Stephen Karcher: Shuogua

The Shuogua, ‘explanation of the gua’, is the Yijing’s 8th Wing. It’s in three parts: the first is an origin story of how the sages made the Yi from first principles; the remaining two describe the characteristics of the individual trigrams. You’ll occasionally find references to these characteristics in Wilhelm’s Book III interpretations – if and when they fit. But it’s not easy for a modern reader to find a place in divination for the information that zhen is “horses that neigh well, have white hind legs, are sprightly, or have a white star on the forehead; crops that are legumes…” or that xun is “men that are balding, have broad foreheads, or show much white of eye; those who get nearly threefold in profit.” (Quotations from Richard Rutt’s Zhouyi, which also includes plain translations of all the Wings.)

In his new Shuogua, Stephen Karcher treats these extraordinary miscellanies as invocations of the trigram figure. He personifies each trigram as a ‘spirit helper’ – which works as an excellent counterbalance to the somewhat mechanical, abstracted view of the trigrams as ‘forces’.

Somewhere in the mists of Chinese history, someone was inspired to put together a Yijing ordered by hexagram. The texts of Daxiang, Tuanzhuan, Zagua and Xugua for each hexagram would be gathered together under its heading. And as a result of this, we can absorb all these disparate perspectives on each hexagram together, and build a more complete idea of each one.

With this new book, Stephen Karcher has done the same for the trigrams. Texts, commentaries and associations for each one are gathered together, so readers can immerse themselves in the qualities of the trigram in a way that was hardly possible before.

For anyone interested in divining with the Yijing, this is a real gift. As I teach the I Ching course, I encounter many people who find it difficult to experience their reading through the trigrams. Standard commentaries may not take them much further than ‘this one goes up, this one goes down’, or ‘this one’s submitting to that one’. It’s hardly surprising if people skip over this. But now Stephen K is inviting them to experience the trigrams from the inside out. ‘This translation,’ he says, ‘is designed to take us into this world of the spirits, to help us enter their dance.’ I’ll be recommending it.

Calling this book ‘Shuogua’ is really a misnomer. If you want to know exactly what this Wing says, you need to go elsewhere: for instance, you could buy Rutt’s book and look at pages 445-449. Stephen, unlike Richard Rutt, belongs to the ‘assume it makes sense’ school of interpretation (as opposed to the ‘it’s primitive, of course it’s unintelligible’ school, of which I’m not a fan). However, with Stephen this tips over into a ‘make it make sense’ school of translation, which involves not just re-arranging the text, but also elaborating on it and adding to it. Thus Kun acquires an association with battle, and Xun exchanges its gift of strength in bending for a gift of ‘finding the hidden illness’. This doesn’t detract from this book’s usefulness; it just means you wouldn’t want to use it as a translation.

What’s in the book

First, there are 15 pages of introduction – to the Shuogua, to trigrams as spirits and guides, and to the historical context for the development of the bagua, its systems and arrangements. This covers the ‘Later Heaven’, King Wen arrangement (the oldest), the ‘Early Heaven’, Fuxi arrangement, and also the trigrams as family. And here is one of those many places in Stephen K’s work where I want more.

For example, he talks about pairing the trigrams within the bagua arrangements to create hexagrams, but does this in the (to me) counter-intuitive way of reading the trigrams as though one were inverted. For instance, the central axis of the King Wen arrangement contains zhen and dui, which combine to form hexagrams 17 and 54. But Stephen opts to read straight across the axis and see hexagrams 31-32 (gen and dui, or xun and zhen) here. I’d love to know why he’s chosen to do this, and what effect he feels this bagua-based input has on the interpretation of the hexagrams. There’s some information on this in the Bagua section of the book, where he briefly mentions trigrams that work together and the hexagrams they form. I’d just like to read more.

The same goes for using the trigrams’ family relationships to understand hexagrams, and the assertion that ‘the inner square [of the Fuxi order] can be read horizontally, vertically, diagonally and through inversion, producing a list of the major architectural sites in the making of Change.’ (Stephen’s work often leaves me feeling this way – no bad thing, I think. I suspect that if we watch the articles section of greatvessel.com, we’ll find all the ‘further reading’ anyone could want.)

After the introduction comes a translation of the Shuogua‘s first part, and the opening lines of the second. Then comes the real meat of the book, the ‘Bagua’, where he gathers traditions together for each trigram. He draws on the Shuogua, but also on the Tuanzhuan for the hexagrams formed by doubling these trigrams, and on some traditions (especially medical ones) not present in the Yijing. He identifies the source for each section clearly, making it easy to refer back and forth between this and a more direct translation if you wish. Free translation alternates with personal commentary, presenting a range of ways to ‘live’ the trigrams.

I was startled to see that, when introducing the translation, Stephen makes no mention of the Daxiang. In the introduction, he passes over it in a few somewhat dismissive sentences as a text that ‘reflects the concerns of the Shuogua into the moral sphere’ and is about ‘proper behaviour’. (I think there’s rather more to it.) But I needn’t have worried; in the first commentary section for each trigram, there’s a sentence beginning, ‘The Realizing Person reflects this by…’. So the Daxiang does make an appearance.

Also in this initial commentary there’s a note on the trigram structure, insights from the hexagram formed when that trigram doubles, and commentary on the EOC character for the trigram/hexagram. (Also some really good stuff: ‘[Li] is the bird of the spirit shining in the net of our words and language’; ‘Kan/Pit brings heavy labor, dancing in the River of Ghosts’.) Then comes ‘The Scholar Speaks’, a free translation of parts of the Tuanzhuan for the hexagram. Then ‘Explanation’ and ‘Invocation’, both of them verses from the Shuogua. The ‘Invocation’ begins with the formula, ‘Through [this gua] you become…’ – which I like. And then there’s a final personal commentary, where you’ll find nuggets from Chinese medical tradition, and also some very usable information on how the trigram works in inner and outer positions
“As the inner trigram [Li] generates a warmth and inner clarity that provides spiritual guidance. As the outer trigram, she reveals the Bright omens that let you find your direction in the world.”

In a nutshell? If you want a direct, unembellished translation of the Shuogua, don’t buy this; buy Rutt, or Wu Jing Nuan, or RJ Lynn. If you want to move deeper into your readings by immersing yourself in the world of the trigrams, do buy this.