Still, protection is not enough to allow for movement at this moment. See if you can use this familiar images in your daily life. Do they apply to actual people in your life? Is it possible that you are impeded to move by family obstacles? Or is it that a couple of small external factors in your life are impeding the move?

Hex 60 is not as bad as it may look at first sight. The balance of upward and downward tendencies of its components is positioned in a similar manner to that of Hex 11, Peace. In the case of Hex 11, the harmony is free flowing and no obstacles are seen. The mating ritual is completed. Hex 60, on the other hand, has a lot of uncertainty built in. This uncertainty may be due to the fact that elder support is not available. The case of Hex 11 shows both parent getting together and supporting in their bosom this team of elder son and youngest daughter, the same one that shows up together in Hex 60. In that case they have advanced one step forward with their support. In Hex 60 the parents are gone (or just not there yet or not called forth to help) and the struggle at the moment seems to be centered around siblings. Are you an elder son married to a youngest daughter? I don't want to sound like a carnival fortune teller... You can take this either literally or as depicting circumstances that surround you using the imagery attached to the components of your hexagrams. When I say that Hex 60 is not as bad as it looks, I mean that once you realize what your obstacles are, by seriously studying them, you can overcome them.

The Judgement says: 60 intimates that (under its conditions) there will be progress and attainment. (But) if the regulations (which it prescribes) be severe and difficult, they cannot be permanent.

Here is what I think Candid was trying to explain to you about being too hard on yourself. There is only so much you can do by setting goals and charting your future as an abstraction. Be real in your goals. All plans are only guides, and should not be taken as the blinders on a horse. You should be able to bend your own rules when the time is appropriate. Otherwise your goals will not be fully achieved or, if they are, there will be no permanence. Open your heart to flexibility.

Now, passing on to the lines (I will use the Legge's translation since it is the book I have with me at the moment):

60,2; The second nine shows its subject not quitting the courtyard inside his gate. There will be evil.

Here we go, this is what I told you about being too complacent in your current situation, even if there is a want to change it. However, wanting and not acting, takes you nowhere. Like saying "it is better a known bad thing than an unknown good thing" (I know you'll be thinking about this in Spanish because we have the perfect saying for it... ) In the symbolism of the line it is added: "There will be evil: He loses the time (for action) to and extreme degree". I believe this should be obvious to you, but just in case: START MOVING. If you don't you may miss your window of opportunity. And the call to action is not just for the sake of movement; it is for you to start placing the pieces on the board so that when the moment comes to take decisive action, other things are in place. Time is of essence and you don't want to be taken by surprise and be stuck by not being ready when the window opens.

60,5; The fifth Nine shows is subject sweetly and acceptably enacting his regulations. There will be good fortune. The onward progress with them will afford ground for admiration

This line couples perfectly with what I said about the "second nine". Here, it shows you as having taken the action suggested there. This is your show and your future; if possible you should set the steps to take to achieve as much of a good fortune for yourself as possible. Take in consideration advise given in good spirit, including this one, but don't be guided blindly by them. Take only what rings true to you in that advise and take charge of your future. It is yours. By being assertive on this point you will cause admiration in those who surround you.

60,6; The topmost six, shows its subject enacting regulations severe and difficult. Even with firmness and correctness there will be evil. But though there will be cause for repentance, it will (by and by) disappear

Here is a warning. Top lines are almost always difficult in nature. It shows, among other things, people that is in position to help but consider themselves above such endeavors. Mundane affairs are below them. It is also a transition point. A jump into the unknown. The end of a situation. Uncertainty for the future. In this case, I lean towards what Candid said about being too hard on yourself. Be real with the goals you set for yourself and know your limits. It will save you a lot of pain. You cannot carry out your goals by blunt force of conviction. It is more like navigating shallow and rocky waters. It takes patience, dexterity and a keen eye for obstacles. Being firm for the sake of firmness will crash you against a wall. You must be flexible and adapt your course according to what the course brings with the flow. A lot of difficulties are shown ahead and although you may feel many times like turning around (cause for repentance) steady yourself on the board and those feelings will go away. The goal will finally be achieved.

B. All this brings you to Hex 27, The Nourishment.

Let's play with the imagery for a while... Here we have a mountain (unmovable, steady, patience and contemplation) on top of thunder (very much moving and inpatient, almost the antithesis of the other one). All empty inside with two limiting firm lines on the outside. Not a better image of an open mouth can be found... In this case though, the thunder will not be stopped by the mountain. It will move upwards not matter what obstacles are put forth in front of him. However, it will not be by force that he will achieve his success but by chipping away, little by little those boulders. At the same time, the mountain will eventually show a passage to the subject and the integration of the two will be complete: the mountain will not completely lose its integrity while at the same time the thunder will be able to pass thru to the other side. The inside shows a double image of the Receptive, the mother, having a very strong presence between the two brothers. An intermediary between the two. It also shows by example to be open to new things and ideas. This ideas are the Creative and they will hatch inside the Creative. Both trigrams show a tendency similar to that of Hex 60 and Hex 11: they call for gradual integration. It may be difficult and full of problems but integration and achievement is the end.

