It's really an astrology of I ChingThis astrology was conceived during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) by anonymous scholars who ascribed it to the philosopher and I Ching commentator Shao Yung (1011-1077) in order to gain acceptance. Nowadays we would perhaps call this a simple forgery, but such was the manner of introducing new ways of thinking in earlier times when traditional values should not be challenged. It is actually a little surprising that this systematic linking up of the I Ching oracle symbols with the Chinese calendar to produce a horoscope didn't take place earlier in history!
The I Ching is an aggregated set of texts, which began to take shape sometime before 1122 B.C. (Many scholars would
like to place the bulk of the text in the 8th century B.C..)
Wên, the founder of the Chou dynasty (1122-249 B.C.), under which the I Ching first gained fame, was posthumously
titled "King" and is supposedly the author of the oldest layer of the text, the so called Tzu or
judgment. His son,
the Duke of Chou, is traditionally seen as responsible for writing the several
judgments belonging to the six lines
composing each of the 64 hexagram symbols in the I Ching. In reality the prognoses were rewritten and refined during several
centuries after the death of the two great founding fathers.
The exact wording of the 64 succinct chapters varies somewhat according to edition (and even more so after translation!). Furthermore, in 1973 a silk manuscript dated to 168 B.C. (Former Han dynasty, 206 B.C.-8 A.D.) was unearthed by archeologists at Mawangdui. This find has given us the so far oldest extant text of the I Ching. It is not a world of difference between this manuscript and the text handed down to us by tradition, but it contains a number of small but interesting variations. Originally the oracle system was devised to answer any question by referring to one's position within an underlying order of things (Tao, the Way). The oracle responded by setting forth one or other of its set of images. Some of these were taken from the social realities of China of that time and others were illustrations of various human and metaphysical concepts. This set of images and symbols is put to unexpected use when the I Ching is turned into an astrology; when a birth date and time is tied up to one or more symbols from the Book of Changes and then interpreted as a horoscope forecast. From the various sources of the imagery found in I Ching, it will be clear that some horoscopes will be more down to earth, while others will be highly abstract. One type of personality or way of life is, for instance, named after the sacrificial vessel seen on the start page of this site. Clearly, what the ancient Chinese wanted to discuss was not the bronze object in itself but its connotations, which in the Yin Yang Horoscope interpretation is transformed into a discussion of what this might mean to a person born under that particular symbol. Descriptions on the Internet of the I Ching, its history and the way it works as an oracle are numerous and easy to find. This is, after all, one of the world classics in literature. Depending on the system of transliteration chosen, the Book of Changes can be spelled either as I Ching, Yijing, Yi Jing or Yi King. Do look around a bit if you're interested in the world's oldest oracle system, but don't expect too many people to have anything to say about the astrology of I Ching. Among the sites mentioning the astrology of I Ching one offered manually calculated horoscopes and then proceeded to show two samples both of which were dead wrong! Einstein is not hexagram 33, "The Withdrawing", but 24 AND 25 (being born close to a change of Chinese hours). Anyone with experience of I Ching will immediately realize how perfect these two symbols are for that great mind. After all, the title of hexagram 25 literally means having "no pre-conceptions" and ties in admirably with the saying of Einstein how his greatest discovery came about by "challenging an axiom!" This is "wu wang" and nothing else, certainly not the little pig "withdrawing into secrecy!" Yet another site presents the astrology of I Ching in grossly erroneous form, attributing it to the age of Confucius himself! This is not true even for the original I Ching, and much less for its much younger astrological off-spin. No wonder the intelligentsia universally frowns upon the underachievement of the New Age circus! Also, quoting other people's work without giving the original author due credit, as one manufacturer of a grossly inaccurate software for calculating birth signs does, says something about the low standard of much that is currently available on the Internet. Not wanting to sound too grumpy, the Yijing Dao site (www.biroco.com/yijing) is just the type of site that restores one's faith in the Net - a truly scholarly site containing both the Chinese text (in Chinese) as well as a lucid introduction to the original use of I Ching for divination.
I do not know whether it is currently in print. But to tell the truth, to make much sense out of a horoscope by following the abovementioned book is not so easy - many of the extremely brief characterizations in connection with the symbols have very slight bearing on the lives of actual persons born under them. The authors obviously did not test the system empirically but theorized quite a bit about the probable outcome of one or other symbol. That may be the reason why, unfortunately, this branch of Chinese astrology has received scant attention.
