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mashica.com

Welcome to Mashica's I Ching

The I Ching is an oracle. It is not based on a religious doctrine, divine revelations, nor ancient Chinese law. The I Ching is a compilation of divination text based on the actions of historical figures, folk poetry, and a moral philosophy that illustrates the Natural Order of change in Yin and Yang. The I Ching demonstrates that no situation is static and that all moments of success and failure run their course.

Although the I Ching has evolved over a period of not less than 3,000 years, each hexagram contributes to a unified philosophy of change. Sometimes the I Ching gives an omen or tells a story, and often it shares advice. The text contains many historical references, puns, and still rhymes in modern Chinese. The first detailed translation and analysis of the I Ching in the west was written by Richard Wilhelm in 1923. This introduction to Chinese culture and history was prefaced by a famous essay by Carl Jung. Using this version as a tool for psychoanalysis, Jung gave the I Ching a foothold of legitimacy in the west in the face of growing disdain for "non-scientific" practices.

Mashica's goal in creating a version of the I Ching accessible via Internet is not to challenge further the legitimacy of the social sciences or to proclaim the existence of unexplored ground in the subconscious. Mashica wishes to recognize the divinatory power of the Internet as a modern oracle and superimpose upon it the three millennia of history of the I Ching. This oracle in an oracle is an illustration of harnessed serendipity and its application to everyday life. Today, the Internet tells us where we might work, with whom we might fall in love, and who our most loyal friends might be. The I Ching is simply a tool enhance this activity, the creation of the future.

As user of the Internet, you are invited to know the future and use the advice of the I Ching to plan a path that takes you there. The dense layers of contexts and meanings from both the Internet and the I Ching tell us who we are and what we should be doing, both now and at any moment in the future.

For Mashica, Density is Magic.

ABOUT THE I CHING

According to Chinese philosophy, at the root of all things known lie the two basic elements Yin and Yang. Yin is passive, yielding, and protective while Yang is dominant, creative, and provocative. In the I Ching, Yang is represented as a solid line

[ ]

and Yin as a broken line

[ ].

Arranging lines of Yin and Yang in groups of three creates eight different combinations or “trigrams.” These eight trigrams correspond to the basic elements in the recognizable universe: Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Water, Mountain, Wind, Lake, and Fire. Stacking the trigrams one on top of another in all possible combinations of two creates the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. Each of the 64 hexagrams has an identity and meaning in itself (hexagram 12 is called "Obstruction"), as a combination of two trigrams (hexagrams 12 is also composed of the trigram Heaven over the trigram Earth), and as a combination of six lines of Yin and Yang. Each hexagram has a general text associated with it, sometimes called a "Judgment." Each line is also accompanied by a specific text important for that line but also relating to the hexagram as a whole. When posing a question to the I Ching, the answer is given as one or more lines of a specific hexagram or as the Judgment text of the hexagram as a whole.

The I Ching (pronounced "ee ching"), which means "Canon of Change," takes its name from the dynamic nature of Yin and Yang, which are constantly changing into their opposites. This movement of change is reflected in the I Ching as Yin and Yang lines that become old and change into Yang or Yin, respectively. Thus, an I Ching reading will usually consist of two hexagrams, one in its original state without regard to the age of the lines, and another in a changed state, which is arrived at by changing the Old Yang lines to Yin and the Old Yin lines to Yang. These mobile lines are the most important lines of the reading because they are the lines that bring about the change.

HOW TO READ THE I CHING

An I Ching reading is performed in three steps: formulating a question, casting the hexagram, and interpreting the answer. Although Mashica's I Ching handles most of the divination details, it is important to understand the full process of hexagram generation and how to read the hexagram texts.

THE QUESTION

Traditionally, the reading was done in the center of a room with the I Ching open to the south with the reader facing north. The reader performs 3 kowtows and lights one stick of incense. Even though there are now other ways of casting a hexagram such as the tossing of three coins or even the reading of license plate number on the highway, the most traditional process employed 50 yarrow stalks, somewhat similar to bamboo skewers. After passing the stalks three times through the smoke of the incense, the following steps are taken to cast one line of the hexagram:

CASTING THE HEXAGRAM

1. Start with 50 yarrow stalks. Set one aside. Only 49 stalks are used.
2. Divide the stalks into 2 piles at random with at least 2 stalks in each pile.
3. Remove one stalk from the left pile setting it aside.
4. Divide the stalks in the left pile into groups of four and set aside the remainder. If the number of stalks in the left pile is divisible by four, remove a complete set of four.
5. Repeat step 4 with the right pile without setting one aside beforehand.
6. Collect all stalks that have not been set aside.

