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Xiaoxiang (Small Image)

Melon perspectives

I’m experimenting with a different kind of post: taking just one line of the Yi, looking at what the translators and interpreters make of it, and seeing what I can learn from the different perspectives. Let’s start with the fifth line of Hexagram 44, Coupling – a strange line, in… Read more »Melon perspectives

Yi in 19th Century Japan

I’ve been browsing with growing fascination through the Takashima Ekidan. Published in 1893 in Tokyo, this is an English translation by Shigetake Sugiura of an original Yijing translation by Kaemon Takashima, a successful serial entrepreneur and respected diviner. (‘Eki’ is the Japanese name for the Yi, and I believe ‘dan’… Read more »Yi in 19th Century Japan

ancient character jie

Borders and boundaries

What is Jie 介 ? The character jie 介 occurs three times in the Yi: 16.2 ‘Boundaries of stone,Not for a whole day.Constancy, good fortune.’ 35.2 ‘Now advancing, now apprehensive.Constancy, good fortune.Accepting this armour blessing from your ancestral mother.’ 58.4 ‘Negotiating opening, not yet at rest.Containing the affliction brings rejoicing.’ As… Read more »Borders and boundaries

More steps when stuck

I was writing on Saturday about a reading kindly shared by Eric Bryant of I Ching Insights (‘petrosianii‘ here at Clarity). He asked about the effect of purchasing some nicotine-free cigarettes as an aid to giving up smoking; he received first Hexagram 25 moving to 41, and then Hexagram 37… Read more »More steps when stuck