I Ching
Interpreted by wu wei

Thousands of years ago, before the dawn of written history, legend has it that there lived a great Chinese sage known as Fu Hsi. He is credited with bringing the cooking of food to the Chinese people. He may have lived 10,000 years ago.

A man of incredibly vast intellect, Fu Hsi, in an exquisite feat, drew forth from the Universe, over a period of time and in stages, a perfect model of itself, complete with all its conditions and elements of change - the sixty-four hexagrams that the Chinese call "kua". (The complete story of how this author believes Fu Hsi formulated his model can be found in the book , A Tale Of the I Ching .) To form the sixty-four kua of the I Ching, Fu Hsi, it is said, surveyed the vast diversities and movements under heaven, saw the ways the movements met and became interrelated, saw the ways their courses were governed by eternal laws. He thought through the order of nature to its deepest core. He perceived the beginning of all things that lay unmoving in the beyond in the form of ideas that have yet to manifest themselves. He put himself in accord with those ideas and, in doing arrived at an understanding of fate.

Writing did not exist at the time of Fu Hsi, so his teachings were handed down in the oral tradition, one generation faithfully teaching another, perhaps for several thousand years.

Wen writing began in China five thousand years ago, about the year 3,000 BC, the I Ching teachings and answers were first recorded. Two thousand more years passed, during which time the I Ching and its teachings flourished.

In the twelfth century BC, the tyrant, Chou Shin, ruled. He was to be the last emperor of the Shang Dynasty. He was a cruel and heartless man who tortured people to please his equally cruel and sadistic concubine. So cruel was he that all of China lived in fear of him.

At the same time there also lived a man named Wen, a learned I Ching scholar of rare insight, who governed a small province in remote area of western China. Wen governed his people according to I Ching principles and was, therefore, as much loved and respected by the people as Chou Shin was hated and feared. The people urged Wen to gather an army and overthrow the tyrant, assuring him that everyone would willingly follow him. He refused, saying that since he was truly a law-abiding citizen, he could not, in good conscience, take action against the emperor.

Chou Shin heard the rumors that Wen was being asked to gather an army to rise against him and had Wen arrested and put into prison. Wen was allowed to live, but only because of his popularity.

During the year 1143 BC, the year that Wen was in confinement and in fear for his life, he used the I Ching's great wisdom and its divinatory powers to keep himself alive. In Wen's time, there were two versions of the I Ching, Lien Sah and Gai Tsen, and during his time of isolation, he re-interpreted the names of the kua and other portions of the great books. He also changed the order of the kua established by Fu Hsi to the order currently in use in every version of the I Ching. The order of the kua does not in any way affect the readings.

In 1122 BC, Wen's oldest son, Yu, after publicly denouncing Emperor Chou Shin to turn public opinion hotly against him, gathered an army and overthrew the tyrant and became king. The new king, to honor his then deceased father, bestowed upon him the title of "King," and he was forever after known as King Wen, even though he never ruled as king. King Yu died a few years after becoming king, leaving a thirteen year old son as heir to the throne. The inexperienced youngster obviously was incapable of ruling, so King Wen's younger son, Tan, known as the Duke of Chou, ruled in his stead. Kin Wen had instructed Tan in the teachings of the I Ching, and it was Tan who, during his reign as acting kin, interpreted the meanings of the individual lines. The I Ching was then considered complete. The year was 1109 BC.

So profound was the wisdom of King Wen and his sons, wisdom derived from study of the I Ching, that they were able to provide a foundation for their dynasty so strong that it lasted for 800 years, the longest in the history of China.

Several hundred more years passed, and finally the great sage and scholar, Confucius, came on the world scene. In his later years he began the study of the I Ching and when he was paste the age of seventy humorously commented, "If some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to the study of the I Ching, and might then escape from falling into great errors."

Confucius wrote many commentaries to the Cook of Changes, most of which are reproduced in other volumes of the I Ching, notably, that wonderful version publised by Princeton University Press, Bollingen Series XIX, the Wilhelm/Baynes translation. Should you become so engaged with the I Ching that you wish to go beyond using it as an oracle and begin studying, you will surely want to consult that most thorough work.