Comments on: New King Wen sequence book

By: Hilary

Hilary — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:05:33 +0000

Thank you for the reference

By: Carlo Mante

Carlo Mante — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:09:41 +0000

Connections between King-Wen Sequence, 64 DNA Codons (and 20 Aminoacids), Benjamin Franklin’s Magic Square of 8 and Tzolkin’s Mayan Calendar are explained in Jose Arguelle’s book: “Earth Ascendig: an Illustrated Treatise on the Law Governing Whole Systems”.
Note:
- Benjamin Franklin’s Magic Square of 8 rows and columns add up to 260 (Tzolkin’s days);
- Benjamin Franklin’s Magic Square of 8 numerical pattern leads to a geometrical shape slightly different from that in base eight (similar to DNA double helix);
-The link between King-Wen sequence and Benjamin Franklin’s Magic Square of 8 numerical pattern is semantic and not mathematical.

Best regards.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:22:25 +0000

Thanks for the links!

By: Ken Dickey

Ken Dickey — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:28:42 +0000

Note also a “magic squares” graphic derivation:

http://www.magichypercubes.com/Encyclopedia/i/IChingPaper.pdf
and
http://www.magichypercubes.com/Encyclopedia/i/SquareBase8.pdf

-KenD

By: Hilary

Hilary — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:15:06 +0000

Very, very cool indeed. I've written about it before.

By: choppi

choppi — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:58:18 +0000

Here is a for-free treatment of this very issue
by a Dutch writer:

http://www.fourpillars.net/pdf/kingwen.pdf

Pretty cool, isn’t it ?

By: Zhou

Zhou — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:05:54 +0000

Hilary, The basic idea of the book is really quite simple, and Cook really seems to aim at making this accessible to everyone. There is an extensive Glossary in the book, that explains everything. For sure, this book is not a light read: it is the kind of thing people will read and re-read and re-re-read for years to come! It’s no mistake that the Hexagram Sequence went unexplained for 3,000 years! But this book seems so important for the history of Eastern and Western mathematics, it ought to have a big impact beyond Yi Jing studies and Chinese history. What can I say? I’ve read it, and it’s fascinating! I think he should put more preview pages online, since the really great parts are not there yet! The color front cover of the book is there now, but the color back cover is just extraordinary, and not online yet, as far as I can tell! That color figure alone is well worth the price. I hope he makes that available as a large poster, and I’ve emailed him to say so! it would look great on my wall.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:46:11 +0000

Oh crumbs. Thank you very much for the link. It looks seriously fascinating – but it also looks as though it’d take more than a dusty 19-year-old ‘O’ level maths to make head or tail of the whole thing, doesn’t it?

By: Zhou

Zhou — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:05:26 +0000

Googling, I found this thread, and thought you all might want to know that Dr. Cook’s monograph _Classical Chinese Combinatorics_ is now available online. Their new webstore looks like it’s still in development … but there are sample pages from the book there now, enough to give you an idea of just how important this book is for Yi Jing studies. The Series Editor’s preface (by Prof. James Matisoff, leading American Sino-Tibetanist) is there, along with the table of contents, sample figures, complete author’s Preface, and Acknowledgments. Cook spent 23 years working on this book! If you study The Book of Changes, this is truly essential reading. Get your local library to buy a copy, if the academic book price seems too high: you’ll want to buy your own later! Cook is the leading American Sinologist, and lectured on this subject to Chinese Yi Jing experts in Taiwan last summer, at Academia Sinica and Taiwan National University. This is serious stuff, far beyond what English readers usually get. Somone above mentions one of Cook’s earlier books: actually, that amazing book was not his PhD thesis, but something he wrote before doing his PhD. You can see that info here.

By: Luis Andrade

Luis Andrade — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:17:18 +0000

Thanks for the link! I used to have and lost it. Is in my Del.icio.us now.