Yi-Blog

Something I posted in Clarity today that I like to record here too.


38.K'uei / Opposition - Page 10 - I Ching Community

It really tickles me to death the ongoing effort of stripping Confucius and his school from the Yijing, like some kind of taint soiling the work. As if one should wash the mouth after uttering his name... As it is, the Yijing IS a Confucian Classic. The Zhouyi is another story. From whatever old extant exegesis we have available, that school has been commenting the Yi (Zhouyi) from a time earlier than the oldest version of the Yi found thus far (Mawangdui). There is no Yijing without the Confucian School. Furthermore, what we have received is the Yijing, not the Zhouyi proper, which remains a mystery other than a few quotes found in old history records like the Zuo Zhuan. We do have a proposed separation of the Zhouyi text, what it perhaps looked like, within the received YIJING itself, which comes from what classical school?? Yes, the Confucian School. So, if we follow that train of thought, how do we know the whole thing, all the text received and attributed to the original Zhouyi--and we are talking about the text here--, isn't a Confucian fabrication in its entirety? Can we trust them to tell us that the Tuan Ci and Yao Ci is the original Zhouyi part of the Yijing but distrust them in the parsing of the text?

So, my point is, dismissing the received parsing of the text because of the possibility of it being a biased pipe-dream of a bunch of Neo-Confucians under the orders of the Kangxi Emperor, is in itself a biased, non-objective view, in the opposite direction, of their work.

As I've said, or at least implied, I'm not a revisionist regarding the received Chinese text of the Yijing. And I'm not because if we are going to revise the text, then we have to revise the whole classic, not only the attributed Zhouyi part of it. At that point we may as well realize to be holding water in our hands as the reality of the Yijing itself will shift. Mind you, I'm the first one in line to bury my head in obscure books, searching for the historical origins of the text, however, at some point I realized that I had to separate the material studied from the received text as they are, although related, completely separate entities.

On the other hand, anyone is free to play with the text. Just don't expect serious arguments of interpretation based on the free-handling of it as it will be only a game...

Allan Lian posted an interesting note about the Yijing and what really takes to study the classic: A Lifetime

It is also good to note that, while it is a good idea to read and learn about the Yi, it is also a good idea to know one's limits in its knowledge. Many people, with a only few years of reading and using the Yi, feel otherwise compelled to, and capable of, holding debates about it with those that have spent most of their life dedicated to its study. Even those life-timers, if sincere, will tell you that they are but mere students of something that cannot be exhausted.

A touch of Ancients, Buddhas, Immortals and Zhouyi

Like any earnest and sincere student, try to remain hidden until you are ready to appear in the field, or the Kung Fu version to ‘descend the mountain’ (xia shan), so to speak, to enter into discourses with likeminded fellows. (Think of the first and second lines of Qian / The Creative) If our basics and foundations are not strong enough, we could be easily influenced by incorrect teachings of others in the World Wide Web or by some New Age translations.

If change can be so easily understood or seen, the holy sages need not write down its patterns and images in the Book of Changes (Yijing, the Yi) for posterity. Neither would the great Chinese sages, the wise and the learned, need to devote much time in studying this ancient Chinese classic, if it was not other than profound.

Technorati Tags: I Ching, Yijing

It appears the Yijing is a book of choice for Chinese prisoners, a tradition that, according to legend and history, goes back to one of the founders of the Zhou Dinasty, some 3000 years ago. Yes, I can see how the Yi can keep one from going insane in such a situation...

CHINA – HONG KONG Ching Cheong:“Once you're caught in” that spiral, suicide “can be the end” - Asia News

He found comfort in reading philosophical and religious writings, including the Bible, Buddhist classics and the I Ching, an ancient Chinese text also called the Book of Changes. He also tried to keep in touch with what was happening “outside.”

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I found this interesting blog, by Manyul Im, while reading Sam Crane's blog. Then I found a nice discussion about the concept of "Junzi". Below is my own comment to the thread. (more as a record of my wandering brain droppings than for its actual usefulness...)


