The Shuogua, ‘The explanation of the trigrams’, is the 8th Wing of the I Ching. Because it cannot be divided up by hexagram it is often omitted from western transliterations of I Ching.
Each hexagram is a dynamic symbol, a cluster of meanings and images, which are only partly revealed in the received text. The Shuogua is the key to opening up these images and the deeper richer levels of meaning.
As someone has recently emailed Great Vessel mentioning work they are doing with Hexagram 50 – Ding – So, as promissed, I shall use this as an example for the ways in which looking at the trigrams can open things up.
In hexagram 50 we have the trigram Li – Radiance, Bright Presence over the trigram Sun, Penetrating, The Lady of Fates.
Here are some extracts from Stephen Karcher’s Shuogua:
Li, “she joins things together, she adheres to things, she sees clearly; she is the bright omens, light, illuminating and discriminating; she orders things with grace and beauty; she is awareness, brightness, fire and warmth; she steps outside the norms; she separates; she is strange encounters; she is two together, belonging to each other, depending on each other. The old character shows a sign for the bright bird and a net through which one reflects and captures this brightness, a pattern of words and symbols.”
Sun, “Penetrating, matches and couples all things, giving birth to new generations. It is an opened line that enters from below, carrying the fates laid out by Heaven. The Realizing Person reflects this by involving the directives of heaven in all that he does.”
So in hexagram 50 we have an in-breath of influences, a subtle penetration of matters in the lower position, our inner world. This is an energy which informs, guides and changes us.
In the Upper position of the outer world we have Li, bright seeing, strategy, holding things together.
Together hexagram 50 can be seen as a dynamic force. In an individual we might see this as them being coupled to 'the nature of the time' inside and expressing this in the outer world as bright directions and clarity of thought and deed.
My first step with a hexagram is to consider it as part of a pair. Each hexagram is part of a Yang/Yin pair. 1:2, 3:4, 5:6 etc. The first of the pair is the stimulus, the inspiration of the idea and the second is the realization or manifestation of that energy. So 49 Stripping, Revolution is the inspiration for the time of Ding. Here the trigram Dui Joyous communication is above Li. Clear inner insight being communicated in the outer world. It strips away the old inspiring the time where Ding can manifest.
This has necessarily been a very brief outline of this method. My own experience is that this approach gives a very good foundation to reading the text.
Kevin