Home Page | Main Text | Glossary | Bibliography | ToC

YI JING OR I CHOU
ONE INDIVIDUAL'S [ MIS - ] [ ? ] UNDERSTANDING
Appendix K

Yi Jing History: Mythical

Fu Hsu
originator of the trigrams
Devised Ho T'u Map From the markings a Dragon Horse that came out of The Yellow River.
Emeror Yu
Expanded the use of the Trigrams.
Devised the Lo Shu Map from the markings on the back of a giant tortoise.
This map correlates the eight trigrams with the five elements.
Wen Wang « 1171 - 1122 bce »
Used the Lo Shu Map to derive the Inner World arrangement of the trigrams. He also wrote the judgements for each hexagram, during the period of his imprisonment by Chou Hsin. His imprisonment was avengenged by Wu Wang.
Duke of Chou « died 1094 bce »
Wrote the texts on Hexagram # 1 & Hexagram # 2. Regent to Wu Wang's son.
Confucius « 551 - 479 bce »
Wrote the Appendices.

Yi Jing History. The Alleged Reality

Wu Hsien
Shang Shaman. Hexagram 31 is a memorial to him. This is the individual to whom diviner's attribute the invention of casting hexagrams using Yarrow Stalks.
Fei Chih « C2 bce &ra qu;
Proposer of the King Wen Arrangement of Hexagrams.
Guodian, Hubei Province, Manuscript
This text, found sometime in 1993, was placed in a tomb in Guodian circa 350 BCE. When found, it was the oldest extent version of the Yi Jing. As of June 2001, it has not been translated into English. Only fragments of it have been made public.
Wu Meng Dui Manuscript « 168 BCE »
This text, when found in December of 1973, was the oldest extent version of the Yi Jing. The Duke was buried in 168 BCE, and the manuscripts appear to have been written circa 200 BCE. It does not use either the King Wen or FuXi sequence of hexagrams. There are numerous differences between this version, and the received version of the Yi Jing.
Xiping Stone Classics
These are the Daoist classics that were engraved on stone between 125 and 183 CE. Prior to the discovery of the Wamengdui manuscripts, these were the earliest extent copies of those texts.
Wang Bi « 226 - 249 ce »
Major commentator. In his commentary, he argued in favour the King Wen arrangement, as it gives the best example of change through the inversion of yin/yang.
K'ung Yin T'a
During the Seventh Century CE he ordered the Yi Jing to be engraved on stone tablets. He made the current order of hexagrams "official". These tablets can be seen at museum at Sian.
Shao Yung « 1011 - 1077 »
Created/demonstrated the binary order of hexagrams. He also is responsible for the the diagram of the hexagrams in a circle, with a square of the hexagrams, ascribed to FuXi.
Chu Hsi « 1130 - 1200 »
Edited the Chou I Ch'i Meng [ The Chou I for Beginners ] and Chou I Pen I [ The Basic Meaning of the I Ching ]. He also included the t'ai chi diagram in his edition, making it a keystone to the Yi Jing.

The Yi Jing evolved in western China, in an agricultural environment. As a general rule, the lines refer to specific events, which were part of the common lore of that weltanschuung. In the course of time, details of the events referred to have been forgotten. This resulted in a "new" meaning being given to the line by later commentators.

First recorded use of the Yi Jing for divination: 674 BCE

First recorded use as a philosophical tool: 602 BCE

The Burning of The Books: Ch'in Burning. 213 CE

Standard Editions

Wang Bi
His editions of the Dao De Jing and Yi Jing became the standard editions for the next millenia.
Chu Hsi
Editor of the Yi Jing circa 1416. His edition became the standard text, until the Manchurian Dynasty
Imperial Edition
Published in 1715 by the Manchurian Dynasty, it was edited to support their rule of China.

Dao De Jing History

There are at least 500 major, extant commentaries in Chinese. It is believed that at least that many that have been lost.

Standard Editions

Lao Tzu
allegedly wrote the The Dao De Jing, whilst trying to leave the country.
Wang Bi
Edited the standard Text
Ho-Shung Kung
His Lao Tzu Tao-Te Ching Chu is based on an older copy, but it's authenticity is doubted.

Topic breakdown Of The Dao De Jing

Being and Non-Being 1, 2, 11, 40
Desires 3, 19, 34, 37, 57
Female, Water 8, 10, 20, 25, 28, 52, 55, 59, 78
Government 3, 17, 26, 29, 30, 31, 57, 60 ,61, 65, 74, 75, 80
Humanity and Righteosness 18, 19, 38
Knowledge 3, 70, 71
Name 1, 25, 32, 41
Natural « tzu-jan » 17, 23, 25, 51, 64
Non-strife 3, 7, 8, 9, 22, 24, 66, 73, 81
One 10, 14, 22, 39,42
Paradox 2, 7, 20, 36, 45, 58
Reversal 14, 16, 28, 40, 52
Simplicity 19, 28, 32, 37, 57
Tao 1, 4, 8, 14, 16, 21, 23, 25, 32, 37, 40, 41, 42, 51
Tranquility 16, 37, 61
Virtue 10, 21, 23, 338, 51, 65
Weakness 10, 22, 36, 40, 43, 52, 76, 78
Wu-Wei 2, 3, 10, 37, 43, 48, 63, 64.

The Doctrine of the Mean: Bridge text between Confucianism and Daoism and/or Buddhism. Is a chapter in the Li Chi.

The Three Kings:

Yi adopted as it means easy --- easy in comparison to reading oracles from cracks in Turtle Shells.

Classics of Philosophical Daoism

The DaoZheng

This material is published in 61 volumes.

Its organization reminds one of the days of punch cards. In specific, after somebody dropped them on the floor. Pick everything up, and write the lines that appear to be missing. Throw away a couple of cards for good measure.

Yi Jing Vocabulary

The most common words in the Yi Jing are:

Licence Terms

Jonathon Blake provides the information on this website to anyone, but retains copyright on all text, audio and graphic images. This means that you may not:

  1. distribute the text, audio or graphics to others without the express written permission of Jonathon Blake
  2. "mirror" or include this information on your own server or documents without our written permission;
  3. Modify or re-use the text, audio or graphics on this system.
You may:
  1. Print copies of this information for your own personal use;
  2. Store the files on your own computer for your personal use only;
  3. Reference hypertext documents on this server from your own documents

Previous Page Up One Level Next Page

Copyright © © 1982 - 2001 Jonathon Blake