The history of nuclear hexagrams

Yijing Research Center: www.yjcn.nl
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Learn more at one of my workshops, listed at www.yjcn.nl
This video might be a little bit too long for some of my viewers, and also a bit boring. I have defined chapters below so you can jump through the video if you want.
00:17 How it started
Hilary's website: www.onlineclar...
05:39 What are nuclear trigrams and nuclear hexagrams
07:39 Zhang Wenzhi 张文智 on nuclear trigrams; Zuozhuan example
16:20 Jing Fang 京房 (78-37 BC) as a fervent user of nuclear trigrams
My article on the Eight Houses can be found here www.yjcn.nl/wp...
20:52 Yijing scholars from the Eastern Han dynasty (25 AD-220 AD)
25:03 Does Yu Fan 虞翻 (164-233) talk about nuclear hexagrams? No.
32:49 Yu Fan's creative use of nuclear trigrams
36:58 Wang Bi 王弼 (226-249) says no
Shaughnessy's article can be found here sci-hub.se/10....
42:00 Ding Yudong 丁易東 (13th cent.) gets creative with nuclear trigrams too
The dissertation by You Jingshun 游經順 where the text comes from can be found here nccur.lib.nccu...
48:49 Qu Wanli 屈萬里 (1907-1979) says no
50:52 Li Jingchi 李鏡池 (1902-1975) says no
54:54 Zhu Yuansheng 朱元昇 (d. 1273) uses nuclear trigrams to explain the text of the Yijing
56:53 Finally! Nuclear hexagrams in a picture attributed to Wu Deng 吳澄 (1249- 1333)
Picture from Jack Kuo's website: www.eee-learni...
01:01:11 A similar picture from Fang Yizhi 方以智 (17th cent.)
01:02:30 Bent Nielsen on nuclear hexagrams
01:03:46 Conclusion

[@zuzuzu4594]

Hi Harmen, I'm rewatching the video, and since my knowledge of the I Ching is little, I think I'll skip this for now so I don't get confused 😁 Thanks Harmen.

[@freedda1]

Perhaps this has already been pointed out, but ..... At about 4:00, Harmen mentions the "Procedure" that Ritsman / Sabbadini describe. They are saying that a Nuclear (twisted) Hexagram is create by stacking the upper nuclear trigram (line 3, 4, 5) on top of the lower nuclear trigram (2, 3, 4), and yes that is how it's done. By definition, they both contain lines 3 and 4, which Sabbadini calls 'identical'. I think it is a rather twisted way to describe how Nuclear Hexagrams are constructed (but we now know how the word 'twisted' can be applied to the huti and hu gua).

[@matejcandra6030]

Very good analysis.

[@minewrt181]

Thanks for this insight! It was not only informative but also entertaining to watch... esp. catching up between the lines! That water over fire can be interpreted as wining and dining is interesting. Please do enhance your promised text link on grouping hexagrammes to trigramms.

[@zuzuzu4594]

Of course I enjoyed the video now that there is the option of subtitles, although they do not work perfectly, so I would like to know what you think of the Nuclear Trigrams. Thank you!

[@YiTubeChannel]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'what I think'. I thought I addressed that in this video?

[@martijn9290]

Tx for adding the Chinese Names in the screen. But please do more!

[@YiTubeChannel]

'Please do more'? Please do more what?

[@martijn9290]

YiTube Channel adding the chinese names to the screen. In next videos.

[@YiTubeChannel]

@@martijn9290 Ah. Ok.

[@XKillertofuX]

Thanks for the video. Your deep-dive in the sources is commendable in an age of free association and dilettantism. The point is well taken. The historicity of the hugua probably doesn't involve Zhou divinatory practices or interpretation. As a subject of contemplation though, I find the hugua very interesting. So, rather than its usefulness for divining, and supposedly so for the scholars of the Han period and onwards, the hugua is a subject of interest. To me, that hinges on the fact that there's an aesthetic quality to the folding of hexagrams in and out of each other. There's an apparent(!) order that can be derived from them. And, strikingly, that mirrors the traditional growing complexity of the progression of the yielding and firm principles-from wuji all the way to the hexagrams. There's another peculiar thing about the 16 hugua. @3:50 in your video, you actually dismiss this, for all kinds of valid reasons by the way (convoluted language in the Ritsema; trying to make a point on historicity). What they are trying to explain unhelpfully, is that the hugua aren't hexagrams. They are Tetragrams(!). As in, if you form all possibilities of yielding or firm lines in a four-line gua, you'll get exactly 16 end results (duh). In much the same way as one derives the nuclear trigrams of the 64 hexagrams, you'll end up with the 16 hugua as they have come to be known. With that they mean taking the first three lines and then the lines from the second to the fourth, superimposing those two trigrams on each other, you end up with 16 hexagrams. The simple question that comes out of this is: why aren't there 'tetragrams' in the first place? There are double gua, single lines, trigrams and hexagrams, why no four? And you could say things like well folk superstition hates the number four... which is a start. But you get the point... as a subject of study, this is interesting enough. To be clear: I fully understand your argument and I also think that the usefulness of hugua in divination isn't historically found (or there's no evidence of it and it's unlikely we'll find it). Also: groeten uit Brabant ;)

