The Great Vessel Blog

Wang Bi - A founder of the modern I Ching

Apologies - The earlier post on this went out in error.

The I Ching does not end with any statement about its perfection or the cursing of anyone who adds or removes from it. It has a long tradition of changing to meet the ideas and times in which it is used. Originally it was probably a divinatory system which existed within shamanistic practices. The central ideas were of influencing the ancestors and spirits who were thought to affect the world in which people lived.

By the 9th Century BCE the Zhouyi had been written down. It was now an instrument to penetrate the nature of the time and to divine what actions would or would not be in accord with it. By this time it was believed that those actions which were in accord with the time would be advantageous and those which were not would not go well. Essentially Daoist in nature this earliest layer consisted of the Hexagram glyph or name; the hexagram or gua; the hexagram statements (Judgement in Wilhelm) and the line statements.

Around about the 5th or 6th century BCE the first and second wings (the Tuan Zuan) were added. These were the Commentary on the Judgements and Line Statements, also called the Images. They were largely Confucian in character. Sometime in the Han Dynasty the 6th and 7th wings, the Dazhuan or Great Commentary was added. This is a profound work, perhaps Daoist in nature, and which is still regarded as a keystone to Chinese Spiritual thought.

Still in the Han dynasty the last of the Ten Wings were added. Together these Wings were the only texts to be included in the Zhouyi to form the I Ching. However by this time it would have been possible to fill a library with scholarly works, essays and commentaries.

The heritage of the commonly used I Ching and its slide across to Confucian values was not an even path. Taking the 2nd layer of developments, the Tuanzhuan (1st and 2nd Wings) and the Xiangzhuan (3rd and 4th Wings): Originally these focussed on divination. Whether those who wrote them down were ignorant of their meaning, or whether they chose to change it, is not known. Whichever way there was a radical change of both syntax and of the meaning of some words to make them conform with Confucian values. Later older texts were added as wings and some of these were nearer to Daoism in their values.

This was the world into which Wang Bi was born. It was also a world of political instability which ensued at the end of the Han Dynasty, one of the key formative periods for the I Ching. Born in 226 Wang Bi died in 249 at 23 years of age. He served in Cao Shuang’s court as a tailing, a Court Gentleman. These were turbulent times and when Cao Shuang was deposed in 249 Wang Bi was dismissed from court service. He died of a pestilence shortly afterwards.

In his short life he wrote a commentary on the Daodejing; the Zhouyi lueli (General Remarks on the Changes of Zhou) and commentaries on the Judgements, Line Statements, Commentary on the Judgements and Commentaries of the Line Statements. “A Confucian rather than a sectarian Daoist, Wang Bi wanted to create an understanding of Daoism that was consistent with Confucianism but which did not fall into what he considered to be the errors of the Celestial Masters and their popular religious practices.” Much of his work was retained by the great neo Confucian reformers, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, who did much to establish the I Ching as a Confucian classic.

In the 18th Century there was a great redaction of the I Ching. It resulted in the publishing of the Chou-i-che-chung, or Kang Hsi, or Palace Edition of the I Ching. This edition drew heavily on the work of Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi and so too included much of Wang Bi’s work.

It is this Palace Edition that is so often used as the basis of modern translations. Wilhelm’s translation is from this edition. Richard Jonn Lynn has published a wonderful translation of Wang Bi’s I Ching which includes his essay and some of the principles which he believed underpinned it. (Columbia University Press 1994).

Wang Bi reported that when a new palace was being constructed the workmen found copies of texts pertaining to the Zhouyi. These were written in an older, unknown, script. It is thought that he had access to a number of older texts which are now lost. This is another reason why his work is so valuable. Ronnie Littlejohn has a web page about Wang Bi and his work which I enjoyed immensely.

Richard Smith’s I Ching Bibliography

Professor Smith of Rice University appears to have updated his I Ching pages  and more recent works are now included.

He has a good list of western language I Ching works which are organised by topic. It is not exhaustive, but it is a useful list nevertheless.

There is also a pdf file of the 64 hexagram names as used by 12 well known translators.

The Roots of Western Mysticism

Some months ago I was talking to a specialist bookseller. She was quite unusual in that she seemed to have read nearly all of the books she was selling. The conversation turned to Mysticism and Peter Kingsley. It would be easy to describe him as a scholar of ancient Greek works, but this would be to miss the depth and spiritual knowing which he brings to his work.

His books begin by exploring the writings of Parmenides who is credited as being the father of logic and the foundation on which Plato claims to have built. These are the roots of our modern world. In this extraordinary work Peter Kingsley re-translates Parmenides showing how and where he has been misunderstood in the past. He successfully re-claims this great work from the logicians and replaces it where it belongs as a major work of mystic wisdom.

Parmenides' world was one of using dreams and divination to heal and to govern. It was a world where wisdom was master and where the ‘real’ was something larger than the concrete world we measure today. So what has this to do with the Yijing and divination? The Yijing is itself a wisdom divinatory system, so what need of more wisdom? Parmenides poem is a report of a conversation he had with the Goddess. She explains much about the nature of the world and our lives within it. All the way through I found myself nodding and ah-ing. It forms an outer layer of a universal understanding in which the Yijing fits very comfortably. What’s more it is of the ancient root of western culture which had gathered knowledge from Mongolia, Nepal, Tibet, India and Persia before eventually being murdered by the Platonist logical world view. It survived by slipping across to Alexandria to be preserved by the Hermetic orders in Egypt.

