Hexagram

Origin

The hexagram as a divinatory symbol is older than the written I Ching. Archaeological evidence from oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang dynasty, around 1200 BCE, shows numerical groups of six numbers used in divination, the direct ancestors of the binary hexagrams of the Zhou. Some scholars argue that these numerical hexagrams were generated by yarrow stalk casts and recorded in clusters of six, while others propose that they were derived from groupings of three trigrams. Either way, the six-line structure was fixed by the early Zhou dynasty around 1000 BCE.

King Wen of Zhou, while imprisoned at Youli, is credited with arranging the 64 hexagrams in their classical sequence and adding the Judgement texts called Tuan Ci. His son the Duke of Zhou added the line texts called Yao Ci. The mathematical structure of the hexagrams attracted the attention of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1703, who recognised in the alternation of Yin and Yang a binary numeral system equivalent to the one he had himself developed. The hexagram is therefore one of the earliest documented uses of binary notation in human history.

Meaning and method

Each hexagram is read from bottom to top. The bottom three lines form the lower trigram, the upper three lines form the upper trigram. The position of each line carries meaning. The bottom line is the position of beginning, the second line of inner response, the third of transition, the fourth of outer response, the fifth of leadership, the top of completion or excess. The fifth line is considered the position of the ruler. The Judgement and Image texts apply to the hexagram as a whole, while the six line texts apply to specific lines when they are changing.

The 64 hexagrams are named for the situation they represent. Hexagram 1 Qian, the Creative, consists of six Yang lines and signifies pure creative force. Hexagram 2 Kun, the Receptive, consists of six Yin lines and signifies pure receptive form. Hexagram 11 Tai, Peace, places earth above heaven, an image of harmonious interpenetration. Hexagram 63 Ji Ji, After Completion, alternates Yin and Yang perfectly and signifies a moment of accomplishment that requires vigilance. The full sequence, called the King Wen order, traces a complete cycle of change through 64 distinct situations.

In practice

To consult a hexagram you generate six lines, one by one, from bottom to top. The classical yarrow stalk method uses 50 stalks and a precise ritual described in the Great Treatise of the I Ching. The faster three-coin method tosses three coins six times: three heads give a changing Yang (9), three tails a changing Yin (6), two heads and one tail a fixed Yang (7), two tails and one head a fixed Yin (8). The 6 and 9 lines are changing lines. After all six lines are recorded, you read the primary hexagram and any changing line texts.

Changing lines transform into their opposite to produce a second hexagram, the derived hexagram, which shows the direction of movement. If hexagram 11 Tai has a changing line in the second position, it transforms into hexagram 36 Ming Yi, the Darkening of the Light. The primary hexagram describes the present situation, the derived hexagram describes the emerging situation. With no changing lines, only the primary hexagram is read. With all six lines changing, you read both the primary and the derived in full. Use the I Ching oracle for digital casting.

Symbolic depth

The number six is structurally significant. Three is the number of heaven, two of earth, and their product is six, the number of complete movement. A hexagram is therefore the meeting of heaven and earth in a complete cycle. The six lines also map onto the six relationships of Confucian ethics, the six classics of Chinese culture, the six bodily organs of Chinese medicine, and the six directions of space. Each hexagram is thus simultaneously a moment in time, a configuration in space, and a state of consciousness.

In the language of Yin and Yang, a hexagram is a complete sentence in the grammar of change. The 64 hexagrams together form the alphabet of all possible situations. Leibniz, after corresponding with the Jesuit Joachim Bouvet, wrote in 1703 that the binary structure of the hexagrams confirmed his belief in a universal symbolic mathematics. Carl Gustav Jung saw in each hexagram the precise image of a psychological moment, the configuration of forces in the questioner at the instant of casting. Continue with Trigram, I Ching, Bagua, and Yin and Yang.

Also known as

• Gua
• Six-Line Figure
• I Ching Sign
• Liushiyao
• Changes Symbol