Regarding the I Ching, I’d like to share some personal insights.
In fact, there is a relationship between the bagua and binary. If we consider Yin as the number 0 and Yang as the number 1, looking from bottom to top, the Kun gua is represented as 000, which corresponds to the number 0, and the Qian gua is represented as 111, corresponding to the number 7.
Firstly, concerning the history of the I Ching, it is said that Fu Xi established the Original bagua 7,000 years ago.
The form of the eight trigrams is as follows:
3 7 6
5 # 2
1 0 4
You can notice that the sum of the rows, columns, and diagonals is 7.
It can be seen that this is a magic square lacking the middle number.
However, the Original bagua cannot be used; instead, the Later bagua are used. I do not know the principles behind them.
The Later bagua were established by King Wen of Zhou.
The Later bagua cannot be mapped directly to binary. They have a unique set of number correspondences:
坎 (Kan) - 1
坤 (Kun) - 2
震 (Zhen) - 3
巽 (Xun) - 4
中宫 (Middle Palace) - 5
乾 (Qian) - 6
兑 (Dui) - 7
艮 (Gen) - 8
离 (Li) - 9
4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6
this is a standard 3rd-order magic square.
It should be noted that this Bagua is oriented with the top facing south and the bottom facing north, with east on the left and west on the right, as ancient Chinese preferred to contemplate issues facing south.
Based on the Later bagua, many disciplines of Chinese metaphysics have developed, such as Zi Wei Dou Shu, Qimen Dunjia, and Feng Shui.
These metaphysical disciplines share a common characteristic: they provide you with steps to follow that yield advice, but they do not explain why these steps work or the underlying principles behind them. This is what troubles me.
Furthermore, by overlaying two hexagrams, we can derive a more complex hexagram with six lines. This means transitioning from a 3-bit binary number to a 6-bit binary number.
For example, as you mentioned, overlaying two Li (离) hexagrams 101 results in a larger Li hexagram 101101.
The process of divination in the I Ching generally follows these steps: We toss objects, which can be coins or bamboo sticks—anything that provides feedback. Before tossing, we need to think of a question. Assuming heads on a coin represent 1 and tails represent 0, we toss six coins and read their results in sequence. This gives us a set of corresponding numbers, which we can use to derive a hexagram with six lines.
Each hexagram has an interpretation associated with it, along with symbolic imagery. This interpretation doesn’t directly answer your question but rather serves as a hint or riddle, requiring you to interpret the meaning yourself.
It’s important to note that the interpretation of the hexagram exists beforehand; the only variable is the result of your current toss. This is the part I struggle to understand—why isn’t the result random, but rather related to the answer to my question? Some theories, including those of Carl Jung, attempt to explain this using synchronicity phenomena.
I still have many questions about the I Ching.
At the same time, I’m also very interested in the Exercise of Fire. I would like to further understand the relationship between the Li hexagram in the I Ching and the Exercise of Fire.