Harmen

The character hui 悔 appears many times in the Zhouyi, the core text of the Book of Changes, and is often translated as 'regret'. A student asked me if I could tell a little bit more about this character, and although I already examined this character several times, new findings came up. Only watch this if you are really interested in the etymology of Chinese characters, otherwise it can be a bit boring to watch.

Well, from my point of view it really isn't true. And I have sources to back it up. For starters, you could begin reading the articles in the 'forum' of Early China 14 (Vol. 14, 1989 of Early China on JSTOR), as well as this article by Dan Yuchen 單育辰, 《戰國卜筮簡“尚”的意義 —兼說先秦典籍中的“尚” 》. From your point of view apparently it is true, but you don't explain why. Pity. This is a discussion forum. Don't tell someone to stop discussing, simply because you don't have an appropriate reply. You can try to make it personal, but I'm not bothered by that.

I am not 'guided', there is no 'burning desire', nor is there an argument to win. I simply disagree with your statement that you presented as if it is a fact, and I told you why. You, however, have only backed up your assumption by saying "others told me that this is how it is." That's not very helpful. Read up on oracles and their usage in early China, and you will understand what I mean.

Irrelevant. You said, "You may want to rephrase the questions. The I Ching can't answer any yes/no questions, nor any either/or questions." I disagree, and I told you why.

I appreciate your sarcasm. Just look at old examples of Yi usage, and oracles in general. Examine the oracle bones, and divination journals like the Baoshan manuscripts. You will see that there were no questions asked - the diviner stated a wish, or affirmation if you like. I don't know any (early Chinese) sources that show that the question or its phrasing was considered important. When in later times questions were asked (especially with the Wenwang Gua method), they were often phrased as yes/no questions. And no one ever objected to that. Saying that the Yi does not answer yes/no questions seems to be a typical Western attitude that is not backed up by early Chinese sources. Even Zhu Xi, in the incantation and rules that he gives in his Zhouyi Benyi, does not say anything about (the importance of) the question.

That's not true. It can answer any question. Whether you are able to understand the answer is a different matter.

Apparently I can't make short videos. This video might be a little bit too long for some of my viewers, and also a bit boring. I have defined chapters in the description of the video on YouTube so you can jump through the video if you want.

So the actual event as described by the text of the Yijing happened weeks after your interpretation? How did you interpret the hexagram at that time, as an answer to the statement 'I divine the most likely outcome of such-and-such local band changing its name to this-and-that.'?

That they should change their name to Eternal Undeath.

I don't really care about the method that is used - I can interpret any hexagram regardless of the question or situation, I can always make it meaningful and relevant, no matter the hexagram that I get or how I get it. It is not so much about the method or the hexagram that you get - what matters is what you do with it. So don't be bothered by statistics, math etc. Just trust that you will always get the answer that you need, and what you need will be meaningful and relevant to you.

https://www.academia.edu/2629001/Astrology_and_Cosmology_in_Early_China_Conforming_Earth_to_Heaven With interesting insights on hexagram 1 and other hexagrams as well.

Yes

Yin & Yang do not have any function in 河洛理數 (unless you can show me where it is explained in the original manuscript) Qi is not mentioned in 河洛理數 (unless you can show me where it is explained in the original manuscript) Why should it? The 河洛理數 book doesn't either. Why should it? The 河洛理數 book doesn't either. But maybe you can be more specific. What do you mean by 'source'? Otherwise said, what exactly were you expect to see covered in the book? I agree that there are certain chapters in the 河洛理數 book of which a translation would have been helpful, especially the parts that cover the ten auspicious and inauspicious factors, as well as the chapter on the meaning of the Heavenly & Earthly numbers, Yuan Qi 元氣, Yuan Qi Xiang Fan 元氣相反, Hua Gong 化工 and Hua Gong Fan 化工反. But your vague statements make it sound as if you are not at all familiar with 河洛理數. I am well aware that the book of Sherrill & Chu has its flaws but as an introduction in to the original system, especially for someone who is interested in hexagrams as descriptions of persons & personalities, it will do.

I know it is not a complete translation of the original 河洛理數 manuscript and that the authors made significant changes to certain parts of the original material (which motivated me to wrote my own book about 河洛理數) but that does not mean this book is 'typical Western stuff'. Concerning accuracy: when you know your 八字 you can convert them to the 先天 and 後天 hexagram using this book. From there 'accuracy' is determined not by the book but by the user who applies the principles that are described. And the descriptions of the hexagrams are a fair translation of the Chinese original. But maybe you can be more specific why you take issue with this book.

Oh yeah.

Good example, makes sense. Although what you describe also makes me think of another 'activity', from a male perspective, including foreplay and all that...

Hmmm...somewhat. I'm curious how you apply this in the application of the Yijing. Do you have a RL example?

Actually the book has nothing to do with astrology - it is just called that because the result is somewhat similar to a horoscope. See attachment :-) The_Astrology_of_I_Ching_-_Sherrill-Chu.pdf

Yes, the Heluo Lishu 河洛理數 manuscript contains descriptions of hexagrams as character traits or persons. It has been translated by W.Sherrill & Chu as The Astrology of I Ching. I don't entirely agree with the way they treated the manuscript but the part with the descriptions of the hexagrams is more or less okay.

Good idea :-) No doubt there are other ways to look at moving lines and what they do to trigrams. The main goal of my video is to stimulate the viewers to look at changing trigrams instead of solely looking at changing hexagrams and moving lines as individual entities that don't have any relationship with other parts of the hexagram.

You are right. What I show in the video is how I began to see changing lines and changing trigrams when I tried to find a way to put them to use - that too much of yin or yang imbalance the trigrams, made them larger and exaggerate their qualities. After more than 35 years of studying the Yijing I find it very hard to let go of this view. But as you show this is not the only way to look at it. The aim of the video is to show my viewers that trigrams can change and that this change has meaning. How this change can be interpreted is an interesting journey to explore and I would like to encourage every Yijing user to do that.