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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Origins of the I Ching (3000 BC)

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"In imperial China the I Ching had two distinct functions. The first was as a compendium and classic of ancient cosmic principles. The second function was that of divination text."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching#Binary_sequence

"The typical academic view is that the I Ching probably developed out of earlier methods of tortoise shell and ox shoulder-bone divination, whereby a red-hot poker was applied to a bone or shell and the random pattern of cracks examined by priests who deduced its meaning.
The typical mythological view attributes the authorship of the I Ching to China's first emperor, a god-like figure, half man, half dragon, who went by the name Fu Hsi and is said to have lived about 5,000 years ago. One day, according to legend, he saw a dragon-horse rise from the Yellow River. On it's side were markings which inspired the earliest version of the I Ching.
Almost 2,000 years later, significant changes were made to the original I Ching by King Wen of Zhou. Invited to the capital under false pretenses, he was imprisoned by the emperor for a period of seven years, where he languished awaiting a death sentence. During his imprisonment, King Wen studied the I Ching. He rearranged the 64 hexagrams in an order which appears somewhat arbitrary, given its original binary sequencing, and then wrote extensive commentaries on each of the hexagrams."……http://www.ishalerner.com/prehistoric-origins-of-the-i-ching

"In Chinese mythology, Fu Xi (Fuxi) or Fu Hsi (Fu-hsi) (Chinese: 伏羲; pinyin: Fúxī; Wade–Giles: Fu-hsi1), also known as Paoxi or Pao-hsi (simplified Chinese: 庖牺; traditional Chinese: 庖犧; pinyin: Páoxī; Wade–Giles: Pao2-hsi1), reigned during the mid-29th century BCE, was the first of the Three Sovereigns (三皇 Sānhuáng) of ancient China…..According to legend, the land was swept by a great flood and only Fu Xi and his sister Nüwa survived. They retired to the mythological Kunlun Mountain, where they prayed for a sign from the Emperor of Heaven. The divine being approved their union and the siblings set about procreating the human race. In order to speed up the process, Fu Xi and Nüwa used clay to create human figures, and with the power divine entrusted to them made the clay figures come alive.[1] Fu Xi then came to rule over his descendants, although reports of his long reign vary between sources, from 115 years (2852–2737 BCE) to 116 years (2952–2836 BCE)."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Xi

The mythological Kunlun Mountain…As the mythology related to the Kunlun Mountain developed, and was influenced by the introduction of ideas about an axis mundi from the cosmology of India were introduced, Kunlun Mountain became identified with (or took on the attributes of) Mount Sumeru. Another historical development in the mythology of Kunlun, (again with Indian influence) was that rather than just being the source of the Yellow River, Kunlun began to be considered to be the source of four major rivers flowing to the four quarters of the compass, according to Anthony Christie (1968:74). The Kunlun mythos was also influenced by developments within the Daoist tradition, causing Kunlun to be perceived more as a paradise than a dangerous wilderness. (Christie, 1968:75) Another trend argued in some recent research, is that over time, a merger of various traditions has result in an alignment of earthly paradises between an East Paradise (identified with Mount Penglai) and a West Paradise, with Kunlun Mountain identified as the West Paradise, a pole replaced a former mythic system which opposed Penglai with Guixu ("Returning Mountain", and the Guixu mythological material accumulating around Kunlun instead, through a process of merging these two original mythological systems (Yang, et al, 2005:163)."…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunlun_Mountain_(mythology)

"King Wen of Zhou (1152 – 1056 BC) was king of Zhou during the late Shang dynasty in ancient China…..King Wen is credited with having stacked the eight trigrams in their various permutations to create the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching. He is also said to have written the judgments which are appended to each hexagram. The most commonly used sequence of the 64 hexagrams is attributed to him and is usually referred to as the King Wen sequence."…..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Wen_of_Zhou

