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Dyad Perspective in Lao Tzu and in Pythagoras
The Dyad of Yang and Yin forms the Tai Ji. The Pythagorean Dyad breaks the holistic unity of the Monad... Described in the Ancient Texts as:
Poem Forty-Two Tao Te Ching [translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English]The Tao begot one.One begot two.Two begot three.And three begot the ten thousand things. The ten thousand things may carry yin and embrace yang.They achieve harmony by combining these forces. Men hate to be "orphaned," "widowed," or "worthless,"But this is how kings and lords describe themselves. For one gains by losingAnd loses by gaining. What others teach, I also teach; that is:"A violent man will die a violent death!"This will be the essence of my teaching. Pythagoras per fragment 1 of Philolaus: “About Physical Nature of the Kosmos that was fitted together as a harmonious Whole (Monad) composed of limited things (focused around their specific center) and non-limited things (the context or circumference about the center).Together the Dyad describes the World Order (Kosmos) as a Whole (Monad) and all the specific things within it as the result of interaction of these two concepts.”In other words, it takes both the visible, specific, limited center of focus and the general context of the unlimited circumference to form the gestalt that we see as the phenomenal world through the interactions and relationships of the Dyad.
Dyad Is More than Just Polar Opposites Such As
Hot & Cold or Male & Female
Dyad perspective breaks up the holistic unity of the Monad. Now there is a contrast between two distinct parts of the overall. The unity of all mankind in general is replaced by the interactions between male and female. The smooth momentum of the interaction of the motions of the sun and moon is divided into the experiences of day and night.
The dyad is a philosophical perspective highlighting the two separate extremes as the background or context of everything between them. This is the debater’s arguing two sides of every coin rather than promoting the substance of the coin itself or the form overall that has these two images stamped upon it. We divide up discussions of human relations to focus upon the differences between male and female and the exciting interactions between them.
The Taiji symbol is composed of the dyad of a Yang swirl and Yin Swirl inscribed in a circle. Everything that can be perceived is seen in its interaction of Yang focus elements and Yin background context. The Yijing or Flux Tome is the description of the range of human perception of dynamic process in terms of six stages of possible Yang focus within the six place matrix or gua of the hexagrams.
The distinction between the dyad of hexagrams numbered ending in 2 or 3 and the tumbled hexagram pair of each even numbered hexagram in relation to its preceding odd number is important. Speak of hexagrams in pairs, and most scholarly folks think of the 32 even-odd pairs in the standard 8 x 8 checkerboard diagram of the King Wen Sequence. Those pairs have no intrinsic meaning at all, simply the fundamental elegance of a line pattern rhyme scheme only slightly different than the more ancient Shang Dynasty symbolic system.
The real difference of the King Wen Sequence is only available to those able to transcend the focus upon individual Yang or Yin lines or even trigram combinations and reach all the way up into the symbolic to appreciate the meaning of the hexagrams as a whole. These meanings are arranged into three sets of 10 in the first half and the Yi and the rest of the 64 possible hexagram patterns in the second (34 hexagrams).
The meaning of the individual hexagrams is showcased and deepened by their place in the context of the sets of ten. The hexagrams whose number ends in one is the Monad of the whole decad or set of ten, as well as the first of the individual hexagrams of the decad that finds its quiescent fulfillment in the hexagram number that ends with zero (or in decad context, the 10th hexagram).
The 7 Monads of the Yi are the subject of the Monad page. This page deals with the 7 Dyads which are the hexagrams numbered ending in 2 and then 3 in the decad set. The sharp difference between the Taiji or Tetraktys perspective comes into high focus when compared to the view that the hexagrams are all just pairs where each even numbered hexagram is the inverse line pattern of the preceding odd numbered hexagram.
Each Dyad pair of hexagrams form a set of polar opposites explaining the Monad or the meaning of the entire decad. Again, the trigram meanings and their placement as the upper or lower trigram of the Yi hexagram will be sufficient to explain their meaning. Between the Monad, and its contrast as first hexagram to the 10th hexagram as final hexagram of the decad; and the Dyad hexagrams the perspective of the Taiji should be accessible to anyone open to their symbolic interpretation.
The other two web pages to follow are the process/narrative of the hexagrams ending in 4,5, and 6 which represent beginning situation, middle development and final product of the decad as represented by the Monad. The final page is the Tetrad or double dichotomy or Cartesian axes representation of the decad.