Gentlemen Prefer Bronze « Manyul Im’s Chinese Philosophy Blog

Hi,

I found this site by pure coincidence and being mentioned in Sam Crane’s blog.

Regarding this particular ‘junzi’ discussion, I’m very surprised that no mention whatsoever has been made regarding such concept, and it its numerous appearances, in the text of the Yijing. This is a subject of innumerable discussions regarding the proper translation of the term among serious Yixue students. I believe Richard Wilhelm, in his translation of the classic, spoiled our collective Western mindset by translating it as “Superior Man”. A more contemporary translation among Yixue students gears towards the consensus of “Jun1 zi3″ meaning “noble one” and/or “young noble,” both of these carrying its own interpretation depending on the context of the hexagram, one being used as an adjective and the other as a noun. Of course, we thread on thin ice when trying to properly translate a term with a very ancient conceptual use. It isn’t as simple as picking up a dictionary and looking for the characters’ meaning. We must try to discern its original contextual meaning, going back more than 2500 years.

In the overall text of the Yijing (as opposed to the bare Zhouyi) somebody recently made an interesting observation and pointed to an otherwise obvious distinction–and thus hard to notice–between the term appearing in the Yaoci of many hexagram lines and the term appearing in the Da Xiang:

quote

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The second is surely the confucian «person of noble character», but the JunZi of which you’re speaking is earlier and less perfect. (the one in the Yaoci; my note)

unquote

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All the best and I’ll bookmark your site.

Luis

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Every time I hear or read about "throwing the I Ching the wrong way" I feel puke coming up in my throat. Get a clue, people, specially journalists that should know better about doing their home-work.


Eli Stone -- New York Magazine TV Review

According to Eli Stone, the hotshot San Francisco lawyer whose vivid hallucinations may be coded messages from a higher power, some clarity would be helpful: “God needs to be a little less oblique.” This, of course, has been a plaint of saints and sinners ever since our species first looked into its own entrails. Why must oracles reply in riddles? How come the undead so often sound like Carlos Castaneda? What if we threw the I Ching in the wrong direction? From Calista Flockhart in Ally McBeal to Jennifer Love Hewitt in Ghost Whisperer, thin young women in very short skirts hear voices, see visions, and get hysterical. All of this could have been avoided with plain English. As Little Baron Snorck von Chulnt explained in Louis Zukofsky’s comic novel Little, “If you want me to understand, you’d better speak in a different anguish.”

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Today I received the sweetest email from Jane Schorre, one of the lady authors of "Yijing, Wondering and Wandering". She was concerned that she might have offended me with her comments to the link to my page in their website. My reply was a rotund NO. There is no way somebody like her, a fellow, and very knowledgeable Yijing aficionado would offend me by making a remark like that, specially a remark that makes me think about my "artistic" work.

Bear with me on this. She did make me think about the cartoons and I wish I had more feedback like hers. My goal is that the cartoons work like epiphanies with somebody that has some knowledge of the Yijing; an instant recognition. If they don't work like that, then I must be doing something wrong and assuming too much on the level of knowledge needed to read them. Obviously, I do make them to have fun with them myself, but if that was the only goal, they would be kept private. By sharing them, I want to share the "why" I think they are funny. Thus, I must figure out how can I best make them readable by all.

I certainly thank Jane for being candid. It show that she is a very real lady.

A couple of weeks ago I was honored to have my Yi Toons site linked by the ladies that brought us the book "Yijing Wondering and Wandering", Jane Schorre and Carrin Dunne. I believe their book gives a very good insight into the history and workings of the Yi and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

The one thing that had me thinking is the comments attached to my link:

A light hearted site by Luis Andrade, featuring his Yi-cartoons and an accompanying Yi-blog. Seems to be geared toward a small "in" group of Yi-aficionados. Most of his cartoons are over my head, but it is great to se someone having fun with Yijing and I say, "More power to him"

