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

  Yi Jing, Oracle of the Moon

The lines of hexagram 8

  'A region' is Fang: on-all-sides, square, region. Feels like 'this here place'. GSR.740a: a man with carrying pole?
  'Long range' (or ever flowing) is a picture of a person swimming in a river, but I guess the 'old man river' himself is moving along. If you live in a tiny village next to the huge river, the ever flowing waters are an image of eternity. Your great-great-great-grandparents knew him already, and your descendants will all live next to him.
  Line 1. 'Ta', often translated as 'this', is a picture of a foot treading on a snake: the old meaning was danger, harm, obstacle, and maybe also pointing at the suddenly appearing snake: 'here, watch out!', causing the meaning 'this'.
  Line 3. 'Bad' or wrong.
Top line: it is not certain, if Yu killed a lord, who was late because he had rescued people on his way, or "Oppose-the-Wind", or that it just means to keep your head when you plan to cooperate.
Oppose-the-Wind is rebellious energy. which prevents communication.


  For Western eyes the upper figures in the picture seem to go forward. But in China writing goes from right to left, so the figures look backwards. The lower ones look forward.
  This idea about forward and backward is entirely my own: both characters are sometimes written reversed. But in the course of time, they became established this way, and probably not without reason.  
  In the commentaries it says: Calculating the past is a forward movement. Knowing the future is a backward movement. Thus the Changes has backward-moving numbers.

More about hex.7 and 8
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last update: 20.02.2023

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