First Two Hexagrams as false examples of the Dyad
Hexagram One
These two hexagrams are clearly an inverse pair with hex1 being all Yang lines and hex2 being all Yin line places. This view ignores the overall meaning of the hexagrams to focus instead upon only the individual line places and the number of each type (Yang or Yin) of lines in a hexagram. Very important in earlier Yi divination (2200 BCE to 1100 B.C.E) that too many of the modern or Western students of the King Wen Sequence still find fascinating.
Hex One is the decad Monad describing the entire Water Cycle as a whole. This is not connected to any of the line places or trigrams in the hexagram matrix or gua. This meaning is found in the name of the hexagram either Sunshine in Flux Tome or the ancient Chinese ideogram showing rays of sunshine burning off swamp mist to form clouds that are carried by the winds and weather patterns to eventually rain upon the prepared crop fields to make a good harvest possible.
Once this overall meaning gestalt is understood, then it is possible to analyze the individual trigrams and line places within that context. The three Yang lines are the trigram Sunshine and two sets of sunshine represents the daily changes in solar flux from dawn to sunset. The individual line places then describe the appropriate considerations for each of the six double hours of the sundial day.
The first place is before dawn when nothing can be seen clearly and it is important to sit and meditate until the dawn arrives with its so very special quality of light before moving on to the day’s activities. Work begins with the second stage when the special quality of the light of dawn is replaced by normal daylight. The first trigram is complete in the third line stage of personal passion referring to the achievements of hard work culminating at high noon.
High Noon is a special time globally. That special quality is only known in America by the epic movie remake of that title with Gary Cooper as lead actor. In empirical experience, high noon is when the sun passes directly over head or through the Zenith. At that time every vertical stick in the Northern hemisphere casts its shortest shadow which points to due geographical North, with an angle equal to the local latitude.
All shadows point one direction before high noon, and then the other direction after high noon, declining towards sunset. The two line places of the heart line pair (lines 3 and 4) which straddle the mystical center or Source between the two trigrams are thus divided between the third line place of personal passion making hay while the sun shines and being totally involved in this hard work even after the sunsets and the workday is over. This line completes the final line of the lower trigram of concrete actions and activities.
The fourth line place relates to the time after High Noon when the shadows begin to lengthen and the sun is clearly sinking toward sunset. This is the place of the feelings of the heart and the images in the soul. Here is where daily work becomes a metaphor for deeper feelings and ultimate personal questions and decisions. It is the lowest line of the upper trigram representing the higher realms of symbolism and development.
The fifth line place is the overall organization represented by the King. Here authority is manifest and the achievement of the work day is developed fully. This is where one can look upon all that has been done and appreciate the work. The final (6th)line place is the transition to the Next. In terms of sunshine it is the magnificent sunset which like dawn must be quietly accepted and its special light and sky enjoyed in quiet contemplation. In the traditional advice of the Yi for Imperial bureaucrats, this line also carries the warning not to hang on and try to continue every turf battle and possible continuation of what has already been a long, arduous campaign. Those who keep fighting after the time has come to retire from the field will suffer and have cause to repent.
Hexagram Two Home Land
Although hex2 is all Yin line places in absolute inverse to hex1 this has nothing to do with its meaning. Hexagram one represents the changes in sunlight through the hours of the day. Hexagram represents the various levels of the topography of the Planet Earth which are constants globally and eternally. The first line of topography is sea level, the constant bottom into which all water upon the Earth runs down into. It is the symbol of the constancy of the dynamic interaction between sunshine and Planet Earth topography which defines the seasons and marks out their courses and cardinal points. Sea level is the part of the topography which is a constant tied to the planetary dynamics.
The second line is the sandy shoreline where traditional geometry is drawn with compass and straight-edge. It is the active place of interaction between the universal sea level and the human habitations built upon higher ground. This is the port and the loading dock which take advantage of natural resources of harbor and river mouths to create the human wealth of trade and commerce. This is where great cities naturally develop since they have the topographical qualities to make for easy transport and thus support massive exports.
The third line is the place of human passions in the Planet Earth Topography. This is where work is done upon best land developed to each purpose. Whether it is human habitation and dwellings, or cities with natural defenses and city walls or fields prepared with good drainage and proper roads for carrying off the harvest, the third line place completes the lower trigram of topographical assets available to society. This is where it is important to get the work done and not be concerned with how that achievement will be credited. Don’t count the profits until you have brought the harvest safely to market for sale.
