Hexagram Notes

(copyright © 2003 C. J. Lofting)

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

(last update 28 September 2003)

In the below table are links to the hexagrams of the I Ching with a selection of notes in bullet-point form asserting basic relationships of hexagrams with a focus upon hexagram pairs. These relationships have been uncovered through an analysis on how the I Ching was created and how the I Ching reflects properties of our brain in its attempts to derive meaning where the method of derivation of hexagrams automatically associates hexagrams into pairs (2), quartets (4), and octets (8).

Included in the notes are references to the binary sequence of hexagrams:

01 43 14 34 09 05 26 11 10 58 38 54 61 60 41 19 13 49 30 55 37 63 22 36 25 17 21 51 42 03 27 24 44 28 50 32 57 48 18 46 06 47 64 40 59 29 04 07 33 31 56 62 53 39 52 15 12 45 35 16 20 08 23 02

This sequence reflects ordering of hexagrams by their base trigrams from 111 (Heaven) to 000 (Earth) giving us eight octets, sets of eight hexagrams that all share the same base trigram. The trigram order, from left to right, is: Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth. Just as at the full sequence level where we have hexagrams that oppose each other (as in hexagram 01 vs hexagram 02) so in each octet, and so a LOCAL level, there is the same overall pattern of oppositions but in the form of exaggerated/balanced expressions - this is fleshed-out in the text in those sections dealing with the traditional binary sequence. but you may also want to see the particular page on exaggerations and balance in the I Ching.

The pairings in the binary sequence reflect expressions based on differences in the TOP line, where a yin line reflects an interpretation of the hexagram meaning as being focused around issues of integration, whereas a yang top line reflects an interpretation of the hexagram meaning as being focused around issues of differentiation. This relationship of differentiation/integration is reflected across the whole sequence, in the local relation of 01 to 43 and in the global relation of 01 to 02.

There is also reference to the traditional sequence of hexagrams given in the basic numeric order from 1 to 64. BOTH sequences appear to be derived using recursion and so the focus is on 32 pairs of hexagrams in each sequence. There will also be reference to a sequence called 'variations on a theme' where we see emerge a focus on quartets in the context of meaning derivation:

01 43 14 34 09 05 26 11 10 58 38 54 61 60 41 19 13 49 30 55 37 63 22 36 25 17 21 51 42 03 27 24 44 28 50 32 57 48 18 46 06 47 64 40 59 29 04 07 33 31 56 62 53 39 52 15 12 45 35 16 20 08 23 02

This sequence relates pairs of hexagrams as being variations on a theme where the variation is the BOTTOM line of the hexagram. Thus the top row of hexagrams have a yang line as base, the bottom row has a yin line as base. Each bottom-line/top-line pair reflects a basic theme 'skewed' in interpretations by the nature of the bottom line. These pairs form into quartets when associated with another, semantically-related, pair.

There are occasional references in the hexagram comments to properties in Five-Phase Theory that come through due to the association of trigrams to the theory. For some background on Five-Phase see my webpages covering the Five-Phase I Ching where we identify Five-Phase as a property of our species and of recursion and so not something unique to China but something well-developed by the ancient Chinese.

Below are given the links to pages of all 64 hexagrams with their names, general comments on trigram make-up, and the detailed comments on relationships of hexagram pairs as cooperative and competitive (opposite) forms in the expression of meaning. For information on the IDM-related properties see the links to the trigrams for each hexagram. The numbers given are the hexagrams traditional numbering as found in most modern interpretations.