The Yi Jing is a Chinese manual whose title can be translated as “Classic of Changes” or “Book of Changes”. The correct translation would be close to “Memory or canonical treatise of the Molt” and its principle would be to examine the potential traces of the change in progress, present and future. It is also the divination that we carry out using this book which is also sometimes called Zhou Yi, that is to say “changes of Zhou”.
Its development dates from the beginning of the first millennium BC, the Western Zhou period. It occupies a fundamental place in the history of Chinese thought and can be considered a unique treatise whose purpose is to describe the states of the world and their developments. It is the first of the five classics and therefore considered the oldest Chinese text.
The Yi Jing is the fruit of elaborate speculative and cosmogonic research, the articulations of which have lastingly informed Chinese thought. Its mathematical structure impressed Leibniz who saw it as the first formulation of binary arithmetic. In fact, starting from an opposition/complementarity between the Yin and Yang principles (adret and ubac, sun and moon, male and female, active and passive, etc.) and subdividing this duality in a systematic way, the Yi Jing arrives at the series of 64 states and all possible transformations between them.
“The Yi-King or Book of Transformations of archaic Chinese magic provides the most exemplary image of the identity of the Genetic and the Genetic. The circular loop is a cosmogonic circle symbolically swirling through the interior S which both separates and unites Yin and Yang. The figure is formed not from the center but from the periphery and is born from the meeting of movements of opposite directions. Yin and Yang are intimately intertwined, but distinct, they are at the same time complementary, competitive, antagonistic. The primordial figure of the I-King is therefore a figure of order, of harmony, but carrying within itself the idea of a whirlwind and the principle of antagonism. It is a figure of complexity. » - Edgar Morin, The Method 1. The Nature of Nature, p. 228, Seuil, Paris, 1977.
Probability and Yi Jing
Introduction
The Chinese Book of Changes, Yi Jing, was compiled, as we know today, by King Wen at the end of the Shang Dynasty in the 12th century BC. Its sources were the Sybilline traditions used by the sages of the Shang Dynasty, which, according to legend, were originally conceived at the dawn of civilization by the mythical culture hero Fu XI, who had also invented the writing, fishing, and trapping.
The Book of Changes serves as a repository of timeless wisdom and oracle that can be accessed using a number of divinatory methods. All such methods involve the construction of a figure (named a "hexagram" by Legge and subsequent Western followers) composed of six elements, each element being or a line the simple segment (------), considered Yang or “light,” or a divided line segment (— —), considered Yin or “darkness.”
Each of the 64 possible hexagrams has its own meaning and sybilline value, which is described in Yi Jing’s text and his commentaries known as the “Ten Wings,” written by philosophers of the Confucian school. Furthermore, Yi Jing provides for the construction of a secondary hexagram of the primary hexagram based on the special boxes of Yin and "moving lines called by Yang. » Each moving line in the primary hexagram has a special commentary written by the Duke of Zhou (son of King Wen, and younger brother of King Wu, who founded the Zhou dynasty). The secondary hexagram is formed as the moving lines of Yang “change” into lines of Yin, and the moving lines of Yin “transform” in Yang lines. The secondary hexagram thus formed has its own sybilline value which must be considered in the context of that of the primary hexagram and its moving lines.
The two traditional methods of constructing a hexagram are “the yarrow stem method.” and the “coin method.”u
The yarrow stem method
- To use the yarrow stem method, start with a bundle of 50 straight, dry stems of the yarrow herb.
- A stem is set aside and not used yet.
- The bundle of the other 49 rods is then divided into two bundles.
- A rod is taken from the right side bundle and placed between the ring and pinky finger of the left hand.
- The left side bundle is then taken in the left hand, and rods are removed from there and set aside in groups of 4 using the right hand, up to 4 or fewer remaining.
- The remaining rods are placed between the middle and ring fingers of the left hand.
- The right side bundle is then taken into the left hand, and rods are removed from there and set aside in groups of 4 using the right hand, up to 4 or fewer remaining.
- The remaining rods are placed between the index and middle fingers of the left hand.
- All the number of rods between the fingers of the left hand are then counted and noted. The possibilities are 9 and 5. Nine stem results with a value of 2, and five stem results with a value of 3. Here are the possible results of the first operation:
| Between index and middle fingers: | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Between the middle and the ring fingers: | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Between the ring and the little fingers: | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
| 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
- These 9 or 5 stems are then set aside and the remaining bundle of 40 or 44 stems are divided and similarly counted out. This time, eight stem results with a value of 2, and four stem results with a value of 3. Here are the possible results of the second operation:
| Between index and middle fingers: | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Between the middle and the ring fingers: | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Between the ring and the little fingers: | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
- These 8 or 4 rods are then set aside and the remaining bundle of 32, 36 or 40 rods is divided and similarly counted out for a third operation, the possible results of which are identical to those of the second operation .
- Each operation has now produced a value of 2 or 3, and these three values are now added together to produce a total of 6, 7, 8, or 9. The totals of 6 and 8 yield a line of < em>Yin (— —), totals 7 and 9 yield a line of Yang (------). A total of 6 is considered a moving line of Yin (— X —), and a total of 9 is considered a moving line of Yang (---o ---).