The fourth line is again the place of the feelings of the heart and the images of the soul which comprise the initial place where personal emotions and subjective realities come into play. This is the basis of the upper trigram of decisions and final developments. This is the place for quiet reflection and review of all that matters and what remains undone. In topography, it is the elevation of the well-placed home to which the head of the household can retreat to consider what is best and most important.
The fifth line is the place of the King, the commanding heights of the great capital with its massive city walls and clear views upon the fields, valleys and rivers of the realm and any possible incursion by enemy troops. Once one has attained the high position and commanding authority it is particularly important to be modest and gentle and keep all your impressive assets out of sight.
The six line place of Planet Earth Topography is the mighty mountain peaks. They are formidable and most impressive, yet they are still only topographical features of the earth and not Divinities. Society may well choose to use the majesty of the high mountains to represent the power of Divinity and even locate important temples atop them. However, the distinction between the highest mountain and even the lowest expression of heaven is overwhelming. Mountains interfere with weather systems and create deserts by sending the rain clouds up and over their peaks where they do not return to be able to water the fields until they have put these tallest peaks over the horizon.
All the first ten hexagrams form a set representing in simple, concrete examples the Water Cycle powered by the interactions between Sunshine and Planet Earth topography. However, as the Dyad it is not hexagrams one and two; but rather the contrast between hexagrams two and three which are the examples to explain the whole Water Cycle in terms of the concepts first two fundamental concepts of the Tetraktys—the holistic Monad and the relationship interactions of the Dyad.
The Dyad of The Water Cycle bedrock structure Hexagram2
Meets Dynamic Energy Focus of
the vital spring thunderstorms
Hexagram3
Hexagram three has the trigram of thunder under the trigram of Rainwater, completing the Dyad of the Water Cycle. The elevation and topography of the fields must be carefully prepared and planted. Then the spring rains must come to nourish the fields and germinate the crops. In traditional Chinese belief this happens because the power of thunder arising from the Earth causes the clouds to tremble and release their water content in long awaited thunderstorms. The irresistible force of the weather front meets the immovable object of the Planet Earth topography with the result being the thunderstorms that begin the rainfall.
Looking that the line structures, the dyad is composed of the pure background of hex 2 with all Yin line places in contrast to hexagram3 which has 4 Yin line places but also Yang lines in the first and fifth place. The first place is a focus upon the beginning of this situation (4 Yin lines, predominantly a situation not an active process) and the fifth line place is the overall organization. The eternal background of the topography contrasts with the immediate process and transient energy of the thunderstorm. The water cycle involves this dynamic dyad working itself out overall.
This is like the artist whose artistic vision for his sculpture is fully organized and as he confronts his uncarved block with the point of his chisel and begins his first strike of creation. The uncarved block with its natural grain and imperfections is the material or topography which is available to work out the final sculpture. Between the chisel strokes of the artist’s craft and the limitations of the available material the process of creation begins. This is the human drama implicit in the positive energy pole of theDyad of the global Water Cycle process at this stage.
The Dyad representation of the fundamental and concrete basis of all life on Earth controlled by the Water Cycle expresses the interplay and interactions of the eternal natural background of Sunshine and Planet Earth topography balanced by the transient and variable weather systems typified by the Spring thunderstorms. Every Chinese peasant was totally aware that his entire life cycle and survival depended upon the clouds from the West being met by weather conditions that would cause thunderstorms with the drenching rains essential to begin the germination of seed and the growth of crops. Cf. hex 9 Judgment and hex 62.6 line judgment in Wilhelm.
The Dyad of the Decad of Agriculture
Hex 12:
Agriculture overall (Monad hex11) is about putting the energy of sunshine deep into the fields and under the homeland fields to produce crops and other growing things which will come to their eventual quiescent completion in the majestic trees towering above the lowly earth. Hexagram12 is the trigram of Homeland Earth under the Trigram of Sunshine as it happens in the natural world. This arrangement will not meet the needs of traditional Chinese society so it represents the conditions of stagnation and the societal Hell of No Exit, the play by Sartre.