The remaining number of stalks will either be 44 or 40. Completing these 6 steps constitutes one "change." Three changes are needed to cast one line of the hexagram. To get the next change, the reader repeats steps 2 - 6 beginning with the number of stalks left after the first change (40 or 44). After completing the steps for change 2; 40, 36, or 32 stalks will remain. Completing the process for the third and last time leaves the possible number of stalks at 36, 32, 28, or 24. Dividing this result by 4, we arrive at the "intrinsic number" of the hexagram line. This number has the possible values 9, 8, 7, or 6. A 9 corresponds to old Yang (changing to Yin),

represented by [ ],

an 8 corresponds to Young Yin (unchanging),

represented by [ ],

a 7 corresponds to Young Yang (unchanging),

represented by [ ],

and a 6 corresponds to old Yin (changing to Yang),

represented by [ ].

To cast a complete hexagram, this process is repeated 5 more times.

THE ANSWER

The original hexagram is arrived at by disregarding the age of the lines in the hexagram, accepting the old Yang lines as simply Yang and the old Yin lines as simply Yin. By changing the old lines to their opposites, the changed hexagram is cast. The text associated with the changing lines are then read as the as the answer to the question. The changed lines are of more importance because they are they lines that bring about the change. If there are no changing lines in the hexagram, the general text, or Judgment, should be read.


TECHNICAL DETAILS (INSTRUCTIONS)

Mashica's I Ching follows closely the traditional manner of casting a hexagram and reading the answer. Instead of separating groups of yarrow stalks, Mashica uses information associated with a click of the user's mouse to generate each change and each line of the hexagram.

After writing the question and clicking "ask," 6 areas of the page become active. These 6 areas are measurement devices and correspond to the 6 lines of the hexagram to be cast. The first area in the upper left of the page corresponds to the first (bottom) line of the hexagram. When the user clicks this area, the three changes necessary to make one hexagram line are generated. The result of these three changes is divided by four to arrive at the intrinsic number of this line of the hexagram. The line and the intrinsic number are then shown on the screen as the bottom line of the hexagram. The rest of the clickable areas or measurement devices must then be clicked (left to right, top to bottom) to generate the remaining 5 lines of the hexagram.

To effect the three changes and arrive at the intrinsic number of the line, the x position, y position, and time of the click in milliseconds are used as seeds to generate each change. The clickable area is divided originally into 49 vertical slices to represent the 49 original yarrow stalks that must be divided into 2 piles. The horizontal (x) position of the click specifies where the 49 slices are to be divided. A simple javascript re-divides each of the two piles by four and removes the remainder in the same manner as the traditional manipulation of the yarrow stalks. The remaining number of slices (44 or 40) is used to divide the clickable area once again, but this time into 44 or 40 horizontal slices. In this way, the vertical (y) position of the click can be used to separate the slices for the second change. The third change is arrived at by dividing 1000 milliseconds (1 second) by the number of slices after the second change (40, 36, or 32) and using the time of the click (again in milliseconds) as the separation point for the two piles. Dividing the result of this last change by 4 gives the intrinsic number for the line (9, 8, 7, or 6). One click is therefore capable of generating the 3 changes and casting one line of the hexagram.

The center area of the screen displays the details of the changes from each click while the rightmost area displays the raw, original, and changed hexagrams.

The last page of Mashica's I Ching displays the texts associated with the original and changed hexagrams (or simply the original hexagram in the case of having no changing lines). The lines of text containing the answer to the question asked (the changing lines) are set apart from the other lines. These lines are moved a bit to the left and the first changing line is shown by default. In the case of no changing lines, the Judgment text is shown and the individual lines are grouped together.

Good luck and happy divinations.

CREDITS

Graphic Design:
Marcello Conta

Technical Design:
Richard Stoutner


Translation:
Huang, Kerson and Rosemary. I Ching. New York: Workman Publishing Company, 1987.