D. READING THE HEXAGRAM
A young yin or young yang line does not change. An old yin or old yang line is a changing line and turns into its opposite. A hexagram with all young lines is static; only the text of the statement of the hexagram with all young lines applies to you and none of the line commentaries. The oracle then takes into account only the idea represented by the hexagram as a whole, as set down in the Judgment and the Commentary on the Decision, together with the Image.
If there are one or more changing lines in the hexagram cast, the words appended to the given line or lines are also to be considered. These words carry the superscription “Nine in the xth place” or “Six in the xth place.” Further, if there are changing lines, the change in the lines gives rise to a second hexagram, whose meaning also needs to be taken into account. Read the text for this second hexagram but none of its line commentaries.
The first hexagram presents your situation at the moment. The first hexagram is the starting situation of a development that leads, by way of the situation discussed in the changing lines and their appended counsel, to the second hexagram.
As with anything, experience and time are important to achieve success with the I Ching. Properly handled, the I Ching can assist you to make right decisions in important matters. Be wary of misinterpretations. Careful and meditative readings are essential to receive the proper answers.
Reading the First Hexagram: The Development of the Situation
Consult the texts in Book I. With careful thought and meditation, the answer will be found somewhere in the text. Following the reading in Book I, read the commentaries in Book III. Take into account the texts of the Judgment and of the Image and of the commentaries accompanying them, as well as the texts of changing lines that appeared in the hexagram you cast, but not the other line texts.
The texts describe energy fields potent with many meanings. The process of working with these meanings can open a new way of seeing things. The texts speak directly. Meaningful complexes of images open our awareness in the same way that images of a dream remembered activates our imagination, and meaning arrives.
Reading the changing lines
The texts of the changing lines (6 or 9) reveal the potencies of individual action within the situation described by the first hexagram as a whole and suggest what your situation can lead to and how you can get there. The texts of the changing lines advise on the direction of specific actions and the potential consequences.
Each hexagram is built from six lines. These lines are symbols of time and position. The hexagrams represent dynamic developments in time, the possible modes of change in the world. Each hexagram may be seen as a set of six empty places or positions through which energy moves and changes. Energy comes into the hexagram from below and leaves at the top. The places are numbered sequentially, and each of the lines in sequence from bottom to top generally represents a stage of progress in the situation.
The present situation is revealed by the name and structure of the hexagram together with the Decisions, the Commentary on the Decision, the Image, the Commentary on the Image, and the Commentary on the Lines. The interpretation of each changing line involves not only the initial moment of the present situation but also its association with the “approached hexagram” that indicates future potential or tendency. Changing lines describe the various aspects of the change from the first hexagram to the approached hexagram. When several changing lines are received, they should be read, from bottom to top, as sequential events in the change from one situation to the next. They may also describe the points of view that you may develop while in transition.
In the Changes, the position of each line within its hexagram is considered meaningful: the first and lowest line is early and peripheral to the situation, the fifth line is generally the climax of a situation, and the sixth line is late and outside the situation. It may be that a situation in itself favorable may reveal unfavorable aspects at various stages along the way; for example, at the beginning when the situation is still embryonic, or at the end when the influence of the situation is ebbing. In the Changes, that which is late in a cycle changes into its opposite and generates a new cycle. In this way, each hexagram represents a cycle.
Reading the Second Hexagram: The Final Situation in Potential
When the changing lines turn into their opposites, they generate a second hexagram, the “approached hexagram,” which is an image of the overall future potential of the situation. The approached hexagram indicates the direction in which your situation can evolve if you choose to act in the way described. The Image of the approached hexagram does not present an immutable future but indicates the potential contained in your present situation.
The Judgment and the Image of the first hexagram describe the situation in which you find yourself, and the line texts contain the specific advice the situation calls for. When all the changing lines are changed into their opposites, the initial hexagram is transformed, and in this way, the second hexagram emerges. The Judgment and the Image of the approached hexagram show the result that can be attained if this counsel is followed. The counsel in the line texts of the approached hexagram are ignored.
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As you read through the texts, certain images will present themselves as the key images of your situation. Examine their meanings and let them suggest ways to understand your situation. The ultimate interpretation is cumulative. The commentary on the images of the I Ching by the third-century interpreter of the I Ching, Wang Bi, may help to clarify the process of understanding the images:
It is the images that give meaning, it is the words that make the image clear. To exhaust the meaning there is nothing better than the images; to exhaust the images there is nothing better than the words. The words ought to concentrate on the images, then the right words for contemplating the images are found. The images ought to concentrate on the meaning, then the right images for contemplating the meaning are found. The meaning is exhausted by means of the images. The images are exhausted by means of the words. Thus he who speaks in order to make the images clear obtains the images and becomes oblivious of the words; he who makes images that contain the meaning obtains the meaning and becomes oblivious of the images. It is like following a trail to catch a hare. Once one has the hare, one forgets the trail. Or it is like putting out wicker traps to catch fish. Once one has the fish, one forgets the traps. Now, the words are the trails of the images, and the images are the traps of the meaning. Therefore, whoever retains only the words does not grasp the images, and whoever retains only the images does not grasp the meaning. The images arise from the meaning, but if one retains only the images then what is retained are not the right images. The words arise from the images, but if one retains only the words then what is retained are not the right words. Thus only by forgetting the images can one grasp the meaning, and only by forgetting the words can one grasp the images. In fact, grasping the meaning consists in forgetting the images, and grasping the images consists in forgetting the words. Thus if images are established that exhaust the meaning completely, one may forget the images. And if the trigrams are superimposed on each other in order to exhaust the situation completely, then one may forget the exhaustion. If, then, one hits upon the types, one can make their images; if one is in harmony with the precepts, one can bear witness. . . . Only when one forgets the images and studies the meaning do the precepts emerge.
(Chou I Lueh-li, or General Remarks on the Changes of the Zhou, section 4, Hellmut Wilhelm, translator)