Dyad Negative Pole or Background Structure of Agriculture is the natural reality of sunshine above and beating down upon the homeland earth. The world as it is will not form the fields or sow the seeds that germinate to form the expected crops to feed the nation. In the natural world there is a vast biodiversity that grows up naturally as a result of undeveloped land energized as it may by sunshine as it falls. Great Empires like traditional China can not sustain their population as hunter gatherers in the natural ecosystem. They must organize their society to develop fields that they plow and sow with one crop seed to create the agricultural fields that supply their granaries with the harvest.
Hexagram12 in its overall structure represent three sets of the same line pair values in the three line pair places. Yang over Yin is the Environment Line Pair. Yang over Yin is the Will Line Pair. And again, Yang over Yin is the Heart Line Pair. Together this forms a hexagram where at all levels the forward motion through the sequence of line pairs of the Yang line place focus is being pulled back or retarded by the available open space of the Yin line place behind the Yang line.
When the heart is holding, embracing, and desiring. The will is questioning and balancing out every initiative. The environment is resisting and developing any forward motion, the result is standstill and the personal Hell of finding No Exit from the exquisite pain of difficult encounter. This is not pit or a prison, just the triple whammy of the focal advance as it is launched being balanced, questioned and obliged to wait for further development.
Hexagram 13
Dyad Positive Pole or Energy Focus of Love Song or the Work Chantey that allows field hands to organize and harmonize as they work building community in their common efforts to complete the simple though arduous efforts of preparing the fields and tending the crops until they have to put in that final Herculean effort to get all the harvest in as quickly as possible.
Hexagram13 is formed from 5 Yang lines with the only open Yin place is the local structure or where the peasant group stand in their process of completing the necessary work of completing the agricultural needs of working the fields and preparing the harvest.. They sing not of their personal passions or deep feelings of their hearts but only of their community work situation. This is the work chantey or community sing along that builds peasant solidarity. This is not about individual relationship issues but the group effort building in the necessary peasant development. The process of community building requires a bit of open space for each individual where they can stand upon their own two feet and be themselves while working for the general development and benefit.
The Dyad of Agriculture represented by hex12 and hex13 expresses how the interaction of natural sunshine and Planet Earth topography is totally transformed through the community efforts of the peasants into the breadbasket of agricultural production and food supply for the traditional Chinese Central Kingdom. It is only by the relationships and interactions of both that it is possible to supply food in vast quantities to support the cities and keep the huge population alive to accomplish all that they can.
The Dyad of the Decad of Justice and Karma
or simple cause-and-effect:
Hex22
The dyad interaction from the Negative Pole or the Background Structure is Grace or Highlights. The Trigram Mountain Peak above the trigram Flames. The simple campfire under the high mountain illuminates the topography as it is. There are three Yang lines and three Yin line places. The focus in the 3rd line of personal passion is being isolated and channeled through the transition from current situation (first line place) to the Next (6th line place).
The campfire under the impressive mountain peak makes for a beautiful evening. This is the personal human situation of allowing individual energy its expression and development even though no work or other objective change can be accomplished. Justice rests upon the process of reflection and illumination of prior acts and their consequences.
Hexagram 23
Dyad Positive Pole or Energy Focus is Splitting Apart of the harvest crop from its living, growing plant development. The autumn dropping of the ripe fruit or Fall’s Down. Here is the situation (5 Yin line places) with only the transition to the Next as the sole focus. The crop plants have completed their growth and developed their fruit as human interaction changes their natural reality to separate the harvest grain from the discarded plant waste. Human effort to extract what is useful as community asset from the natural growth process. Here the crop harvest is separated from the fields and sent to market as a natural consequence.
The natural topography of the Planet Earth results in the necessary juxtaposition of a valley under every mountain Peak. Both must arise together as a natural consequence. Any prominence of one place has as the absolute and unavoidable result of forming a background or context out of everything else in the environment. The resulting tension of the potential gravitation is the energy expression of the Dyad of cause and effect.
The interplay of the Dyad of cause and effect is seen in the contrast between hexagram22 and hexagram23. Hexagram 22 describes the natural background with all human efforts reduced to only changing the highlights of the natural topography. AlthoughHexagram 23 shows human efforts totally controlling and transforming the natural plant growth development to create the food harvest from the prepared and tended crops of the fields.
