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Lesson 16
The Scholarly Method
The scholarly method is to study the original text of the I Ching to get the answer to the question. This is the method used by the knowledgeable elite class. The I Ching was written in very ancient language and the original text is quite incomprehensible. Everyone has his own version of interpretation and people cannot agree on almost everything. I will not endeavor to give a word for word or even phrase for phrase translation of the text. Instead I will rewrite it in simple English so that the reader can get the picture. It is the picture that is most important.
The idea of asking the I Ching oracle is to get a hexagram that may or may not carry a moving (or changing) yao (line). If there are changing lines then we also get a new hexagram after the change. Thus we can see the present picture from the original hexagram and also the picture of the new hexagram. The original hexagram will be called the current gua while the new hexagram called the projected gua. The text of the changing yao is the key to the change.
The interpretation depends on the inspiration and knowledge of the interpreter. He who knows the I Ching better, he who has more life experience, and he who has a more imaginative mind will do the better job.
For those who cannot understand the I Ching, I have written standard interpretations for each hexagram with reference to common aspect of life. It will deal with six aspects, namely,
1. Luck
2. Romance
3. Family
4. Business
5. Sickness
6. Lawsuit
You can say that this is the simplest version of the scholarly method.
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