I Ching, Yijing or Zhou Yi
"Oracle of the moon": © 2000 LiSe

  Yi Jing, Oracle of the Moon

The lines of hexagram 17

  Line 2 and 3. The big man is 'an 11,5 feet tall grown up man'. Feet used to be smaller in former times I assume... 
Hex.17 is about hunting. If you need food, you hunt small animals (line 2), if you want a girl as your wife, you hunt for a big stag with huge antlers (see Shenshu 217)
Line 3. 'Seek' is literally a fur coat. But a coat makes no sense here, so I think the later meaning, 'seek' is very old. A fur coat might be a symbol for what everyone wants/seeks. 'Settling' is sitting on tradition: to reside. 'Following, possessing, catching' or: following means catching (to catch or to be caught?). 
  Line 4. No need to feel faulty or: what can be wrong, how can this be wrong? Harmen wrote an article about you fu, "have protection".
  Line 6. Sacrifice at/to Western mountain. Heng is the same character as 'expansion', it is a sacrifice for success. Another explanation of this line: holding on to something strong or high, and giving thus others something to hold on to. Lynn translates: seize and bind him, then so tied up make him follow. Schilling: dann legt man ihr Gefolge in Fesseln. According to Rainer Simon Wen Wang could flee. After his imprisonment Wen Wang went to the Western Mountain to sacrifice.
 The allegory seems to be chosen from the annals of the Chou dynasty. The rulers of this dynasty honored men who had served them well by awarding them a place in the royal family's temple of ancestors on the Western Mountain. In this way they were regarded as sharing in the destiny of the ruling family

More about hexagrams 17 and 18
Back to hex.17
Back to the story of hex.17

last update: 27.07.2022

HOME    SITEMAP    MAIL

© LiSe April 2000-2020