The Dyad of the Decad of Family Love: Hex 32
Dyad Negative Pole or Background Structure of the channeling of individual attractive between and specific man and his specific mate is the social convention of formal marriage. The trigram wind or growing wood is under the trigram thunder to form the hexagram Duration or Old Faithful. Three Yang lines work together in the second, third, and fourth line places balanced by the background situation of the Yin line places that represent everything that would organize and control to move development along from prior conditions to subsequent results.
The pressure gradient that is produced by weather energies causes local changes felt as wind and the movement of charged particles in weather systems develops the electrical potential that results in (lightning and) thunder. The institution of marriage is established in society to channel the individual passions into a formal relationship binding together two spouses into a family. The change from excited young people into formally married and settled adult spouses is the bedrock of the traditional Chinese society.
Hexagram 33
Dyad Positive Pole or Energy Focus of Romantic Love is the process (4 Yang lines) of individual passion and heartfelt love organized and consciously directed into promoting the development of the Next. The individual involved surrender their personal roots and independent stance toward this goal of taking the plunge into what will develop Next. Retreat is the conscious and directed response of an army to situation on the ground. Flight is the result of human control making its impact upon material structures and harnessed energy organized and unified into the airplane.
Human efforts in the marriage situation integrates the energies and opportunities of the young couple into the natural development of families as the two individuals become one set of parents raising their new generation of society. The mountain crowned in sunshine forms an awesome and beautiful tourist destination. Development is fostered by human efforts within the current situation.
The dyad description of the process of individual loving, desire channeled into the development of the family as microcosm of traditional Chinese society becomes the interplay of the routines of marriage as background to the creation of a new generation launched into the future. The interaction of the dyad is expressed in the sharp distinction between the context of formal traditions and routine (hex32 marriage) and the soaring human energy of the aspirations and intentions of the newlywed couple to take flight from their parents’ households and form their own family household. “
This is the insight involved in the Genesis story of Eve being created from Adam’s Rib—like all creation stories they have a punch line at end: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife and they shall become one flesh.” (Torah Genesis 2.24.)
The Dyad of the Decad of Spiritual Aspiration
Toward the Divine: Hex 42
Dyad Negative Pole or Background Structure of Spiritual Aspiration is the recognition of Increase or Divine Blessing in human life. What the Divine bestows upon mankind is the background context of what is recognized as Cosmic Gift. The process of transition from Prior to Next according to organizing plan is balanced by the situation of openness in terms of individual control (line place 2) and an open and receptive heart line pair (line places 3 and 4).
The trigram thunder follows under the trigram wind or growing wood moving along its development. The energy and rain of the thunderstorm germinates the seeds and develops the crops in the fields in the process of the Divine gift of life. Large scale energy dynamics of weather systems causes the results of pressure gradients acting as winds.
Hexagram 43
Dyad Positive Pole or Energy Focus is the process (5 Yang lines) of natural development in its own terms without concern about where it will lead Next (open Yin line place in the final position). The Trigram Lake expanded by the energy of Trigram Sunshine to create the flood or Breakthrough or Overwhelming.
This is the hexagram of the hydro-electric dam with its awesome potential power. Of course, for the ancient Chinese without the turbines and alternating current generators this hexagram represented only the vast power of accumulated flood waters with their widespread potential destruction. This highlights the distinction between philosophy and technology. There were no intermediate goals to be stepping stones to such development as the alarm clock needs of the monks under St.Benedict’s rule led to the pendulum clock.
The description of the realization of the Divine through Spiritual values in terms of the Dyad interaction highlights the human appreciation of Awe and Wonder through the interplay of the Divine gift of Blessing (hex42) and the terror before the Divine potential for devastation and destruction through catastrophic natural events (hex43).
The Dyad of the Decad of Divine Impact
Within the Human Heart Hex52
Dyad Negative Pole or Background Structure of hexagram 52 Keeping Still, Mountain or Peaks is the Trigram Mountain Peaks doubled to form a mountain range where the plate tectonics jam together raising long lines of the topography high above the rest of the topography. This is not just the impressive height of a single mountain but the entire region of highlands and huge peaks of the mountain ranges that brings all travel or transit to a dead halt. Thus it implies the absolute rest and inwardness of long term meditation.
Structurally, hex 52 is a situation (4 Yin line places) where the personal passions absolutely alone must carry the focus upon the transition to the Next. The background negative pole of hex22 becomes even more concentrated and focused solely upon moving on to the next without any focus upon the prior conditions which are involved. This is the description of deep meditation which seeks to stop the incessant chatter in the mind as the Himalayas bring caravans heavy laden with goods to sell to an absolute halt and need to find alternative routes.