For instance, the 23rd symbol is generally held to be one of the "worst" in the I Ching and linked to an omen text saying "it is not favorable to go anywhere." Yet this hexagram constantly pops up in connection with the rich and famous. Obviously there is a meaning to it that has evaded Sherrill, who mostly only aped the Wilhelm translation for pointers to the supposed "personal character" of the hexagrams. In fact the very placement of the single Yang line is a clear giveaway as to its meaning! This hexagram portrays what might be termed a fixation or strong bent on reaching the top and possibly also to "show off"! One light giving yang line at the top is so obvious and perfectly explains why it is so common a birth symbol among Hollywood movie stars! Among us commoners it would likewise indicate ambition as the dominant trait. The fact that the omen text advises against trying to make progress individually thus looks more like an opinion of the very ancient original authors of the I Ching than an "astrological" hint of what these people will actually do with their lives!
From this single case we learn that the hexagrams of the I Ching must be read with deep understanding and not in a too
literal way or with an excessive belief in the opinions of authorities. This might lead us astray. There really is no substitute
for one's own experience with the hexagram symbols.
So is this system uncertain in more ways? Actual use has shown that exceptional birth times sometimes (but rarely) occur where the numerical representation of either the "earthly" or "heavenly" force, when calculated, goes beyond the "possible" numbers as presented in Sherrill & Chu's book! And the authors don't even mention it. Supposedly they did not calculate enough birth times to come upon this little problem. So what then to do when this occurs? Fortunately, the system is founded upon the idea of the cyclic nature of everything so by taking another round in the look-up tables used during calculation, it is possible to establish the correct birth symbol. The results agree very well with the person in question. The calculator included on this site takes care of the exceptions that might occur. One keen-eyed author on the Internet suggests another error in the system which he seems to attribute to the book's publishers or perhaps the book printers rather than to the authors since he calls the latter "experts" (as if such were infallible). Yet the same "error" is repeated a second time in Sherrill and Chu's sequel, "An Anthology of I Ching," which is a brief overview of several systems. In this book they have even slightly rearranged the table supposedly containing two errors, so it seems highly unlikely they would have propagated the mistake a second time if there had been one to begin with. Even so, I have searched through my collection of actual cases to test the proposed alternative. Thereby some extremely significant and suitable birth symbols have turned into much less convincing ones. How true, for instance, to find mega stars and actors Marlon Brando and Leonardo DiCaprio both sharing the same birth omen! They are both described as the perfect manifestations of a true leader bringing enthusiasm to a large group of devoted fans or followers. If now changing the base for calculation, DiCaprio is no longer represented by this obvious and very fitting symbolism. Cases for the published system being correct could be multiplied. The critique of a serious error in the published version of the "Astrology of I Ching" has thus been found to be totally unfounded and visitors to this site need not doubt the calculated results. The reason why symbols Li or Tui (attributes: fire and the marsh respectively) will never occur as a representation of the earth force is easily understood if knowing how the system works in translating numeric values into trigrams via the so-called "Magic Square of Three." I will not delve into this here since the process is embedded in the online calculator and the matter is not very exciting in itself. I must, however, mention an explanation found on the Internet as to why symbols number 30 (Clinging to societal values) and 58 (Joyousness) will never appear as birth hexagrams (again no names!). It is a ridiculous attempt at an ad hoc explanation: one has to learn to be happy and cannot therefore be born under this theme! What? So what about the other 62 symbols then, all depicting more or less complex bases for motivation? Enough said. The case of the abovementioned actors, famed for their volatility (like thunder in China answers to no one but Heaven and sometimes not even that), also shows us something of what to expect from the astrological version of I Ching. We get a bird's eye view! No small details, just the larger potential life pattern laid out before you! Yes, this systems really poses some deep question about pre-destination and whether there is a plan for life and if so of what this plan consists! As mentioned elsewhere - the astrology of I Ching more is "food for thought" than anything else. In contrast to some very poor software I have downloaded and tried (no names!), yours truly have made every effort to weed out bugs and errors during the calculation of a birth symbol. As mentioned, I have even included fixes for a few oversights/uncertainties in the original printed book! For instance, Sherrill & Chu totally ignored the necessary conversion of the Winter Solstice to the local time zone - the system is totally dependent on having a correct local birth time so obviously this should also apply to the Winter Solstice! The year in this astrology is counted from one Winter Solstice to the next.
The reason for their omission is easy to see: it would complicate the already very complicated system even more, and only very
rarely does a Solstice being a few hours off affect the result. But again, the calculator on this site automatically produces the
correct local Winter Solstice, provided you enter time zone for the birthplace in question.
