by Sun Yu-Ii
The I-Ching is considered the oldest scripture in Chinese culture and respected as the progenitor of all writings. But the birth of I-Ching is from the Eight Trigrams which comes from He-Tu and Luo-Shu.
According to an ancient legend, a dragon-horse surfaced from the Yellow River carrying the He- Tu on its back. And from the River Luo, A sacred turtle surfaced with the Luo-Shu. The He-Tu and Luo-Shu were graphs symbolizing nature's phenomena and containing the metaphysical rules and principles of the universe in motion.
The wise man Fu Xi drew the Eight Trigrams based on the He-Tu. Da Yu wrote the rules of dividing land based on the Luo-Shu. Wen Wang wrote the I-Ching from the Eight Trigrams. These recordings established the foundation and framework of Chinese civilization.
He-Tu and Luo-Shu were subsequently lost. later man, basing on the bits of fragmented information and using their reasoning, managed to re-create some of the graphs. However, the important metaphysical rules and principles contained in the graphs of He-Tu and Luo-Shu were never found.
WHAT WERE THESE RULES AND PRINCIPLES?
This is before matter existed. The primeval state of the universe. There is no concept to describe it. It is beyond description.
Although Tai-ji or Existence is conceived from Wu-ji or Null, Tai-ji is originally Wu- ji. Somehow the null state of the universe started to turn and spin like a vortex. It gained velocity and concentrated on a point. That is the point of Tai-ji which contains the essence from which all things are derived
The spinning of the null state of the universe is in fact caused by the two opposing spirits of Yin-qi and Yang-qi. Therefore the point created, Tai-ji, actually comprises the concentrated spirit of the Yin-qi and Yang-qi which are infinitely close but never touching(Fig. 1). This pair of spirits symbolizes and forms the basis of the universe.
The shift from Tai-ji to Liang-yi is a shift from the static to the dynamic. And therein lies the metaphysical rules and the principles of an universe in motion.
What are these rules and Principles ' which the wise man Fu Xi had inferred and applied them to obtain the Liang-yi and Four Graphs from which came the Eight Trigrams?
The Eight Trigrams are eight sets of permutations of solid and broken strokes in three positions.
Fu Xi who first drew them and assigned to them their very first meanings, had followed the rules and principles found in He-Tu and Luo-Shu. Wen Wang who later wrote the I-Ching and derived the 64 Hexagrams from the Eight Trigrams had followed the very same rules and principles.
On one hand, the derivation of I-Ching is from Tai-ji(l), Liang-yi(2), Four Graphs(4), Eight Trigrams(8)........ On the other hand, after basic elements of CD and SD acts and reacts, the number of stabilized CS-graphs in stages is 1,2,4,8........ What is the interesting correlation between the two?
When Rules of Construction and Transformation applied, Basic elements CD acts and SD reacts.
When CD acts, forms a CL, stops at another CD (a quantity change), SD reacts, forms a SL, loops back, cuts across CL, establishes another SD which merges with the original SD ( a quality change ). This whole process is recorded as Quantity/Quality.
When CD acts, forms a CL, loops back to its original position, establishes
another CD which merges with the original CD (a quality change). SD reacts,
forms a SL,'stops at another SD (a quantity change). This whole process is
recorded as Quality/Quantity.
(Yang or Positive) to represent Quality/Quantity 
(Yin or Negative) to represent Quantity/Quality When CD acts and SD reacts, by applying the Rules established, there will be only two possible derivations to achieve the stabilized Graphs at this initial stage.
There will be only four possible derivations at the second stage.
Further derivations prove that the Bar-grams of I-Ching and the Graphs of the basic Metaphysical Moulds correspond exactly (even beyond Eight Trigrams, 16, 32, 64 ......
Bar-grams of I-Ching is the sequentiality of Binary Signals in Time.
Metaphysical Moulds of the Formal Language is the planes in Space.
Time (Bar-grams) can be concretized in Space (Metaphysical Moulds).
Space (Metaphysical Moulds) can be dissolved sequentially in Time (Bargrams).
<HomePage>
<Contents>
<Preface>