The realm of the quiet of the meditative mind is the background context for the appearance of the Divine in the thunderstruck human mind. This is not a decad about natural phenomena such as thunder and mountain ranges. It is the exposition of the 6th set of ten hexagrams describing the ultimate effects of the Cosmic upon individual humans. Within the span of its ten hexagrams the initial terror of the power of the Divine manifest will finally come to quiescent peace in the natural integration of rushing water into the topography of the lake (hex60).
Hexagram 53
Dyad Positive Pole or Energy Focus of hex53 is the gradual development of the tall tree atop a mountain peak that becomes a landmark for all to see. In American terms (who has time or interest to wait for a single tree to grow on a high mountain?) this is the act of cutting a rough diamond to make a brilliant gem. Years of training and preparation must be laid upon the line, not just once but time after time to produce the final product which can become a classic jewel that will be renown forever.
Hex53 is a balance between the situation of Yin line places at the first, second and fourth stages, and the Yang focus upon the personal effort, overall organization and command of the fifth stage and the transition to the next which is the point of this intense human effort. Passionate personal intensity must be combined with the absolute command and control of total organizational excellence focused toward the single purpose of transforming what is at hand into a far superior Next reality. As a Dyad of the decad of the Divine thunder stroke within the individual soul the interplaybetween the absolute inwardness of deep meditation and the intense human desire for transformation toward the ideal Next results in the spiritual breakthrough of enlightenment. Such internal mental extremes are dangerous and risky with the problems that can develop being detailed in other hexagrams of this decad before the final achievement of the simple quiescence of that ultimate state of Peace and Tranquility or Nirvana which hex60 is the metaphor.
The final set of 4 hexagrams by Gestalt
structure Symbolism: Hex62
Dyad Negative Pole or Background Structure of the set of four Cardinal hexagrams is the isolation and purification of the intense heart line pair by the four other Yin line places. Here is the heart full to bursting yet unable to develop any traction either within the self or from the environment of others. This is the Preponderance of the Small or the Razor’s Edge (Cf. "The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard." —Katha-Upanishad and “The path to enlightenment is as sharp and narrow as a razor's edge.”)
The final four hexagrams are cardinal symbols in that their import and meaning comes mainly from their overall structure. The Monad of this set, hex61 is open in the heart line pair places, like an egg or the openness of the quiet heart. The final hexagram of this set of only four is the hexagram of hopeful beginnings, Eve composed of three sets of line pair Yang over Yin stacked on top of each other.
Rather than producing the stagnation or No Exit difficulties of hex12, this hexagram stack of the same three line pairs produces instead the will line pair as Yin over Yang that takes the slogans of driving and demanding. As a result this drive of the will is developed by the questioning of the Heart line pair and the resistance of the Environment to create a new initiative in the form of Eve and the eve before the great launch.
Hexagram 63
Dyad Positive Pole or Energy Focus of this cardinal set of the final four hexagrams is hex63 After Completion or The Morning After composed of three sets of Yin over Yang line pairs stacked on top of each other. These form the will line pair of Yang over Yin while the heart and environment line pairs maintain the original Yin over Yang forward momentum. The questioning and balancing of the Will line pair brings the overall momentum to its natural conclusion and final state rather than continuing headlong until it is stopped by external factors.
As a dyad the hex62 and hex 63 by their interactions express the drives of the human heart brought to their ultimate expression and limitation through the power of the King or 5th line place to create order and prevent excess. In hexagram62 the explosive demands of the heart full of emotion and desire is obliged to deal with the lack of support beyond itself, even in the person’s own mind. In hex63 the command and control of the individual will has the authority and responsibility to know when enough is enough and bring the initiative and its momentum to completion.
The interpretation given in Wilhelm, placing the rulership of the hexagram in the second Yin line place and saying of this line place “The nine (Yang line focus) presides over the sacrifice” however, the commentary refers only to the comparison of the offerings by the Yin line places at the second and the fourth stages. The second line place is central to its trigram while the 4th is not and thus it is assumed the central one is more in harmony with the Tao.