A note on the Classic of Changes itself, outside its astrological use
My recommendations are probably obsolete because of the wealth of new I Ching translations continuously appearing, but from those I know of I would still recommend James Legge's 19th century translation although he vents his contempt for divination throughout the text, giving it a rather highbrowed tone. It is better than Richard Wilhelm's German version (rendered in English by Cary Baynes). The latter deviates from the proper wording too often, but is in obvious dialogue with Legge and therefore includes a number of small corrections. Sigh. You will actually need both of these bulky volumes if you intend to learn I Ching! John Blofield's version from 1965 is very interesting as a complement to either one, and has a wording that works well for divinatory purposes. In the 1980s, there was suddenly a wagonload of discoverers of the "original and true I Ching". Avoid these translations or pick them up only when you are fairly certain of the work. As an example of material that can severely mislead the novice we have the Kerson Huang interpretation, still in print after its release in 1987. Here the word "fu" is rendered as "punishment" on basis of etymological studies. Yes, "fu" may originally have described a "prisoner of war" and then been put to use to illustrate the enforced fealty of a vassal to his Lord. But in context, translating "fu" as "punishment" is rather strained, even far-fetched! The accepted meaning of "sincerity" or "loyalty" suits its use in the I Ching much better! One other illustration of the sometimes misguided attempts to reconstruct the "original spirit" is giving concepts a literal meaning. The character "lü", for instance, is "treading" in Wilhelm (and others) and when written as "shoe" one gets the feeling that an effort is being made to present the ancient Chinese as incapable of abstract thinking or graphically representing a concept! So if you possess one of these translations (Whincup, Huang and others) talking of "simple shoes", please revert to the pre-80s meaning of "simple (and natural) treading" - the text will make much more sense in so doing. And, no, I am not a Sinologue, only equipped with a modicum of common sense!
Some years ago the Edward Shaughnessy translation established itself as the major work for those seeking an accurate translation based
on the archeological discovery of the I Ching silk manuscript in 1973. The translation of the I Ching included here, has made very little
use of these latest findings since they in no way have revolutionized the traditional meaning of the hexagrams.
For aid in translation the original texts I have consulted a small
booklet only available in China, mainly to get access to the original Chinese text: "The I Ching, Text And Annotated Translation"
published in 1995 by Liu Dajun and Lin Zhongjun. This little work also includes notes incorporating the variants and synonyms found
in the silk manuscript. The notes also include informative glosses on the meaning of the words as well as suggested interpretations
of certain passages - some pretty far out! For example, the authors propose an ancient UFO sighting as the background to the wording
of Chapter 44, fifth line! I say! In fact, the original text states no more than this:
It is, in effect, more or less a wordlist, giving almost every synonym for every word in the original Chinese
text
(unfortunately no Chinese characters).
By taking in the entire spectrum of meanings attached to each word,
a Westerner may, so to speak, reconstruct the wider linguistic mind
of the Asian, and begin to see what people using pictographic text
have seen all along. It may not work for everybody, but it sure did
for me!
But it may be good first to be familiar with the texts as seen by
one translator (who has always sacrificed the many possible nuances
of meaning in order to render the text in an intelligible form), and
only then approach this book with the original text in its "liberated"
free-floating form. Over and against the academic quibble, noticed somewhere on the Internet, that this strategy enables every reader to put together their own very unlikely readings (now is that not the great Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu's anarchistic approach to language?), I have found my insight into the original deepen immensely already after a cursory glance at the pages of this thick (850+ pages) book! The text may lack one or two synonyms to a word here and one there, but on the whole this is e work of distinction. Highly recommended for all but Sinologues with deep knowledge of the Chinese language!
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The only book written in English on the astrological fusion between the I Ching and the Chinese calendar, by Wallace Sherrill
and Wen Kuan Chu, was published in 1976, reprinted in 1980 and then deleted before making a brief comeback in a 1993 pocket reissue
in the UK.
This note is addressed only to those beginning to develop an interest in the I Ching as a divinatory system in its own right.
Already in late antiquity there were an estimated 50.000 I Ching commentaries in China! When speaking of modern English translations
of the Book of Changes, you'll need at least a couple of reputed versions just to balance out the loss of nuance caused by their
respective author's settling for one or another meaning of this suggestive work!
I
have recently acquired Rudolf Ritsema's 2005 reprint of his Original
I Ching (first released in the 1990s). For those half-heartedly dabbling in the original Chinese, like me, this
translation may have a sobering effect.