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In order to regulate all the phenomena in the world, the wise men set up 64 Guas, which are composed by 384 Yaos. Moreover, the words indicating good or bad were added under each Guas and Yaos. I-Ching illustrates the mutual reaction of Yin and Yang which is producing all changes in the world, usually with the consequence of good or bad. So Ji is the symbol of good, and Xiong is the symbol of bad, which two is indicating a success or a failure. The Huijiu is the symbol of misgiving; the Bianhua is the symbol of going forward or backward and the Gangyou means day and night, that is, the alternation of day and night. The dynamic state of six Yaos shows the regulation of the sky, the earth and the human. Because a wise man is able to know and follow the indication in I-Ching, he can lead his heart to a peaceful state in his common life. So in common life, a wise man observes the phenomena in the view of I-Ching, and tastes its words. Once in action, he can know about the trend of consequence in the observation and forecast a success or a failure. In the last Yao in the Gua of Dayou, it says, “To follow the providence and get the blessing, it will result in a pure success without any adverseness.”

3

The words for each Gua explain the whole Gua, and the words for each Yao show the changes of a single Yao. “Ji” and “Xiong” indicates a successful consequence or a failure. “Huijiu” shows that there are some small problems and mistakes. “Wujiu” tells us to be ready to remedy the mistakes at any time. To distinguish the good and bad Yaos, We can check their position. And we can also know about the connotation of each Gua in the observation of the symbol of the Gua. We can know about the trend of the consequence in the words of each Gua and Yao, for example, if “Huijiu”, the symbol of small problems appears, we have to take action very carefully, because the result lays between the tiny gap of success and failure, good and bad. Those who change the position in “Wujiu” usually achieve a good consequence because ones can do remedy for the mistakes. Guas also have small ones and big ones; small ones symbolize Yin, and big ones symbolize Yang. The words for the Guas and Yaos sometimes show an extreme danger, for instance the “Yiyue”(body cutting) means an adverse situation. Also, some show good and peace, for example, “Good for Seeing a great person”, “Good for going across a big river”. So in the words for each Gua show the general idea of all indications of Yaos.

(PS, This Biography for I-Ching Symbols is a my translated version of the book Xi Gua Shang Zhuan which is written in old Chinese language, but some of the content have been edited in a modern language logic for easier understanding.)