The other day, after a series of readings circulating between hexagrams 58, 47, 48, 57, I noticed another little nugget of patterns within the Sequence of hexagrams.
Hexagram 37 describes life inside the home, defined by its boundaries (37.1). Hexagram 38 is outside the walls: opposed, seeing differently, alien.
Hexagram 47 describes life trapped inside walls. Hexagram 48 reaches down within walls to a source that flows everywhere, and brings out fresh water to share.
Hexagram 57 shows the inner seals and influences that shape things from within. Hexagram 58 shows the enlivening, refreshing effect of bringing all this out into the light of day and sharing it.
The nuclear hexagram of 47 and 58 is 37; the nuclear hexagram of 48 and 57 is 38.
Hi Hilary,
That is correct. If you have a copy of Shaughnessy’s doctoral dissertation, “The Composition of the Zhouyi,” he discusses this observation (ch. 4, pgs 171-74). Also, Schuyler Cammann, in his article “Chinese Hexagrams, Trigrams, and the Binary System,” (Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol 135, No. 4, Dec/1991) makes this comment, talking about the Wen Wang sequence:
[quote]Some scholars have assumed that certain pairs of hexagrams in this Wen Wang set may have been placed together because the meanings read from their respective lines appeared to be either complementary or contrasting. But in most cases the opposing shapes in each pair of hexagrams merely suggest possible yin-yang symbolism, with no related meanings.[/quote]
Best
L
Shaughnessy actually discusses the position of hexagrams within ‘decades’ and what they have in common? And nuclear hexagrams? I had no idea.
I’m looking forward to someone building an overarching theory that will integrate all these smaller patterns. Meanwhile I’ll just keep finding the bricks…
++++I’m looking forward to someone building an overarching theory that will integrate all these smaller patterns. Meanwhile I’ll just keep finding the bricks…++++
Yes. Isn’t it cool to have these kind of epiphanies on your own? I enjoy them a lot, my own and that of others. However, with such an old classic, with thousands of years of piled up commentaries, serious students, such as yourself (and I consider myself another one), are bound to find that somebody else in history has had similar revelations.
You made a good point, though, about a work integrating those patterns. I guess it is a matter of sitting down and start writing, rather than reading so much. I speak for myself, of course, as for all the silly snippets I drop around all the time, I’m the laziest one to seriously sitting down and write. Mind you, even if I wasn’t so lazy, I’m not sure I still have enough of the knowledge needed to pull that together… 🙂
Could you point me towards a copy of Shaughnessy’s dissertation? I had no idea he was into decades – thought that was Scott Davies’ domain.
Will PM you later with some info… 🙂
Very strange, because right now I am working on a very large project that I call “House of Opposites”. I deal with many patterns.
Best: – Glen
Thanks for the PM 🙂
Shaughnessy, page 171:
I didn’t find any mention of this little featurette of three sets of -7s and -8s, or anything about decades at all.
Glen, are you looking at the pattern of complementary hexagrams in the Sequence? Fascinating stuff.