[@YiTubeChannel]

Groeten uit Almere :-) The huti are definitely interesting and can have valuable meaning in an interpretation. Personally I made the choice not to add extra hexagrams to the one that I got from the Yi. I'm a simple person and more hexagrams make my head explode. I know what you mean by tetragrams. I vaguely remember a picture from a Chinese source that connected these tetragrams to the nuclear hexagrams. And I think this author linked them to the sixiang 四象, the Four Images. As to why there aren't tetragrams in the first place: I have no idea. The linking of si 四 with si 死 is from a much later date. All we know is that very early in Chinese history 6-line figures were the norm, and these were divided in two 3-line figures. The 'why' is a mystery, as far as I know.

[@XKillertofuX]

@@YiTubeChannel Yes, doubling the sixiang would create these tetragrams; like doubling trigrams create hexagrams. I understand the choices you made. My comment was to add to your findings of course. I think the hugua have their place as an extra layer to the I Ching hexagrams, aside from interpretation. In studying the hexagrams themselves, these subsets, like pure gua, tidal gua, hugua, can add some understanding and internal structure.

[@carmenmidongomez]

@@YiTubeChannel May I say something about tetragrams? I have found some allusions to the tetragrams and their use by the so-called "fang-shi" or sorcerers in Ricardo Andreé's book "I Ching. El Canon de las Mutaciones. El Séptimo Tiempo ”. In the section "On the Ancient Teaching" (regarding Feng-Shui), he says: "The fang shi guilds were supported by powerful feudal clans, and actively served the Warlords, who plunged China into bloody chaos, and later dominated, placing the sorcerers inside the palaces in positions of directors ”. (p.57) "These nefarious beings misrepresented the original system of Fu-shi and Wu-wan, and raised a formula based on tetragrams (not hexagrams), establishing as the center of energy the threshold between life and death, represented by the number 5, in order to control the states of agony and thus achieve power and dominance over their enemies through the possession of their souls. (p. 58). In the chapter on "Methodology", there is a section called "Reading Order" in which he says: "The order established in eras after Master Kung-Tse (Confucius) around three centuries before our Age, respects in part what was established in the ancient writing Chou (The Mutations of the Chou) led by the Duke of Chou, after the Great Sage and Master King Uenn died. At the same time, oracles operated by sorcerers are introduced, based on the four lines (tetragrams), and not six, and many of the meanings were at the mercy of the knowledge or intuition of the interpreter. The Wise King Uenn did not unilaterally establish the methods, but explained them according to the teachings already derived from the time of the Great Father Fu-Shi, prior to the first Dynasty (5000 BC). The definitive order of reading was established in the eleventh century of our era ”. (p. 120)

[@YiTubeChannel]

I'm sorry Carmen, but none of what Ricardo is saying here can be substantiated with sources or facts, unless he provides these, but to my knowledge he never does that. I don't know what else to say about it without sounding nasty and mean. I very much doubt Ricardo's statements and don't think they are based on something we can all verify.

[@carmenmidongomez]

@@YiTubeChannel Oops! I knew you disagree with Ricardo but I did not know that you had so much anger. Sorry. I was just trying to provide some information. I will not do it again!

[@svenchristensen6987]

About the 16 x 4 Core of the Core (Nuclear/Mutual/Interlocked) Hexagrams: Alfred Huang, The Numerology of the I Ching, Ch. 12, 'The mysteries of the mutual Gua' is worth reading concerning the Order of the Hexagrams.

[@YiTubeChannel]

Although Huang shows the position of the nuclear hexagrams in a matrix I don't see him say anything about the significance of these hexagrams for the sequence. And personally I think these hexagrams don't have anything to do with the hexagram sequence. Why do you find what Huang says in his book important?

[@svenchristensen6987]

@@YiTubeChannel I find it important that all of the nuclear hexagrams leads to the "Four Corners" ie hex. 1,2 and 63,64 of the Sequence. I do not find Alfred Huangs description specially important, he is one of many who points toward it, but he presents it in my oppinion in a detailled way easy to understand. (And I'm not talking about Divination or the Nuclear hexagrams used in Divination: Only that all of the hexagrams lead to these "Four Corners" of the whole sequence). I think You are right in that nuclear hexagrams weren't used in Divination until very late in History.

[@kevinu.k.7042]

Thank you ! One coffee coming up.