The Judgement says: 27 indicates that with firm correctness there will be good fortune (in what is denoted by it). We must look at what we are seeking to nourish, and by exercise of our thoughts seek for the proper aliment

There are many ways to see or interpret a complementary hexagram. In this case I will chose to see it and take it in a couple of different ways: 1. as a conclusion to the events depicted in the original hexagram (Hex 60); and 2. as a reality check for the goals set forth. In the first case, it shows a subject that by staying his course, have reached the goals he set for himself (nourishment) and now is feeding from its fruit.
In the second case, however, it calls for self-knowledge. By finding your center and knowing precisely what you are trying to accomplish is that you will reach the goals that will fulfill your real inner desires. Until such a time the warning is that you may be feeding the wrong part of your Self and, even if you reach "a goal", it may not be what actually feeds your soul. You are at risk of selling your real happiness to the wrong goal. At the risk of sounding like a cliche, money is not everything in life.

I see Hex 27, within the context of your question, as both a before the facts of Hex 60 and an after the facts. The before is the reality check described in the paragraph above. Like a sandwich where Hex 27 is the bread and Hex 60 is the meat. The after is the accomplishment and reaping of the fruits of hard work.

Well, that was my very humble opinion. I honestly hope and wish that all this tirade makes some sense to you.

Un abrazo, (yes, we hug and kiss a lot in my country, even between same sexes)

Luis

Don't blame me...

I went to a local Borders book store today looking for some clues; I went straight to the expected bookshelf only to find this:

When the Yi stops talking to you...

One of the worst things that can happen to a student of the Yi is that it will stop talking to her/him. Sure, you can keep asking to your heart's content and something resembling an answer will come up, but, is it really "talking" to you? How do you know?

Since the moment I started using and studying the Yi I've had the feeling that a real sage inhabits the oracle. As a matter of fact, I doubt that many people using it seriously haven't had that feeling at least once. C. G. Jung himself wondered about it and said as much. Once you get past the moment of surprise you then try to establish a relationship with that entity. It is only natural, and very human, to try to dialogue with something, or somebody, that appears to be talking to you.

But there lays some of the real dangers. Many people take this dialogue for granted.

The Yi, like any tired partner, can stop listening, and, when it does, it also shuts up. What results is that the querent ends up talking to himself. To a mirror that would only reflects what's given to it and this, like with the mirror of Snow White's Queen, is only what him/her wishes the most. Just an illusion.

Very few people have the maturity to see they are talking to a "yes" partner and everybody knows, or should know, what really dwells in such a partner's heart.

Beware.

Book Three

The diagrams of third book are now online. This book is quite special in that is has lots of math formulas and tables. As with the other two books, there are diagrams that are repeated, however, for the sake of integity, I will not suppress any duplicate diagrams from any of the books. I am of the opinion that the more contextual information the better.

As with the second book, this one has page numbers and a good reason for me to include the Index for further reference.

Here goes the second book...

I just finished scanning and uploading the diagrams of the second Gen. Cheng's book. I brought some books to work and used the scanner I have in the office. It is a slower process than using a camera but to use a camera one needs good, indirect light. Something I didn't have around today. In any case, I think the results are more uniform with a scanner anyway.

As you can see, these scans include a cover picture, an Index and lots of tables I found together with the diagrams. Many of the diagrams I have seen already in the first book. The tables, on the other hand, may shed some further light on them and I think they are a very useful addition. The nice thing about the pages of this book is that they do include page numbers and if you read the Index you may be able to make up the chapter they are in. If anybody needs further information from any given chapter, let me know.

I was very happy to learn that Steve Marshall found some of my first diagrams useful and experienced some kind of epiphany while looking at one of the thumbnail pictures. He found a very interesting pattern in the circular Xiantian diagram by Shao Yong.

Well, I'm in the shipping business and one thing I see all the time on the bridge of the ships I board, are compasses. The pattern that Steve found is strikingly similar to a "Rose of the Winds" in a marine compass. I consider this to be a great find and I'm sure many more hidden patterns await in these diagrams.

Starting the scanning of my Chinese Yi books

Today I started scanning my set of chinese Yi books. As you can see from the pictures, they are mostly scans of the diagrams in the books. I am posting this in the hope that some of my fellow Yi students, who can read chinese, are able to study them and share their opinions here or in the Yi forums I frequent.

