The Hexagrams
The core of the Yijing is formed by the sixty-four hexagrams. These are more than stacks of six lines; each hexagram is a world in itself with elements that shape that world. We can split a hexagram into two parts of three lines each, the so-called trigrams, and each trigram has its own specific meaning.
Heaven
☰ This trigram is ‘The Heaven’. It is the father of the other trigrams. It consists of three whole yang lines. This trigram represents the creative, generative force in the universe. It stands for movement, light, clarity, the sun, action. Everything that arises and grows can be classified under this trigram. The spiritual, the mental, also falls under this.
Earth
☷ This is the trigram ‘The Earth’. It is the mother of the other trigrams and consists of three yin lines. While The Heaven stands for the creative, this trigram provides the space to create, because without that space nothing can arise. It is the material from which things are created. It is the tangible, the dark, the heavy, the moon, non-action. Everything that does nothing but allows things to happen can be classified under this trigram.
Thunder
☳ The trigram ‘The Thunder’ has a tail from its father, The Heaven. The Thunder also stands for action, but for the intense action, the action that is hard and one-time. While The Heaven stands for a continuous flow of creativity, in The Thunder that creativity is one-time but present at full strength. Therefore, The Thunder stands for inspiration, the sudden impetus that cannot be ignored. It is the creation of the big lines, the rough image.
Wind
☴ ‘The Wind’ is the opposite of The Thunder. While The Thunder stands for intense, one-time action, The Wind stands for small, calm, but continuous steps. Therefore, this trigram is the image of perseverance and the patience that goes with it. It also stands for exchange, communication, and attention to detail.
Water
☵ This trigram is the depiction of The Flowing Water. It is a yang line enclosed between two yin lines. This creates the image of power that is not goal-oriented but is guided, just as a river is guided by its banks. It is a destructive force, and therefore The Water stands for danger, risks, and threats. From the non-goal-oriented energy that this trigram depicts, psychological depressions can arise. However, the trigram also indicates how these can be overcome: by flowing along like water and not resisting.
Fire
☲ Opposite The Water, we find The Fire. Just as water always seeks depth, The Fire seeks height: it flares up but is bound to its source and cannot detach from it without extinguishing itself. Therefore, Fire stands for dependence, attachment, but also for insight, knowledge, and seeing the truth. Fire consumes what it is attached to and can therefore never remain attached for long; it will have to seek a new source. The Chinese character for this trigram now means ‘to separate from’. In the Yijing, it means the opposite. This makes The Fire a very Buddhist trigram, where attachment and detachment are important: where there is dependence, independence must inevitably follow.
Mountain
☶ The trigram ‘The Mountain’ is an introverted trigram. It is closed to the outside (the top line) but has a rich inner world. The Mountain stands for rest, meditation, turning inward, stopping processes. The Mountain sets boundaries, makes things concrete and tangible. This trigram is conservative, preserving (also literally), and closes off what has come to an end. It can also mean stagnation, an obstacle to progress.
Lake
☱ The trigram ‘The Lake’ is extroverted: it expresses itself easily, is cheerful, and shows what it has inside. The Lake stands for pleasure, all the positive in life, carefreeness, and naivety. However, The Lake has no flow and can therefore quickly become turbid. Renewal must come from outside, and The Lake must stimulate this itself. If this does not happen, it tends towards depression, and these depressions are harder to resolve than those associated with The Flowing Water.
These are the eight trigrams, and they are generally considered the most important building blocks of a hexagram. But each line of a hexagram also has its own value. Analyzing a hexagram in this and other ways is a tool to quickly and meaningfully interpret the answer of the Yijing. If you know the meaning of a hexagram, interpreting the accompanying text becomes easier, as hexagram and text complement each other like yin and yang.
The Text
In the Yijing, the hexagrams are accompanied by cryptic pieces of text that contain pronounced Chinese symbolism. We have The Judgment, traditionally attributed to King Wen, and a text for each line of the hexagram, attributed to the Duke of Zhou. Each hexagram thus contains seven pieces of text, except for hexagrams one and two, which each have an additional addition. In total, we then have (64 × 7) + 2 = 450 pieces of text. 9 × 50 = 450, and these two numbers are important in Chinese philosophy and numerology. They form the basis for the Chinese view of the cosmos and are often encountered in many Chinese divinatory techniques.
According to ancient legends from China, the hexagrams were designed by the mythical emperor Fu Xi. Later, King Wen, whose fame in Chinese history is unparalleled, added The Judgments: short pieces of text that symbolically tell what is good and what is not in the given situation. His fourth son, the Duke of Zhou, later added the line texts.
Examples
The hexagrams contain strict systems, such as the trigrams and the lines, but the text does not offer such guidelines. Although there are fixed concepts in it that are certainly worth knowing the background of, there is no guideline that allows the text of the Yijing to be understood all at once. An example of typical Yijing text is, for example, the Judgment of hexagram 2:
The Receptive works sublime success, Furthering through the perseverance of a mare. If the noble one has something to undertake and wants to advance, He goes astray; if he follows, he finds guidance. It is favorable to find friends in the West and South, To forego friends in the East and North. Quiet perseverance brings good fortune!
Or the first line of hexagram 36:
Darkening of the light in flight: He lowers his wings. The noble one on his journey eats nothing for three days. But he has a place to go. The host has something to say about him.
Diligent study is the advice here if you want to become familiar with the language of the book. Fortunately, there are also books that help you understand the Yijing as a whole.
The Ten Wings
In addition to the basic text, there is an annotation called ‘The Ten Wings’. These Wings have played an important role in Chinese philosophy, defining important concepts such as yin and yang, the Dao, and providing important backgrounds on the use and functioning of the Yijing. Without The Ten Wings, the Yijing would have remained an enigmatic book, a rudderless ship without a clear course. The Ten Wings give you a rudder but also a compass, with which you can give direction to the Yijing.