| Ideogram and its Meaning
We can read the I Ching's fundamentals and structure in the meaning of the ideogram I. The movement of the sun and moon and the alternation from day to night, or the movement of change from the Yin force to Yang force and vice-verse. All is contained within the macro and micro universe, all is there, in the meaning of the archaic Chinese ideogram I, as was revealed to ancient sages. In Richard Wilhem’s translation it is called the simple, the easy and the change. But what is the real meaning of simple, easy and change? By means of the easy and the simple we grasp the laws of the whole world. The easy and the simple are symbolized by slight changes in the individual lines. The divided lines become undivided lines as the result of an easy movement that joins their separated ends: undivided lines become divided ones by means of a simple division in the middle. See below in the illustration how the moving lines in the hexagram symbolize the movements of change in nature. The laws of all the processes grow under heaven: the sun and moon’s movement as it was seen through the eyes of ancient people. Look how the moving yang line representing the moment when the sun is in its climax, the noon of a summer day. See how from that moment it begins to sink down preparing the advent of night. Look how the same process happens to the phases of the moon. The moving Yin represents the transition from the plenitude of the full moon to the decreasing moon. All this is inside the movement of lines at the hexagrams. Meditate about that picture and you will understand the symbology of the line's movement in the I Ching. |
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