Peter Kingsley writes exceptionally well. He manages to evidence his work whilst preserving the imaginal nature of the piece. Reading it is a curious experience. One moment he takes the reader through the evidence of how he came to this view or that and the next he lifts us into an imaginal realm where the ideas can be felt and appreciated. At times his sharp wit had me roaring with laughter.

The first book, “In the Dark Places of Wisdom” lays out some of the ideas arguments and background. To some degree I found it a little repetitive and frustrating though it does lay a good foundation to his second book, “Reality”, which is extraordinary. He sums up what he is doing in his work here.

This work is an uplifting journey of soul discovery.

A Beautiful Yijing Place.

Following on from the previous blog on Candid’s Cave…

Allied to this site is the wonderful work of Coyote. Coyote (aka LiSe Heyboer has studied and written on the Yijing for many years. I think she has an extraordinary depth of perception and sensitivity. This site is an imaginative experiment. It’s a place to reflect on word images and pictures relating to the Yijing.

I am not sure where the work by Bruce ends or where Coyote begins… maybe they just happen to howling at the same moon. It’s good to find a place where beauty matters and where images and meanings drift about so carelessly and with such ease. Wandering here stilled my mind and fed my spirit... I shall be returning.

The Yijing Arizona Style

Here’s a site which is a little different. Candid’s Cave

Bruce Grilli is a little different too. He teaches the Yijing as well as doing readings for folk. I have read his work online for a few years now. He has an ability to make short pithy statements which go straight to the heart of a matter. Though he can growl a bit he actually has extraordinary sensitivity. I put it down to all of that Arizona desert sand which must get into his coffee.

I am really pleased to see that he has at last started his Pithy Yijing (my term). Obviously it runs into some trouble as brief statements cannot hold the complexity of images which the Yijing evokes. Having said that, Bruce is thought provoking. He makes no attempt to hold back, please folk, or get it just right… You get your beans on a tin plate and the coffee is strong and black. Sit back and enjoy some unadorned, hard earned, wisdom. You might not like what you hear, but his takes are his and he doesn't really mind.

Taking a break with some Chinese Myths and Stories

The weather in London is dull and cool this weekend. Good reading weather. I came across this wonderful British Chinese website which has a couple of dozen renditions of traditional Chinese myths or stories. They are simply told, but enjoyable. Just the thing to sit down to for a break between chores with a pot of tea. 

These are a good opening to the stories and myths which would have been circulating in the minds of the early Chinese when they read the Yijing. In this way they would have had a strong influence on how they perceived the brief lines of the Yi. I will give an example of this in the next blog.  

An Easter Blog - 'The Hidden Sayings of Jesus'

I recently watched a documentary on the lost Gospel of Judas. Though it was interesting the thing that struck me was the discussion of the Gnostics and the other 16 or so gospels which were excluded from the ‘Bible’ in the early centuries AD. One of the people being interviewed pointed out that some of these were the ‘advanced teachings’ which were not suitable for the every day promulgation of the faith. She made particular mention of St Thomas’ Gospel. Its full title is ‘The Gospel of St Thomas - 'The Hidden Sayings of Jesus’.

Though I am not a Christian I was intrigued. I went off and read this gospel and was amazed. All the way through it I saw echoes of Mysticism.

(2) Jesus said: He who seeks, let him not cease seeking until he finds; and when he finds he will be troubled, and when he is troubled he will be amazed, and he will reign over the All.

(11) Jesus said, "This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. And the dead (elements) are not alive, and the living (elements) will not die. In the days when you (plur.) used to ingest dead (elements), you made them alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day that you were one, you made two. And when you are two, what will you do?"

(18) The disciples said to Jesus: Tell us how our end will be. Jesus said: Since you have discovered the beginning, why do you seek the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who shall stand at the beginning (in the beginning), and he shall know the end, and shall not taste death.

 

I can see how a Church which was beginning to seek order and control over its members would find the Gnostics and their focus on personal spiritual experience a bit of a problem. Eventually of course they were crushed by the Church.

For me the Yijing is a direct connection back to this personal experience and knowing. Gnosticism is perhaps a deep part of our being.

The Eight Houses method of consulting Yi.

Harmen Mesker has generously allowed us to host this article. It can be downloaded from here.

He takes us on an investigative journey, first exploring who Jing Fang was and what happened to him before going on to explain the techniques which he developed.

He offers us a glimpse into the Han dynasty court which appears to have been treacherous for the unwary or for those who made mistakes. Equally interesting are his comments on the Chinese concepts of Po and Shen, the earth bound soul and the heaven oriented spirit which together were seen as making up our spiritual identity.

I was particularly taken by the idea of the ‘Self Line’ (Shi Yao) and the ‘Other Line’ (Ying Yao) and shall be looking at my readings to see what light these shed upon them.

Harmen carefully assembles the shards of this approach with diagrams and tables to enable the reader to explore further. This is great research and it is definitely worth a read.

Harmens website can be found here.