"…The King Wen sequence (Chinese: 文王卦序) is an arrangement of the sixty-four divination figures in 易經 Yì Jīng, the I Ching or Book of Changes. They are called hexagrams in English because each figure is composed of six 爻 yáo—broken or unbroken lines, that represent 陰 yin or 陽 yang respectively…..The King Wen sequence is also known as the received or classical sequence because it is the oldest surviving arrangement of the hexagrams. Its true age and authorship are unknown. Traditionally, it is said that 周文王 Zhōu Wén Wáng (King Wen) arranged the hexagrams in this sequence while imprisoned by 商紂王 Shāng Zhòu Wáng in the 12th century BC."…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Wen_sequence

"Binary sequence, also known as Fu Xi sequence or Shao Yong sequence….A different arrangement, the binary sequence named in honor of the mythic culture hero 伏羲 Fú Xī, originated in the Song Dynasty. It is believed to be the work of scholar 邵雍 Shào Yōng (1011–1077 AD). As mirrored by the 先天 Earlier Heaven and 後天 Later Heaven arrangements of the eight trigrams, or 八卦 bā guà, it was customary to attribute authorship to these legendary figures…"…..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching#Binary_sequence

"Richard S. Cook states that the I Ching demonstrated a relation between the golden ratio (aka the division in extreme and mean ratio) and "linear recurrence sequences" (the Fibonacci numbers are examples of "linear recurrence sequences") : ...the hexagram sequence, showing that its classification of binary sequences demonstrates knowledge of the convergence of certain linear recurrence sequences ... to division in extreme and mean ratio... that the complex hexagram sequence encapsulates a careful and ingenious demonstration of the LRS (linear recurrence sequences)/DEMR (division in the extreme mean ratio relation), that this knowledge results from general combinatorial analysis, and is reflected in elements emphasized in ancient Chinese and Western mathematical traditions."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching#Binary_sequence

"…..Barbara Walker's The I Ching of the Goddess. Walker laments the fact that the perfectly elegant and symmetrical binary code of the original I Ching was broken up by the King Wen version 3,000 years ago, arguing that this may well have been done as part of a general pattern of “Confucian confusion” at that time, amounting to an attack on every aspect of the earlier matriarchal culture that revered women and the feminine principle……She asserts that Fu Hsi, the mythic figure credited with creating the earliest version of the I Ching, was an early god of the cultural-hero type who was coupled with the universal Muse, the Goddess of Creation, Nu Kua. Like many other primal Goddesses, according to Walker, Nu Kua stood for the Cosmic Water Womb associated with the Milky Way where the center of the galaxy is located. And, like cultural-hero type gods in all ancient civilizations:…..[Fu Hsi] was credited with inspiration from the Goddess who embodied life-giving intelligence and understanding, the primary I-dea, meaning “Goddess within.” Ancient scriptures said nothing could be accomplished by any god without the spirit of the Goddess. Whether she was called Anahita, Minerva, Athene, Neith, Maat, Isis, Carmenta, Kali-Maya, Shakti, Idun, Hokmah, Shekina or Sophia,…."….I Ching of the Goddess….By Barbara G. Walker

"Nüwa (also Nuwa, Nü-wa, Nu-wa and Nügua; traditional Chinese: 女媧; simplified Chinese: 女娲; pinyin: Nǚwā; Wade–Giles: Nü3-wa1) is a goddess in ancient Chinese mythology best known for creating mankind and repairing the wall of heaven. Depending on the source, she might be considered the second or even the first Chinese ruler, with most sources not putting her on the role, but only her brother and/or husband Fu Xi….She was said to have created humans from yellow clay….

"…Nu Kua is usually depicted as the wife of the legendary Fu Hsi, credited inventor of the trigrams and first emperor of China. Nu Kua is actually a goddess form imported from predynastic China where she was revered as a principal creation goddess and wife of Pan Ku. It is Nu Kua who is chiefly responsible for the creation of the human race…..Nu Kua was often depicted as having the torso of a woman attached to the body of a serpent or water dragon below. There is evidence to suggest that the I Ching may have actually evolved in predynastic China under matriarchal influence….There exist a number of intriguing parallels between the goddess form of Nu Kua in ancient China and Ningishzida from ancient Sumer that is worthy of closer scrutiny, and in truth, there are parallels between Nu Kua - Pan Ku and Tiamat - Apsu that render the two stories nearly identical in many important respects…. In the case of Nu Kua we have the I Ching itself which many now believe predates Fu Hsi by many hundreds of years at least and would therefore come under Nu Kua's jurisdiction archetypically…. the Earth Ascending arrangement of Trigrams corresponds to Nu Kua. Originally called the Inner Heaven arrangement, scrutinizing the binary mathematics underscoring this chronology reveals that it is actually gravitating upwards from 000 at the bottom rung to 111 at the top…. The Nu Kua (Earth Ascending) arrangement and its compliment, the P'an Ku (Heaven Descending) arrangement as revealed in the chronological order of the Tai Hsuan Ching."….http://www.abrahadabra.com/nukua01.htm