The fifth line place of the King commands and controls the entire situation, but is ignored in the traditional Confucian commentaries which highlight only the sibling equality of the two subordinates being given instruction that bigger is not necessarily always better. However, it is the fifth line place in total and overall command which establishes the altar and the ritual sacrifices where the others can strut their stuff and receive their just deserts. In this final set of cardinal hexagrams, the dyad perspective describes the interaction overall between the lone individual with only a heart full of feelings and the well-established King with his entire kingdom under his command where he is able to determine what is the best development for all.
Unique Final Hexagram Sixty-Four Eve
Hexagram 64The final four hexagrams are cardinal symbols in that their import and meaning comes mainly from their overall structure. The Monad of this set, hex61 is open in the heart line pair places, like an egg or the openness of the quiet heart. The final hexagram64 of this set of only four is the hexagram of hopeful beginnings, Eve composed of three sets of line pair Yang over Yin stacked on top of each other.
Rather than producing the stagnation or No Exit difficulties of hex12, this hexagram stack of the same three line pairs produces instead the will line pair as Yin over Yang that takes the slogans of driving and demanding. As a result this drive of the will is developed by the questioning of the Heart line pair and the resistance of the Environment to create a new initiative in the form of Eve and the eve before the great launch.
Hexagram Sixty-Four is the final complementary Dyad to the entire Set of the other 63. The dyad perspective breaks the holistic unity into two equal pieces highlighting the energetic interaction between them. All dyads partake of the fundamental division between the limited and the unlimited, the clear focus and the general background context, the figure plain for all to see and the ground which everyone ignores but which controls exactly how that figure stands out.
In its form hex64 seems very much like any other hexagram without much if any distinguishing characteristics. It is composed of three Yang lines and three Yin line places placed one after the other with their only special feature that the odd or Yang lines are in the even line places (2,4,6) the even Yin lines are in the odd (1,3,5) or Yang ones. Most hexagrams by their structural pairs (odd numbered hexagrams in the King Wen Sequence followed by even numbered hexagram) alternate by tumbling the line values, exchanging the first line for the sixth, etc). Only the final hexagrams of each half and the first two hexagrams of all Yang lines or Yin line places are symmetrical and can only generate their pair by exchanging the line places Yang for Yin and Yin for Yang.
In the older arrangement of the hexagrams by their binary counting of zero and one to form the number pattern of the Tai Ji or Sine Wave pattern, the hexagrams are arranged to begin with all Yin line places representing zero and end finally with all Yang lines representing 63 in binary mathematics. In the King Wen Sequence the hexagrams are arranged by their meaning into the four perspectives of the Monad, Dyad, Triad, and Tetrad.
However, there is one hexagram whose meaning stands apart from the entire set of the other sixty-three. From hexagram One through hexagram sixty-three each hexagram designates a particular definite situation, process or timing. Only the last of all the hexagrams, designated number 64 and called in the Flux Tome terminology EVE has a totally different import and meaning. It is the hexagram of absolute and unlimited potential—the hexagram of what is beginning and has yet to fully become.
In general, Wilhelm in his translation avoids this distinction between the unlimited potential of hex64 and all the other hexagrams. He translates its name as “Before Completion” in exact parallel to hex63 as “After Completion.” However, at the end of his Book III commentary upon hex 64 Wilhelm notes, “Thus at its close the Book of Changes leaves the situation open for new beginnings and new formations.”
Then the Wilhelm text goes on to step all other this unique meaning of hex sixty-four Eve to place as the final text a quote from another text in which hex43 is cited in conclusion as “the strong turns resolutely against the weak. The way of the Superior Man is ascendant…” a truly Germanic statement that might makes right and those in power should press their advantage.
However, in reality the Yi is not like that at all. Certainly not if seen from the Taoist perspective. And from a structural analysis, hexagram sixty-four Eve is in sharp contrast to the whole set of the other sixty-three hexagrams composing the Yi. Hexagram 64 Eve forms the symbolic Dyad of its unlimited potential in contrast to all the specifics designated in all the other hexagrams.
The Dyad is always the distinction between the structural background and context of the hexagram formed by the inverse of the Monad hexagram; in contrast to the dynamic energy and unlimited potential available from the hexagram numbered ending in three. This last hexagram of the entire system of the King Wen Sequence is the dynamic potential in its pure abstraction hex64 Eve. It forms the overall and ultimate Dyad to the specific details and thus limited focus of each of the other sixty-three.
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