The link to the pictures is here: Yi Book 1

Please beware that the scans are detailed pictures and therefore are big files. I did this on purpose for those serious enough to download them and study them in detail. They are big for the purpose of zooming in the detail of the Chinese characters that accompany the diagrams.

I have nine more, Yi related, Chinese books. This is the first one I scanned.

There are 73 pictures in the above link. I hope you enjoy them.

The Method of 64 of consulting the I Ching

Finally I've got around copying the "Method of 64" from a printout of a defunct website. This is a method of consulting the I Ching created by Francis L. Szot, back in 1997 or 1998, or maybe even before that time. I don't know what happened to his website, which I remember had lots of thoughts on the I Ching, including the method I copied below.

A kind soul from Hilary's OnlineClarity Forum, whom will remain nameless by her own desire for anonimity, provided me with a paper copy she printed herself from Szot's website years ago. Thank you!!

I should note that this is a very interesting method for consulting the I Ching: it has the same casting probabilities of the Yarrow Stalks combined with the immediacy of the 3 Coins method. I like it! I personally believe that the odds for obtaining lines using Yarrow were purposedly created that way and should be used that way for consulting the Yi.

Here is a link to the page I created, giving Francis L. Szot proper credit for his Method:

The Method of 64

You could also find the same link at the right of this page.

Luis

Further dusting and information gathering

Regarding my previous post, I found some more information about the Chinese books on the Yi. The books were authored by General George T. Cheng during his lifetime.

I was able to find a copy of a letter addressed to him in one of the booklets that I obtained together with the books. The letter is dated 1974 and it comes from the Rochester Institute of Technology inviting Mr. Cheng to "join and direct the study of the theory and applications of I Ching to computer oriented research". That was very interesting although I don't know if anything came out of the invitation.

I also discovered doing a search that he was the father of the founder of "Organization of Chinese Americans, Eastern Virginia Chapter" (OCA), Mr. Richard Cheng (he is the person I bought the books from). Mr. Cheng is the Chairman and CEO of ECI Systems & Engineering in Virginia Beach, VA. Furthermore, in a copy of the December 2000 newsletter of the OCA, there is an obituary for General George T. Cheng, that is most telling of the life of this dedicated gentleman. Here is a transcription of that obituary:

quote
=====

General George T. Cheng
Passed Away on December 1, 2000
General George T. Cheng, father of Dr. Richard Cheng,
passed away on December 1, 2000 in Virginia Beach. General
Cheng served in the Army of Republic of China leading troops in
WWII and the Civil War in China. He was a professor of
National Defense University in the ROC. He authored 10 books
of I-Ching, and numerous other publications, and was the
Executive Director of Taiwan Institute of Confucius Studies.
We can see that General Cheng had planted some trees and many
got to enjoy the comfortable shade as a result. We are sorry for
the loss of a national hero and scholar, and wish the Cheng
family the very best. We know and are pleased that his great
spirit has been carried on by his descendants.

unquote
=======

I have added a copy of that letter from the Rochester Institute of Technology to the page where the book pictures are: Chinese books on the Yi

Luis

Dusting old books

One of the things in my agenda, after almost 30 years of studying the I Ching, is to finally learn to read and write Chinese. Sadly, this isn't the case right now.

I love books and one of my hobbies is to buy and sell used and antique books. A few years ago, on an impulse, I bought a set of eight books in Chinese regarding Yi studies by a Chinese master whom used to live in Virginia. This gentleman had died a couple of years before I bought the books from his son.

I enquired of his son if he followed in his late father's footsteps regarding the Yi and I was surprised to learn that he didn't. He did mention that his father had written the books for the Chinese market and that the books were actually marketed there, not in the U.S. At least that was the idea before the writer died. I actually doubt these books are being marketed at all.

The huge problem I have is that I still can't read the titles or their contents. I any case, some of my fellow Yi lovers can read chinese. Here are the titles I wanted to share if there is any interest.

I should add that the books are full of graphics that I have not seen anywhere else in western translations and they look very interesting. Just click on any of the thumbnails for a full size picture.

Chinese I Ching books

I hope you will also find them interesting.

Luis

Chinese coins, a short history.

I recently posted some files to Midaughter's list with an evolution of the chinese coins thru the ages. I believe this may be of interest to I Ching students. The quotes come from the book "Outlines of Chinese Symbolism & Art Motives" by C.A.S. Williams, Third Edition, 1976.

Chinese coins thru the ages"

Middle Eastern parallels with the I Ching

I Ching Community Discussion Forum

I have recently posted some commentaries to Hillary's Online Clarity forum. I believe there are some firm parallels in both cultures.