[@geraldspitzner4932]

Brilliant KZbin Channel - just started to listen your videos! You Can you make a video about the "8 Houses" and Richard Wilhelm or/and its relations to the meaning to the planets (Houxing, Jingxing, ...)? Thank you so much Greetings, Gerald

[@YiTubeChannel]

I'll look into that but it will take some time.

[@ognyanv]

An excellent video, as always with Harmen! He continuously seems to make a simple (and brilliant, iMHO!) point - when one deals with YiJing, there shall be no substitute of scientific approach, based on more than one objective evidence. That is why there is no substitute of good,competent, solid academic works (Schilling, Field, Rutt). BTW - such works provide good depictions and commentaries on original images related to the hexagrams, which often have nothing to do with freestyle mind roaming typical for a lot of "YiJing-dedicated" books and articles. My personal conclusion - if you want to use YiJing properly for divination, then study classics in scentific, academic way and avoid too much personal interpretations, unless you know the matter in question. No.1 rule - check whether the author is really fluent in Traditional Chinese (necessary but not sufficient). If not - put the book on the "Fantasy" shelf and treat it accordingly. Again - thank you, Harmen!

[@robfoto4838]

Hi Harmen: I finally had a chance to watch this video, and have a question about your opinion of Richard John Lynn’s “The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi”. While you were critical of one of his passages, would you recommend this book in general? His translation of the Tao Te Ching has come highly recommended to me, and I was wondering if you thought his Yi Jing worthwhile. Thanks!

[@YiTubeChannel]

Hi Rob, I have seen too many paragraphs in his translation that make me doubt the quality of his work - at certain points in the text it seems as if he hasn't got a clue about what he is translating. Edward Shaughnessy made a review of Lynn's book, and in his review he also points to certain issues with the translation, and he even quotes a paragraph that Lynn translated completely wrong. Which makes me a bit cautious to use Lynn's translation, and I will always refer to the Chinese original if I want to use Wang Bi's commentary. I think a better translation of Wang Bi's commentary is needed. I do not mean to say that Lynn's translation is extremely bad. But from where I stand I can't rely on it.

[@robfoto4838]

@@YiTubeChannel thank you, Harmen, that’s very helpful, as usual!

Thanks for this video, I found it really interesting! I don't think it could have been shorter :) It's complete this way. I have a question which is sort of unrelated to the topic though. You mention that "auspicious to cross the great waters, the fairly famous phrase from the YiJing that hardly anyone understand". You mean that most people misunderstand it, or you mean that it's meaning is unkown? If the former could you give some pointers or link to explanation what it means? I've tried to search (including your site), but could find nothing about this except the usual explanations: it means something in the ballpark of "it's favorable to do something hard" or I've read explanation that "finish the old and address the new".

[@YiTubeChannel]

Hi Dávid, I knew that sooner or later someone would bring that statement up 😊 I don't claim to know the exact meaning of the phrase 利涉大川 either, but I do believe that a thorough study of the phrase and its possible origin has still not been performed - or at least I can't find any research on it. I only found one article by Huang Lixing 黄黎星, comprising of 2 pages, and it only approached the phrase from a philosophical point of view. Personally I think the phrase might be related to the occurrences of "(王)涉" on oracle bones: "(the king) crosses (the/a river)..." and some of these phrases mention a hunt with a catch. Actually, maybe this phrase is a good topic for another video 🙂

@@YiTubeChannel Interesting again! This phrase is used in so many hexagram that I was sure its meaning is well known, and it just eluded me for some reason. And yes, I wanted to suggest a video about this topic ;)

[@tristate0mind]

4:07 A Hua Ache? Very nice how HU geometrically shows the function you performed via the brackets. 19:25 Seems to indicate that this symbol emerged directly out of Yi Mathematics / Divination. The reality that HU (Nuclear Tri / Hexagrams) have a deep history in use to explain Yao line text, it appears evident that Nuclear tri / hexa grams were the very basis of the original Zhouyi text. In fact the indicates that the nuclear aspect predates the text, as the text through history was always tethered through understanding the Hu. So it seems that the earliest Yi Jing pre written tradition is actually centered around the Hu interpretation. Yes this is technically speculative because no records but the origin text lines can't be understood without Hu interpretation (maybe some lines can be explained but not all). Hu (at least Nuclear trigram) could have been fundamental at first but then forgotten and reintegrated later. At minimum it appears the Hu are hidden fundamental gears in Yi Mechanics (and behind the original text). If this is not the case it would be great to hear further evidence contrary. Incredible deep dive Harmen!!!!

[@YiTubeChannel]

The fact that after the composition of the Zhouyi the nuclear trigrams were used to explain the text can hardly be seen as evidence that they "were the very basis of the original Zhouyi text", as you claim. And especially nuclear hexagrams were not part of this, as I have shown in my video. Saying that this "indicates that the nuclear aspect predates the text" is a very wild assumption based on.....what exactly? There are no indications in the text itself that it is based on the (nuclear) trigrams, but with fancy reasoning you can connect anything to anything. I like to work with what we know, and not assume too much what we don't know.

