Comments on: Harmen cuts through Hexagram 23

By: Harmen Mesker

Harmen Mesker — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:01:32 +0000

I did not say or mean that å‰ indicates ‘a sound’, merely the component å½” indicates the pronunciation of the character. It is possible that the character served as a onomatopoeia, but normally characters with this function are used doubled (like in the third line of hexagram 29). Grammatically speaking your ideas do not fit the text of the Yijing, and I don’t see how line 6 is ‘the line’, line 5 ‘is the fish’ nor do I see the connection with your assumptions – there is nothing ‘obvious’ in it (there hardly are ‘obvious’ things in the Yi). But that’s the nice thing about the Yi: everyone finds their own images in it.

By: Jacques Briand de Crevecoeur

Jacques Briand de Crevecoeur — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:56:00 +0000

Hi Harmen

You mention in the beginning of your great article, that the name of hexagram 23 means cut/carve and also indicate a sound … my first association was TIMBEEEEER

I presume, that beds, waggons and huts were made of timber?

Cutting timber into planks using an axe is a dangerous work, because it’s easy to cut oneself in the legs, when the work is done out in the forrest. Only line 5 looks different in this connection, but is obvious when looking at the hexagram, where the 6th line is the line and the 5th line is the fish

By: Hilary

Hilary — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:11:30 +0000

See above re-’almost’

I think I might pass on the giant radish for now.

By: Luis Andrade

Luis Andrade — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:03:24 +0000

Excellent article, Harmen, as always.

As for the trigrams, perhaps is not that anachronistic as most of academia thinks of it when it comes to the Yijing timeline. Just yesterday I finished reading an article on jade ‘congs’ in “Chinese Jades” (“Colloquies on Art & Archeology in Asia No.18″ (Percival David Foundation)) where I was shocked to learn that some archeologist think that the roots of the Bagua’s predate the Liangzhu culture and may go as far back as 7000 B.C. or more.

By: Harmen Mesker

Harmen Mesker — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:07:10 +0000

Hi Hilary, yes, it certainly is anachronistic. But who cares? The nice thing of this kind of research is that it opens up a whole new can of worms – sorry, I mean symbols. Things you can use in your daily practice as a diviner.

So, who’s the first one to apply the symbol of a radish in his next divination of hexagram 23, line 6?