Month: February 2026

The I Ching teaches there are two kinds of change: alternation and transformation. This duality is explained by a second kind of polarity – motion and rest – each of which manifests in the two forces: yang or ‘firm’(the Creative) represented by the unbroken line,  and yin or ‘yielding’ (the Receptive) represented by the broken line.¹²

“In a state of rest, the Creative is one, and in a state of motion it is straight; therefore it creates that which is great. The Receptive is closed in a state of rest, and in a state of motion it opens; therefore it creates that which is vast.”¹³

Alternatively, the firm line has unity for its quality, is one-dimensional, and is the image of the human mind while the yielding line shows vegetative movement and is the symbol of the human soul.

In any case, alternation is the change which occurs when the two forces are at rest while transformation occurs when there is motion. On the one hand motion in the unbroken line is an outward pushing by which it becomes thinner in the middle and breaks into two. On the other hand motion in the broken line is an inward pushing that forms an undivided line. The symbolism is clear; in any circumstance, transformation or reversal can occur adding novel or unexpected elements to the situation.¹⁴

Wilhelm tells us:

“…this principle of reversal of qualities also contains a maxim for action…which takes us a step further than the mere possibility of conformity in our actions… an unresisting acceptance of developments, sweeps one into the current of events from which escape is no longer possible. Only by taking up a counterposition, by confronting events with live awareness can developments be guided into the desired paths.”¹⁵

Wilhelm next offers a somewhat detailed discussion of specific hexagrams and their attendant commentary that goes beyond the scope of this site. However some concepts he discusses expand our understanding of ultimate reality in the I Ching. First it projects a mathematical order on the universe within which the hexagrams inform a kind of mystical periodic table. Second, cosmic order in the I Ching is analogous to music as exhibited by the harmony of the hexagrams and the unfolding of symphonic-like themes and variations which humans appreciate when they seek the perfection of these expressions within the natural world.¹⁶

Thirdm we learn the pinnacle of reality in the I Ching is the ‘sublime.’ From the Judgment or Tuan text, the first quality of heaven in its cyclic movement is yüan or the ‘sublime beginning.’ Combined with heng or pushing through to success, li or utility, and chen or perseverance, the cycle of creativity develops and coordinates with cosmic and human activity uniting all in ‘sublime success’ which includes beauty and justice.¹⁷ Wilhelm provides two quotations:

“Great indeed is the sublimity of the Creative, to which all things owe their beginning and which permeates heaven.”¹⁸

“Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.”¹⁹

(third continuation next post)

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¹²Wilhelm, Hellmut, Change – Eight Lectures on the I Ching. Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey, 1973. ISBN 0-691-01787-5, page 33.

¹³Ibid.

¹⁴Ibid.

¹⁵Ibid., page 34.

¹⁶Ibid., pages 48-49.

¹⁷Ibid., page 51.

¹⁸Ibid.

¹⁹Ibid.

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But the constancy of change – “change that is unchangeable”⁶ – affords a kind of security in the assurance that events are unfolding in the right direction. Wilhelm uses the example of social relations: consider how the son’s deference to his father is reiterated later in his own son’s respect for him. Natural change then is not chaotic, but analogous to the human virtue of reliability. And one’s understanding of the change or tao of heaven and earth allows one to resemble them and avoid conflict with them.

Instantiated in this tao is a duality; consistency is all-inclusive applying to the great (macrocosm) and the small (microcosm), i.e both the cosmos and the indivifual person. Human centrality in the world places us on a kind of par with cosmic forces allowing us to influence events as long as we proceed in the direction of change, not against it. Consequently we can master our own fate and impact affairs beyond us as long as we stay within natural limits.⁷ In fact, applying reflective consciousness and abstract thinking to that which is constant in the flux of nature and life provides the first guarantee of meaningful action and with it, responsiblity.⁸

A second duality is that of polarity, meaning two antithetical points which set limits on cycles of change, such as yin and yang or above and below. Such polarities imply not rigidity nor even a pole round which cyclic movements turn, but something akin to a “magnetic field” or inter-relationship which evokes change. The two most important of these are Ch’ien (the Creative, heaven, energy, bright, yang) and K’un (the Receptive, earth, form, dark, yin).⁹ Wilhelm quotes the Great Commentary twice:

“The Creative and the Receptive are the real secret of the Changes. Inasmuch as the Creative and the Receptive present themselves as complete, the changes between them are posited. If the Creative and the Receptive were destroyed, there would be nothing by which the changes could be perceived. If there were no more changes to be seen, the effects of the Creative and the Receptive would also gradually cease.”¹⁰

And,

^“The Master said: The Creative and the Receptive are indeed the gateway to the Changes. The Creative is the representation of light things and the Receptive of dark things. In that the natures of the dark and the light are joined, the firm and the yielding receive form. Thus do the relationships of heaven and earth take shape, and we enter into relation with the nature of the light of the gods.”¹¹

(further continued next post)

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⁶Wilhelm, Hellmut, Change – Eight Lectures on the I Ching. Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey, 1973. ISBN 0-691-01787-5, page 20.

⁷Ibid., pages 20-22.

⁸Ibid., page 23.

⁹Ibid., page 27-28.

¹⁰Ibid., page 29.

¹¹Ibid., page 31.