[@tristate0mind]

@@YiTubeChannel Maybe a better way for me to approach what I'm saying is in the form of a question. Is is possible to fully explain the encrypted (enigmatic) text of the Yao lines, without the additional images of the Hu (nuclear tri or hexa) Gua? How would u explain the yao text for your examples in the video, without the Hu imagines? (It looks like some Yao u shared require the Hu to decode the text).

[@tristate0mind]

@@YiTubeChannel Some of the yao lines seem to require the Hu explanation. Just like the 8 Bagua emerge out of a single Yin & Yang, the Myriad Things emerge out of the blending of the 64. The Hu dimension of the Yi appears necessary and integral because from it the fusing of 2 hexagrams generates an of the Myriad Things in the journey between the 2 Hexagram states. The relationship between the original Gua and the new Gua can be understood to create further Gua, and the process can continue into

[@YiTubeChannel]

@@tristate0mind At this stage I am not interested in explaining why the text says what it says, or as you say, to 'decode the text.' The problem with the hugua and trigrams in general is that with creative reasoning and interpretation (see Yu Fan) they can explain everything. But that doesn't automatically mean it is the right explanation. Why does the Judgment of hexagram 13 talk of 利涉大川? I have no idea, and I don't find the trigrams here helpful either. But, as said, Yu Fan will always find a way (乾四上失位，变而体坎，故曰“利涉大川，乾行也”).

[@tristate0mind]

@@YiTubeChannel I understand. I wasn't trying to give the impression I'm claiming all text requires Hu to decode. I've been under the impression "Auspicious to cross the great water" doesn't refer to Hu. It refers to the transition from the reading's lower to higher trigram is one of ease and it's auspicious to make big leaps in life. (It's like between the 2 trigrams is a "great river", which I read some where.) I don't understand the mechanics behind why Fire to Heaven would be auspicious to cross. Nor am I certain this 2 trigram relation is a legit classic explanation (which ur implying the explanation is a mystery in the tradation). I am convinced that yao to yao relation (Mounting, carrying, resonance, etc) is the central origin on the Yao text. Just not ruling out Hu and an aspect of the text yet. Your helping me see Hu hasn't been as fundamental to the written classic intellectual tradition we in the West are under the impression is so. That is very informative.

[@1ACL]

No Nukes!

[@YiTubeChannel]

Nope. Ban nukes! :-D

[@1ACL]

@@YiTubeChannel Wang Bi Nukes! ... I don't know much, but it seems that departing from "first thought", or the original, or however you want to say it, is killing the freshness of oracle.

[@YiTubeChannel]

I like 'original' :-) Many people get lost in hear-say, assumptions and novelties. I prefer to stick to what we know and not assume or hypothesize what we don't know. But that's just me. I think we all have our own process with the Book of Changes.

[@martijn9290]

@@YiTubeChannel ´our own proces wih the book´..indeed with history this far away, I love your work Harmen and i trust you when you say there are no sources, still my approach is to try to keep an open mind. The fact that we cant find sources doesnt mean the concept of nukes didnt exist as concept at all. A lot was not written down that time. As Sven pointed out it is interesting that 1,2, 63,64 are the ´essential´ nuclear hexagrams. Personally i dont use them in readings, but i do feel that when the Zhouy was writen down the authors new the concept. Halverwege en ik slaap nog niet Harmen...

[@YiTubeChannel]

@@martijn9290 "The fact that we cant find sources doesnt mean the concept of nukes didnt exist as concept at all. A lot was not written down that time." That's an argument that is totally useless to me. That's like saying "the Yijing is written by aliens - the fact that we don't have sources that prove this doesn't mean it isn't so." It's an argument that makes everything possible, even the most ridiculous claims. A lot *was* written down, and what was written down doesn't show any notion of nuclear hexagrams, or at least not in the early period. That 1,2, 63 and 64 are at the beginning and end of the book might have nothing to do with the fact that they are the 'final' nuclear hexagrams, but more with the concept of the trigrams: the 1st part of the book starts and ends with hexagrams that are made of the same trigram; the 2nd part of the book starts and ends with hexagrams that are made of opposite trigrams. Opposite trigrams are also found at 11 & 12, and in the exact location in part 2 we also find opposite trigrams (41 & 42). I think this structure is more worth looking at than the idea of nuclear hexagrams, of which I haven't found any trace in the early literature. Nog even de video uitkijken Martijn, en anders nog een keer afspelen. :-)

[@HenkMelching]

De kracht van 'na papegaaien' , gooi maar in mijn pet. Ik gebruik het niet meer. 📌