The I Ching has the capacity to make me feel dumb in the nicest way. Then put it away and consult it another day. Word to the wise: ask no more than two questions of the I Ching in one sitting. I do not instruct the impatient.” The first time I asked the I Ching a third question in a row was the last time I asked the I Ching a third question in a row. For example, if you ask the I Ching a third question in one sitting, some I Ching interpretive texts will have the I Ching tell you, “You are becoming impatient. Where necessary, it will gently admonish you. When I use the I Ching, its spirit is always gentle, wise, clear-eyed, and instructive. The I Ching aims to alert it’s questioners to upcoming changes in their lives, and maybe educate them along the way. Neither periods of good luck, nor periods of bad luck are permanent, says the I Ching, so don’t get too attached to either state (good advice for us all). The word ‘Ching’ in Chinese means ‘book’ or ‘classic.’ Thus, the name roughly translates as ‘The Classic Book of Changes.’ The I Ching’s operating principle is that change is the one constant in life, and that our lives are just a series of changes from one set of circumstances to the next. The earliest forms of it were practiced by early Chinese shamans, magicians, priests, or soothsayers in the ‘BC’ era. Probably the only other divination systems this old are things like stone divination, African bone divination and casting lots. It is somewhere between 3000 to 4000 years old, which makes it one of the earliest forms of divination known. This means the process of whole world and life is endless and never stops.The I Ching (pronounced ee-ching, although I’ve heard it sometimes pronounced ee-king) is a binary divination system which hails from China. The literal meaning of 63rd hexagram (既濟 jì jì) is "already (既) finished (濟)", but the last hexagram, which is the 64th (未濟 wèi jì), means "not (未) finished (濟)" literally. For example, the explanation of 26th hexagram (大畜 dà chù) is "the Heaven's bliss is given, therefore, lucky."Īlso, there is the idea of constantly changing world, as the explanation of 11th hexagram (泰 tài) tells, "Everything flat will be inclined, and everything gone will be come back." Similarly, the idea of endlessness can also be found. In I Ching, the word 'Heaven'(or sky it corresponds to the Chinese character '天') is considered as same as God or the absolute being with humane character, who decides the good and evil and makes judgements. To make process simpler, some people use coin to know the result. Using those sticks with certain order, the person who wants to know the result draws hexagram and finds the explanation in the book. The typical divination using I Ching needs the number of fifty thin sticks usually made from bamboo. There comes next hexagram after explanations of all lines of one hexagram. In I Ching, the name of one hexagram and the hexagram itself comes first, and after those, there are different explanations for the hexagram and the each line consisting hexagram, from bottom to top. There exists one different name for one hexagram. From the bottom to top, six lines are gathered in parallel. The broken line (the line where the middle part is missing) represents yang, and the unbroken line represents yin. Hexagram is a group of six broken or unbroken lines. The contents of I Ching consist of 64 hexagrams and explanation for each. It was advanced form of Shang Dynasty's divination, and finally, it took place instead of Shang's divination. In early age of Zhou Dynasty, a new way of divination appeared which was put into writing. Zhou Dynasty made Shang cease to exist, but it accepted Shang's culture. During Shang Dynasty, divination was done by burning animal's bone or tortoise shell. We cannot say which one was first, but it is supposed that characters were made from certain need while doing divination. Shang Dynasty's main cultural characteristics are its divination and character (old Chinese character). Before Zhou Dynasty, there was Shang Dynasty (1600 BC - 1046 BC). The text was mainly written during the early Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC-771 BC). I Ching (易经), also known as the Book of Changes, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts, it is used mainly for divination (fortunetelling).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |