Pocket I-Ching. Gary G. Melyan

      

      THE POCKET I-CHlNG

      Representatives

       For the British Isles and Continental Europe: Simon & Schuster International Group, London

      For Australasia:

       Bookwise International

       I Jeanes Street, Beverley, 3009, South Australia

      YENBOOKS are published and distributed by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc. with editorial offices at Yaekari Building, 3rd Floor, 5-4-12 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032.

      Copyright © 1977 by Charles E. Tuttle Co. Inc.

      All rights reserved

      Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 88-50327

       ISBN: 978-1-4629-0416-7 (ebook)

      First YENBOOKS edition, 1988

      Printed in Japan

      Table of Contents

	Preface	7
Part One :	What Is the I-Cking?	9
	History	10
	Composition of the Book	12
	How to Consult the Oracle	13
	Tossing Coins	14
	The Question and Interpretation	17
	Further Reading	19
	Hexagram-Finding Key	21
Part Two :	The Eight Trigrams	23
Part Three :	The 64 Hexagrams—Explanation and
	Practical Application in Divination	41
	Bibliography	179

      Preface

      THE GROWING popularity of the I-Ching (Book of Changes) in the West is evidence that rational man, the product of Western tradition, is seeking consolation in ever-increasing numbers in this ancient Chinese oracle book. There are in existence several very good translations and interpretations of this work of philosophy and divination. Nonetheless, the problem of how to interpret and explain the often mysterious and obscure comments that accompany the hexagrams remains.

      Those who have seriously studied the I -Ching and its tradition can arrive at their own conclusions about what the hexagrams mean in terms of questions directed at them. But those who have not had time or training to become familiar with the intricacies of the I-Ching frequently find consulting the oracle a difficult task, one easily leading to a misunderstanding of what the I-Ching says. It is to fill the need for a practical and simple introduction to consulting the I-Ching as an oracle that Dr. Wen-kuang Chu and I have collaborated on this text.

      Our goal is to open up the use of the I-Ching as an oracle to the non-specialist, giving him a modern context in which to ask his questions. We also hope that we can introduce to readers some of the implications of this influential philosophical text. The heart of our endeavor is Part Three where we have provided twenty broad categories of human concern. The reader is encouraged to formulate specific questions and address them to these categories following instructions given in "How to Consult the Oracle" of Part One. We have arbitrarily limited our scope to the 20 categories, providing some background information about the hexagrams to enable the reader to determine answers for questions that do not fall within this scope.

      That the I-Ching is an oracle book of extraordinary effectiveness is something that the Chinese take for granted. The idea that casting yarrow stalks or coins can lead to the formation of groups of lines which in turn open up an understanding of both present and future circumstances is something difficult for the Western mind to accept. We have not tried to explain just why the key to cosmic influences is hidden in the hexagrams. We can do no more than offer our interpretation of the hexagrams, hoping that use of our text in divination will make believers out of skeptics.

      People in many Oriental communities use handbooks similar to this one and have found their use very effective. We hope that our readers will also find this approach to the I-Ching helpful in their daily lives.

      We are very grateful to Liu Ta-yung for the calligraphy that introduces each trigram and hexagram.

      —GARY G. MELYAN

       _{PART ONE What Is the I-Ching?}

      ONE OF the five Confucian Classics, the I-Ching, or as it is commonly translated, the Book of Changes, is an oracle book, a philosophy, and a work of art. It has added immeasurable depth to Chinese culture and is doing the same now for Western culture.

      The I-Ching is composed of 64 Hexagrams made up of six broken or solid (unbroken) lines, texts, and commentaries. The basic symbolic unit is a trigram. The maximum number of trigrams formed by various combinations of three lines, either solid—————— or broken —— ——, is eight. By combining individual trigrams the hexagram is formed, the total possible being 64.

      These lines, trigrams, and hexagrams symbolize the forces of action and change and all the phenomena of the universe. The lines are of two kinds: the broken, representing the yin force, and the solid, representing the yang force. The yin force refers to the negative, passive, weak, and destructive. It is docile and female. The yang force refers to the positive, active, strong, and constructive. It is virile and male. Together in groups of six the lines symbolize all possible situations, forms of change, possibilities, and institutions. The underlying idea is that the two forces are constantly interacting, producing change, and that things are forever inter-fused and intermingled. In simple terms this perpetual constant is the constant of change. The universe so represented is controlled by a natural operation of forces which can be determined and predicted objectively.

      The origins of the work lie in the desire to predict the future based on wisdom symbolically embodied in the hexagrams. The word that is translated into English from the Chinese as change is i, pronounced ee. Basically i has three meanings: I) ease and simplicity in contrast to what is difficult; 2) transformation, alternation, or change; 3) firm and quiet in contrast to what is endangered, hence invariability. These meanings serve as undertones throughout the work.

      The 64 Hexagrams are followed by two texts and commentaries. The total is what we today call the I-Ching. We shall use this name rather than the translated title in our text.

      History

      Tradition ascribes the basic linear complexes of the book, the Eight Trigrams, to the legendary cultural hero Fu Hsi. He is said to have investigated all the phenomena in the universe and discovered a commonality of laws