Email from John:
“I was wondering why someone such as the host of ‘Useless Tree’ would ask such large questions as he does. Isn’t it better to ask such questions so as to influence events to promote the general benevolence?”
It’s a reasonable question, and I’ll send Sam Crane a link so he can answer for himself. Personally, the readings that interest me most are always the ones people can do something about, or respond to creatively in some way. But simple, genuine curiosity about a situation you’re actively interested in also seems to me to be a good reason for divining.
It’s also an opportunity to watch the Yijing at work on a larger scale, and to learn from hindsight – with very little room for ambiguity or retrospective hedging. For instance, years ago there was a discussion at the I Ching Community about whether there would be war in Iraq. I remember Yi saying that what would happen was Hexagram 11, unchanging – surely enough to deter anyone from translating that hexagram as ‘Peace’.
A while back, I posted a comment on Sam’s reading about the likely outcome of the talks between the US and North Korea. Yi warned of the embarrassment of trying to negotiate an agreement without having much to offer (22, line 5), but held out the promise of ‘good fortune in the end’. It looks (we can but hope) as though this may be materialising now.
Another example –
Is Kerry going to win the election?
(Aside: I do wish people wouldn’t phrase their questions for yes/no answers!)
The answer was Hexagram 9, Small Taming, changing at line 2. Now that we know the outcome, we have another ‘lens’ through which to understand that hexagram and line.
Thanks for raising this question about questions. I guess my first answer is: why not? The Yi has been used in all sorts of ways by all sorts of people over the centuries. Way back when, before the Yi, divination in the Shang Dynasty, was very much a political act. Here is a list of topics raised by Shang diviners (drawn from David Kneightly’s ariticle on the Shang in the Cambridge History of Ancient China, p. 243):
“harversts, bad omens, the capture of prisoners, child-bearing, the activities of Di (the high God), and other Powers, dreams, floods, military strategy, the issuing of orders, rain and sunshine, royal tours of inspection, sickness, sending men on a mission, settlement building, sorties and other trips, spiritual approval, assistance, harm, tribute payments, and so on.”
That’s a big list. I have seen similar sorts of topics mentioned for the Zhou Dyansty as well. So, big questions of political interest have, I believe, always been a part of the practice of Yi.
I don’t think there is any inappropriate question. Indeed, Kneightly’s piece says that questions in the Shang were often posed in dualistic ways, pretty much a “yes” or “no” query. Not all questions were like this, but asking about rain is probably looking for a “yes” or “no” kind of answer.
I would never say that big political questions are more important than more specific, personal questions. But neither would I accept the idea that big, political questions are somehow out of bounds.
And if we look at how the Yi has been and is now used in Chinese cultural contexts we will see that many yes/no questions are, and always have been, posed. And there are many different forms that the divination can take. I always loved the fortune teller in Hong Kong who had small birds in cages who, for a price, would hop out, pick a hexagram card from a deck and, voila, that was your answer. Is that less legitimate than other approaches to the Yi?
Again, good question. I look forward to what others have to say.
‘Why not?’ – always a good answer where Yi is concerned, until such time as they dig up the graven stone tablet with The Rules.
On the subject of yes/no questions – the Shang examples would be for oracle bone divination, of course, which is a different animal from an oracle book. I posted about this once before – linking to the I Ching Community, but there is a comment on the blog entry worth reading, also.
Maybe it’s just that people back in the Chinese dynasties weren’t always careful or perfect about their questions, either! Y’know?
Assuming that some of you think that it is OK to pose political questions (perhaps in forms other than yes/no), what question should I pose this week? Tomorrow is my “Friday I Ching blogging” day and I am open to all suggestions.
How about picking a government policy (or policy of some international body, or whatever grips you) and asking about its likely effects within a specified period of time? (Specifying the time period to make the results review-able without too much debate.)
A response from John, whose question sparked this off:
Certainly more than capable. 😉