The Great Vessel Blog

Where Does the Yi Come From?

We have just posted Stephen’s 11th Reading.

Soshin Dreschler sent us the results to his question “Where do you come from?”, which he addressed to the Yijing. His question was prompted by his reading about the Mawangdui Silk Texts The cast oracle is both subtle and eloquent and Stephen deals with it in depth.

He begins with a brilliant excursis on the ‘Trikster’, who appears in every major divinatory system. In it explores some of the ways in which we can approach ‘Depth Divination’ and some of the pitfalls which can mislead us. He describes the metic approach and explains why it is so important in this type of reading.

He then gives the Yijing a voice, summarising its reply in a chillingly beautiful paragraph which reaches across time and space. This message is one to put on the wall, it contains both hopes and warnings.

Before going on to deal with the reading in more detail he gives us another excursis. This time on myths and the difference between Western and ancient Chinese myths. The two approaches work in different ways and this brief piece opens a door of understanding the processes involved for those working with the imagery of the Yijing.

When dealing with the transforming lines Stephen uses his Voices of the Lines approach. This dissolves those issues of how to deal with multiple moving lines which can often seem to contradict one another.

Like myself many Yijing diviners have pondered the different rules for dealing with multiple moving lines. This is much like a scientist trying to work out if the oboe or the cello should be listened to in an orchestral work! Obviously all of the instruments are contributing to the whole and it is only by listening to the sound they make together and the way they move one to the other, that the piece can be appreciated. This is what the 'Voices of the Lines' approach achieves for the reader. Stephen has written another article which goes into this in more depth. See the new article Voices of the Lines II.

He has also introduced short semantic explanations of some of the key words used in the text of the changing lines. These show how these words ‘key in’ to the meanings the text promotes giving resonance to the lines.

Before closing Stephen adds one final excursis on the term Junzi more often known as the ‘Noble One’. This small semantic piece clears up some of the confusion about the term and its use in the Yijing in different periods.

Kevin