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“…The Book of Changes represented the gate to the whole man and to the whole world.” – Hellmut Wilhelm¹

The I Ching (AKA the Yi jing or the Zhou-Yi, the Changes of Zhou) was both originally a divination manual (akin to Tarot cards in the West) and “almost the only important work of metaphysics”² in early Chinese history. Its earliest origin goes back to Fu Hsi (or Fu Xi – his dates 2852-2737 B.C.E.), a legendary emperor, who invented the eight Kua or mystic triagrams that symbolize the laws and elements of nature. Each Kua consists of 3 lines, either continuous, representing yang (male, positive, active, productive, celestial, light, heat, life) or broken representing yin (female, negative, passive, earthy, dark, cold, death). From this earliest framework, we infer a metaphysics based on a mystical dualism of opposites resting upon a foundation of naturalism.

Some 1700 years later the original Book of Changes was composed by the imprisoned Ji Ch’ang (later the founding monarch of the Zhou or Chou dynasty circa 1027 B.C.E., and thus also known as King Wen). He stacked each triagram on top of itself and on top of each of the other triagrams to create 64 hexagrams (hsiangs) that further amplified the laws underpinning nature. His son. Ji Dan (Chi Tan) refined these and composed initial statements. Later thinkers, possibly including Confucius, wrote commentaries (e.g. the “Ten Wings”) based on their study of the hexagrams, thereby converting the text from a tool of prognostication into philosophy. It reached its ‘final’ canonical form under the title Yi Jing in 136 B.C.E.

Philosophically, the I Ching offers at the most basic level both a model of the cosmos and a guide to the relations of human beings with respect to the continuous change within reality and the universal interplay of opposing natural forces – yin and yang.³ As such, it can be integrated into ethics and politics (Confucianism) or cosmology and metaphysics (Taosim). It is not inherently dark, mysterious, or abstruse, rather “the easy, the simple, the naturally given.”⁴ That is to say, everyone empirically recognizes the fundamental principle of reality is continuous change, especially movement that returns to its starting point such as day and night, the seasons, the cycle of birth and death, and so forth.

But change in the I Ching references not any and all movement as its opposite is not rest or absence of motion, but instead reverse movement  – i.e regression, life’s reversal, it’s perversion. Critically, change is not an external force, but an inner tendency to natural and spontaneous development. It is also multidimensional. In the end, humans do best to acquiesce to the changes of natural movement and growth and ride it at the individual and societal levels.

Hellmut Wilhelm tells us how this is metaphysically possible:

“The fact that the movement returns to its starting point keeps it from dispersing, which movement in one dimension only cannot prevent. The infinite is thus brought within the confines of the finite, where alone it can be of service to man.”⁵

(continued next post)

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¹Wilhelm, Hellmut, Change – Eight Lectures on the I Ching. Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey, 1973. ISBN 0-691-01787-5, page ix. Wilhelm was one of a group of German-speaking ex-patriots living in Peking during the Japanese occupation. He made 8 lectures on the I Ching to other exiles at the home of Wilhelm Haas at Haas’s suggestion in the winter of 1943.

²Durant, Will, Our Oriental Heritage. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1963. ISBN0-671-54800-X, page 650. It is this second understanding of the text we are addressing here.

³McGreal, Ian P. (editor) Great Thinkers of the Eastern World. HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 1995. ISBN 0-06-270085-5, page 60.

⁴Wilhelm, Hellmut, Change – Eight Lectures on the I Ching. Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey, 1973. ISBN 0-691-01787-5, page 16.

⁵Ibid., page 20.

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“These peoples are superior to all other Asiatics in antiquity, art, intellect, wisdom, policy, and in their taste for philosophy…” – Diderot¹

Chinese political and intellectual history is both ancient and complex.² An advanced civilization developed in China at least 5000 years ago, although written records date back only to about 1500 B.C.E. Ultimate reality was viewed initially, as in most cultures, as a confusion of superstition, magic, polytheism, and ritual.

Following the fall of the Zhou (Chou) emperor in the 8^th century B.C.E., a period of squabbling feudal lords brought about sustained political instability into which were born China’s two greatest philosophers: the sixth century B.C.E. rough contemporaries – Confucius and Laozi. They offered alternate philosophical approaches to individual endurance and societal resolution of the volatile conditions existing in their time.

The better known, Confucius, was mainly a philosopher of ethics and politics. Adversity and instability could be overcome by means of individual moral behavior and virtuous governance. His humanist teachings were recorded by his students in the classic, Analects of Confucius.³ Later followers, especially Mencius, honed his teachings into a system that endured as government-sanctioned doctrine and policy into the twentieth century. Confucianism remained mostly silent on ultimate reality until it merged with Taoism and Buddhism much later to form NeoConfucianism.

Meanwhile, Laozi (previously Lao Tzu) was primarily a spiritual thinker, who blended a natural metaphysics with mystical experience to inform a kind of wisdom ethics centered on the value of quietism and wu-wei or effortless action. His only written work – and even that of apocryphal origin –  is the very short Daodejing (historically called the Tao Te Ching). His greatest follower, Zhuangzi (previously Chuang Tzu), developed Laozi’s obscure teachings into poetic lessons more accessible to the ordinary person. Taoism had a mixed history, sometimes regional and practiced secretly when out of favor and other times state-sponsored by rulers who suppressed Confucianism and Buddhism. With the advent of the NeoConfucian amalgam, many of its metaphysical principles were accepted throughout China.

(For more interested readers, I have posted a page in the appendix with a simplified chronology of Chinese political and intellectual history.²)

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¹Quoted by Will Durant in Our Oriental Heritage, page 639. Diderot is referring to the Chinese.

²See page titled Chronology of Chinese Political and Intellectual History in the appendix on this site: http://philosophicalguidance.com/chronology-of-chinese-political-and-intellectual-history/.

³See post titled Societal Duty – Part I dated 12/21/2018 on this site.

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