Makes me wonder about my assumptions regarding my target "audience"... I realize that to really "get" the cartoons a reader must know something about the Yijing; however, they should not fly "over the head" of fellow Yi-aficionados, specially not of the caliber of published Yi-aficionados. The cartoons are designed, albeit humorously, based upon the text of the Yijing and its implied concepts. They are conceived as "dialogues" between hexagrams because I believe one way to conceptualize the transition from an "obtained hexagram" and a "resulting hexagram," the one that is created once the moving lines of the first are mutated to their opposite, is a conversation between the two. This concept is a perfect fit to find humor in the Yi. Mind you, this is a very personal concept and point of view and perhaps is not shared by all fellow aficionados. This, I accept and respect; however, once the concept is clear, even if it is not accepted, the cartoons should be easy to understand with a little knowledge of the Yijing.

The cartoons are also conceived as an invitation to find their "punch line" by whetting the curiosity of the readers, specially novices, and having them study the Yijing seriously enough to pass over the "fun hill" of divination and find the deeper layers of this timeless classic.

As for inspiration, I find it everywhere. One source is the Yi forums I attend and goof around, specially Clarity, which is where I spend most of my time. There is never a shortage of questions and combinations of hexagrams to find hilarious and cartoonish "situations". Those people yes, I consider them to be my "in" crowd, but, the goal, wish and hope, is that the "out" crowd finds a way "in" by studying the classic deeper.

The other day I wrote an entry in my Spanish blog about this. I'd like to translate it so there are no ambiguities regarding how I feel about this:

One of the bad things about the Web is that one becomes a mercenary reader--well, we should not blame the Web entirely, deep down, all of us are mercenary readers... Much to read and little time to do it. What is worst is that all of this subtracts from whatever time we have to write our own stuff. Where did the month of April go? It isn't lack of ideas but, one cannot read and write at the same time. Perhaps you can take notes about something you are reading, but write, write, it is an exclusive acitivity. Days go by and weeks are compressed in hours.

Something I wanted to write for a while has to do with one of the great classics in human history, the I Ching. (If perhaps you've been living under a rock and don't know what the I Ching is and why it is considered a "classic", don't be lazy and search for information) What I wanted to comment about, and make clear, is what the book it is not: A system that lends itself, or caves in, to dogmatism. (in the first definition of the word: 1 : positiveness in assertion of opinion especially when unwarranted or arrogant)  Of course, the bad thing is that there will always be someone that believes he found the key and the truth behind the I Ching and will teach "his/her version", what he/she understands as truth. The danger is not for himself--each one of us understands the I Ching in a very personal way--but for those that are formed through the teachings of those that see things this way and wrap them in dogmas that do not exist.

For those that may want to get closer to the I Ching I have some advise: if you really want to objectively learn,  find your own materials, read at your discretion, use it and form your own conclusions. If after a few years of studying and using the I Ching (I repeat, "a few years") you believe to have reached the limits of your comprehension and need to advance in your studies, it is always possible to find somebody that has more experience and other points of view to share. Try to stay away from those that call themselves "Masters of the I Ching", in any language. Those, in and by themselves, do not exist. Those that name themselves "Masters", from the very first moment, are throwing out the window the humbleness needed to comprehend something about the I Ching.

With a little shame, since it can be interpreted as lack of modesty to mention years of study and experience, and to assert what I'm sharing, I must say that after some 33 years of study and constant use of the I Ching, and having a whole library dedicated to it, I still feel like an infant regarding my understanding of the vastness of this classic. Yes, I can talk and write extensively about it; explain as many techniques are used to consult the I Ching; how to personally interpret answers to consultaions; explain rules and temporal parameters; what kind of philosophies have been born and formed based on it; etc., etc., but, erudition, in the case of the I Ching, it is not synonymous with "Mastery." The same way it applies to me, it applies to all.

To the beginners: be advised and avoid falling in dogmatic traps.  

Just before some smart-assed commentator throws the "dogmatic" ball back at me for asserting things that can be construed as such, let me clarity that my only "dogma" is to eradicate them all and invite each and every one of you to form your own, independent opinions about the Yijing, sans "Masters." If that can indeed be construed as "dogmatic", so be it.

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