I Ching divination

Among the many forms of divination is a method using the I Ching or Book of Changes. The book is structured as an 8x8 matrix of sixty-four hexagrams representing the states and the dynamic relationships of the eight elements, each represented by a trigram. Throughout China's region of cultural influence (including Korea, Japan and Vietnam), scholars have added comments and interpretation to this work, one of the most important in ancient Chinese culture; it has also attracted the interest of many thinkers in the West. See the I Ching main article for historical and philosophical information.

Related Topics:
Divination - I Ching - Trigram - Korea - Japan - Vietnam

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The process of consulting the book as an oracle involves determining the hexagram by a method of random generation and then reading the text associated with that hexagram, and is a form of bibliomancy.

Related Topics:
Oracle - Random - Bibliomancy

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Each line of a hexagram determined with these methods is either stable ("young") or changing ("old"); thus, there are four possibilities for each line, corresponding to the cycle of change from yin to yang and back again:

Related Topics:
Yin - Yang

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• old yin (yin changing into yang), which has the number 6
• young yang (unchanging yang), which has the number 7
• young yin (unchanging yin), which has the number 8
• old yang (yang changing into yin), which has the number 9

Once a hexagram is determined, each line has been determined as either changing (old) or unchanging (young). Since each changing line is seen as being in the process of becoming its opposite, a new hexagram can be formed by transposing each changing yin line with a yang line, and vice versa. Thus, further insight into the process of change is gained by reading the text of this new hexagram and studying it as the result of the current change.

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I Ching divination: Methods ►