- This first line is placed at the bottom of the hexagram and the entire operation is repeated five
times to produce the remaining five lines. The sixth line is placed above the hexagram.
The Coin Method
The other traditional method of constructing a hexagram uses three coins instead of 50 yarrow rods, and is considerably faster than the yarrow rod method.
- To use the coin method, you start with three similar coins. One side of each coin is assigned the value of 2, the other side is assigned the value of 3. If old Chinese coins are used, the side with Chinese characters is assigned the value of 2.
- Each of the three coins is tossed into the air immediately and the values of the visible sides are added to produce a total of 6, 7, 8, or 9. Thus, a simple toss of three coins of money produces the equivalent of the three operations of the yarrow stem method.
- The coins are then tossed into the air five more times to build the rest with hexagram. Again, the hexagram is constructed from the bottom upwards.
Probabilistic comparison of yarrow stem and coin methods
Follow the method, the probability of obtaining a Yin line or a Yang line is equal. The probability of getting one or the other is once in two tries, or ½, or 50%. Following either method, the probability of getting any particular hexagram occurs once in 64 tries, or 1/64. However, the probability of getting a moving line versus a stable line differs depending on which method is employed, as follows:
Note that with the yarrow stem method, it is easier to obtain a moving line of Yang and more difficult to obtain a moving line of Yin. This anomaly in probability is all due to the first operation of the yarrow stem method, which is skewed toward an outcome value of 3 versus that of 2 by a factor of 3 to 1.
A modified coin method
The coin method can be modified to give approximately the same probabilities as the yarrow stem method, as follows. Identify one of the three coins by some distinction in size, color, age, etc.; or paint a small dot on one of the coins, on the side that is rated 2. When all three coins are discarded and the “special” coin is discarded read 3, the values of the three coins are added as usual. However, if the special coin reads 2, the special coin is tossed again, and then the values of the three coins are added.
The flat stick method
Aleister Crowley was an avid student of Yi Jing, and frequently consulted the oracle throughout his adult life. He usually obtained his hexagrams following a non-traditional method of his own design. He used six flat, wooden sticks, which had a notch cut into the center of one side. He painted the inside of the cuts red for contrast. With his eyes closed, he would blur the six and spread them out in front of him to form a hexagram, from bottom to top. Lines of Yin would be indicated by the sticks with the notched sides up, and lines of Yang would be indicated by the sticks with the unbroken sides up. This flat stick method reports the same probability of getting any particular hexagram as the yarrow rod method or coin method, and it has the added benefit of providing a graphical representation of the hexagrams.
Crowley obviously employed at least two methods to obtain "the moving lines" to consult the text on the lines by the Duke of Zhou. One method was to push one or more sticks lightly to the side, based on “feel,” to indicate moving lines. Another method is indicated by the fact that one of Crowley’s sticks was identified by the paint on one end. The marked stick would indicate a single moving line in each hexagram obtained. Obviously, the probability of getting a mobile line would be very different with the latter method than with either of the two traditional methods. One moving line will always occur in each hexagram rolled, and there will never be more than one moving line in any hexagram rolled. This would obviously provide a simpler oracle to interpret, but it would also be somewhat lacking in subtlety compared to an oracle obtained using either of the two traditional methods.
Additionally, the text for Hexagrams I and II, Qian and Kun, both include material that applies only when all lines move lines; what material would be unusable with this method.
It is possible, however, to adapt the flat stick method, with its graphical image of the hexagram, to provide the same probabilities for moving lines as the coin method or the yarrow rod method.
To produce roughly the same probabilities as the coin method, twelve sticks must be constructed. Six of these are painted on one end only. In constructing a hexagram, each of the twelve sticks is scrambled, and six of the twelve are dealt to establish the hexagram. These lines with the painted tip of the left wing only (or the right side only - uniformity is key) are interpreted as moving lines.
To produce roughly the same odds as the yarrow rod method, sixteen sticks must be constructed, six of which are painted on one end only. The 16 sticks are scrambled, and six are dealt to construct a hexagram. Lines of Yang that are painted on either end are interpreted as moving lines; but Yin lines that are painted only on the left end (or only on the right end, as before) are interpreted as moving lines.
A final note
Probability theory is based on a fundamental assumption: that the events in question are random. If we take cryptic phenomena to be non-random, then considerations of probability are entirely irrelevant, and it is only necessary to ensure that all desired outcomes are possible. The oracle can be viewed as being guided by intelligence or a cosmic model; in which case the same hexagram would be produced for a given set of circumstances regardless of the method employed, provided the guiding intelligence had been correctly called upon by the satisfaction of the moral and ritual requirements.
On the one hand, randomness, or chaos, can be seen as an aspect of the Dao, or as a mirror of the subconscious; and the choice of different sybilline methods can be seen as an influence of the circumstances of the questioner and thus of the results of the oracle. Ultimately, consulting any oracle requires the use of a well-developed intuitive ability; and it is intuition that should be used to choose the sybilline method to be used.
by Sabazius translated into French for this site.