Philosophers Series · Part 7 of 12
I Ching: The Oldest Book of Questions
It is one of the oldest books in the world, and you use it by asking it a question. The I Ching, the “Book of Changes”, may be the oldest tool for self-reflection. Part 7 of our Philosophers Series.
64 images of change
The roots of the I Ching go back around 3,000 years to China’s Zhou period. At its core are 64 hexagrams, signs made of six stacked lines that are either solid or broken. Each hexagram stands for a situation and its possible change. Later, commentaries were added that tradition attributes to Confucius.
Asking a question
Whoever consults the I Ching first formulates a question. Then, by tossing coins or dividing yarrow stalks, they arrive at a hexagram and read the corresponding text. Many people today use it less as an oracle than as a mirror: the text prompts them to see their situation from a new angle.
The decisive part happens beforehand. To ask a good question, you have to become clear about what is really on your mind.
Change and what endures
According to an old interpretation, the character “Yi” in the title has three meanings: the easy, change, and the unchanging. This holds the core idea of the book. Everything changes, but change follows patterns. What endures is not what stands still, but the form in which things change.
The journey to the West
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was fascinated that the hexagrams can be read as binary numbers – the system of 0 and 1 on which every computer runs today. Richard Wilhelm’s German translation of 1924 made the book known in the West; C. G. Jung wrote the foreword to the English edition.
The logical conclusion
The I Ching teaches that reflection begins with a question. A good question opens up what you already know but have never put into words.
And it teaches where to find what endures: not in single moments, but in patterns over long periods of time. Whoever answers the same big questions again and again over the years will eventually see their own pattern – what has persisted through all the changes. That is exactly what remains of a person.
Three questions to think further
- Which question is on your mind the most right now?
- What has changed in your life, and what has stayed the same?
- What pattern do you see when you look back on the last ten years?