"Oracle bones (Chinese: 甲骨; pinyin: jiǎgǔ) are pieces of shell or bone, normally from ox scapulae or turtle plastrons, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. Diviners would submit questions to deities regarding future weather, crop planting, the fortunes of members of the royal family, military endeavors, and other similar topics. These questions were carved onto the bone or shell in oracle bone script using a sharp tool. Intense heat was then applied with a metal rod until the bone or shell cracked due to thermal expansion. The diviner would then interpret the pattern of cracks and write the prognostication upon the piece as well….While the use of bones in divination has been practiced almost globally, such divination involving fire or heat has generally been found in Asia and the Asian-derived North American cultures.The use of heat to crack scapulae (pyro-scapulimancy) originated in ancient China, the earliest evidence of which extends back to the 4th millennium BCE…"..Keightley, David N. (1978). Sources of Shang history : the oracle-bone inscriptions of Bronze Age China. Berkeley: University of California Press

"…Anyone who owns a PC will recognize certain recurring numbers in both hardware and software specifications. Among these numbers are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, and so on. ….These numbers recur constantly in the world of computing for the simple reason that they are the binary equivalent of "round numbers." They are the binary counterparts of 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, and so on in the decimal system. To anyone with even a nodding acquaintance with the "8 Trigrams" or "64 Hexagrams" of the I Ching, these numbers will seem like old friends."…. I Ching as Binary System …1992…Editor: Bevin Chu

"THE BINARY NUMBERS OF TRIGRAMS …..The eight I-Ching trigrams are actually numbers written in binary code and the trigram numbers are in natural numerical order 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7, so as the trigrams rise one above the other the number gets higher. The individual lines of the trigrams (and hexagrams) also rise one above the other, as the trigrams (and hexagrams) are built from the bottom up….THE RULES OF THE BAGUA

The I-Ching is based on the universal principle of there being two absolute opposites, this is represented by the TWO MAJOR TRIGRAMS Chien (Heaven) drawn with three male unbroken lines, and Kun (Earth) drawn with three female broken lines – they are the two opposite principles of light and dark, white and black, male and female, etc. Everything else in the universe that exists in between the two parent opposites is distributed within the six mixed lesser trigrams that have different combinations of both parents – so that there is female within male and male within female. There are only six possible combinations of mixed trigram that can be made by combining the great yin and the great yang. (An alternative spelling for Chien is Qian)."…..http://charmvirgo.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/i-ching-binary-numbers-astrology-and-chakras/

"There are two types of bagua: the Early Heaven Sequence and the Later Heaven Sequence (see below). Both types have been developed before the ‘Book of Changes’, the I Ching, which describes the cosmology and philosophy of ancient China. The basic ideas are: balance through opposites and acceptance of change. Both baguas are associated with the eight compass directions, both baguas use cardinal directions. The cardinal directions are determined by the marker-stars of the mega-constellations known as the Four Celestial Animals...... The Early Heaven Sequence is also called the Primordial Bagua, The River Chart (Hetu) and is an arrangement of opposites. Earlier Heaven arrangement refers to the archetypal order of things before creation, before changes. In yin-yang cosmology, the taiji is preceded by wuji. Wuji separates into taiji or yin and yang. Two symbols became four symbols. The four symbols became bagua (ba- eight, gua- area). Bagua describes all things of creation.....http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/Chinese_Customs/bagua.htm

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

September 2013

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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