I Ching is not something that most people understood especially nowadays. Who can blame them? This is not something that is very much common for most astrology fans out there. Let’s look at the deal with I Ching.
I Ching has been around for ages now pre dating to the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. Also known as the Classic of changes or the book of changes was believed to have started from Fu Xi who was seen as an early cultural hero that ruled China from 2800 BCE to 2737 BCE. It is said that the 8 trigrams were revealed to him by a mythic dragon horse.
I Ching is depicted as a set of oracular statements in the form of hexagrams. These hexagrams are 64 sets of six lines each with corresponding meanings. Each hexagram is made up of six stacked horizontal bars or lines that are either solid or unbroken, called Yang or it can be open which is called Yin.
These 64 Hexagrams have corresponding names and interpretations. Hexagram One is the “Qian” or Force, these type of persons are the creative ones. Hexagram two is the “Kun” of Field, which are the receptive ones, needing knowledge and skill. Hexagram three is “zhun” or Sprouting which translate into difficulty at the beginning. Hexagram four is “meng” or Enveloping means youthful folly, detained and inexperienced.
Hexagram five is “xu” or attending which translates into waiting. H6 is “song” or arguing, H7 is “shi” or leading. H8 is “bi” or grouping, H9 is “xiao chu) or small accumulating and H10 is “lu” or treading.H11, H12 and H13 corresponds to peace, standstill and fellowship respectively. H14 means great possession, H15 is for modesty, H16 is for Enthusiasm and H17 is for following. H18 is for work on the decayed or repairing. 19 is for approach, 20 is for contemplation, 21 is for biting through. 22 is for grace, 23 is for splitting apart, 24 is for returning and 25 is for innocence.
Hexagon 26 to 64 has the following translation respectively; great taming, mouth corners, great preponderance, the abysmal water, the clinging, influence, duration, retreat, great power, progress, darkening of the light, the family, opposition, obstruction, deliverance, decrease, increase, breakthrough, coming to meet, gathering together, pushing upward, oppression, the well, revolution.
The cauldron, arousing, the keeping still, development, the marrying maiden, abundance, the wanderer, the gentle, the joyous, dispersion, limitation, inner truth, small preponderance, after completion and before completion.
The Yin and Yang, though popularly associated with the Chinese are actually associated with the Taoists. Others suggest that I Ching belongs as a philosophical document of the Confucianist mainly because the I Ching does not appear in any Daozang editions and the wings are attributed to Confucius.
I Ching was largely used by fortune tellers. I Ching influenced a lot of Chinese philosophers and artists. Now, people uses these as in various fields such as music, film, drama, dance and even in writing. Since then, hundreds of translations for the I Ching were made available into English and every language there is.
