Zhong, center, hitting target

Zhong means center, to be in the center, middle, among, medium, halfway. Pronounced as zhòng: to hit the target, to be struck. It is a picture of a pole with a banner, or maybe an arrow, in the middle of a circle.

In the Yi zhong is part of the name of hexagram 61, but in the other hexagrams there are only six places where it occurs. Two of them refer to the sun in the center of heaven: noon.
Center of the forest in hex.3 line 3 is its most simple use.

Three occurences are about 'moving central': 24 line 4 and 42 lines 3 and 4. Moving central can be 'going halfway', 'avoiding any excess', but also 'moving in the center'

Moving in the center is being one with what one does, or following the 'road of the mean', a combination of 'being one with what one does' with 'avoiding any excess'.

China is 'The Middle Kingdom', Zhongguo: the country situated in the center of the earth. Where you are is always the center of the earth: it stretches in all directions around you.

Very interesting is the meaning of 'hitting target' (see Kunst 1985), which expands 'moving central'. You are not only staying in between two extremes, but 'hitting target' while doing it.

Zhong on Oracle Bones

The maiden of hexagram 54

歸 妹

Nobody wants to get hexagram 54. The poor maiden who has has no say whatever in her life, who has to adapt to things which have nothing to do with her own wishes. They are wrong!

The younger sister of emperor Yi in hex.11 line 5 is also a 'marrying maiden'. She married Wen, and became the mother of a dynasty which lasted for centuries.
She linked the two families together, bringing the ancestors of the powerful Shang dynasty into the small clan of the Zhou. She was an important reason of their success.

Right from the start an important task is assigned to her. She has to care for the succession of the generations. One of her tasks is to look after the house-altars. Making sure the ancestors are well cared for, so they will be beneficial for the family and its successors.
It is a token of her importance. She is an essential link in the succession from one generation into the next. She brings the new family members but she also brings the support of the ancestors into the happiness and success of the family, she connects her own ancestors with those of the family.

The lower trigram of 54 is trigram Lake. It also can be a marsh, where innumerable creatures connect, exchange, fight for space and depend on each other.
The upper trigram is Thunder, the lifegiver, energy, birth and impregnation. The start of a new time is very important for the success and endurance of everything which comes after.

For every big idea or enterprise you need a creative beginning. Most things or ideas already exist, but sometimes someone puts two things together and creates a third. It is the basis of big firms, of art, of a family, of anything you bring into the world which can last for a long time.

Hex.54 tells you to listen and to adapt. To examine and care for what came before and to nurture what grows. If this small beginning is treated right, it can grow beyond your own scope.
"The noble one, through the eternity of the end, understands the transitory."

Hexagram 43, "Raise your staff"

The judgment of 43 in Wilhelm's translation:
Break through. One must resolutely make the matter known at the court of the king.

A more literal translation: Breakthrough raise at king's court. This sounds as if Guai is an object. Another pronunciation of this character is jué.

The oracle-bone character seems to show two hands holding a large U shape. Such an almost circular jade ring was called a 玦 jué.

In ancient times the jué symbolized authority, or cutting off a relationship. An archer’s thumbring was also called a 玦 jué.
Meanings: the finger which loosens the bow: cutting loose or cutting off, resolute, decisive. Karlgren: “the bursting loose of the bow string”.

This token of authority, of the right to decide, was "raised at the King's court". 庭 This character is c omposed of  廴 ‘journey’ and 壬, which represents a 人 person standing on the 土 ground.

At the court is the assembly where people with authority can speak up, where the king speaks and listens and where decisions are made.

'Breakthrough' is both the decision (the river breaking through a dam, the bowstring being released), and also the authority to do so.

"A person standing on the ground"

Standing your ground can be the moment of making yourself heard or of making the decision. It can also be of a more durable kind: living your life the way you decide to, making your own decisions, being who you are despite influences.

It is often not easy to find the right way. Many situations are difficult to evaluate. There are no rules about when to be resolute and when to withdraw for the time being.

Trigram Heaven below or inside means, you know the rules of Heaven, they can guide you.
Trigam Lake or Marsh above means it is a matter of social rules or surroundings. Your decisions define your place in them.

The pattern of hexagram 29

I was browsing through a book, which had been recommended to me. "In search of excellence", by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman. Just opening it at random, a page here, a page there, to figure out if it would make sense to start reading. It seemed such a huge amount of words, and there is so much else to do...

On one of the pages, I got intrigued. Someone, who was in search of artificial intelligence, studied the problem of programming computers to play chess. He started out assuming that it could be played on a rational basis, but had to abandon that idea. The computer would need something like a century to calculate all possible moves.

So instead, he investigated what good chess players do. He asked them to look at a half-way chess game, just for a very short period, like 10 seconds. They could recall the locations of virtually all the pieces. Players of one rank below the best players scored a lot lower. But the masters could not remember where the pieces were, if they were placed on the board at random. So something else than short-time memory had to be at work.

He believed that the 'something else' was, that the masters had highly developed long-term memories, in the form of subconsciously remembered patterns. He called it chess "vocabularies". The class A players had a memory of around 2,000 patterns, but the masters of around 50,000 patterns.

The mark of the true professional in any field is the rich vocabulary of patterns, developed through years of education and especially through years of experience.

I had to think of hexagram 29, water repeated. The character translated as 'repeat' also means skill, routine, learning something by training or exercise.

Hex.29
 The great image says:

君子 noble one

以 use

常德 constant virtue 

行 move, perform

習 repeat, exercise, habit, expertise in a certain field

教事 teach events

習 repeat, is the character at the top. A pair of wings (= to fly) and sun (or day). 

Years ago I read another book, "Das sensible Chaos" by Schwenk. It seems that water has a memory for patterns. That goes for the streams in the oceans, but just as well for the water in our bodies. 

The pit, a place of danger, but maybe also the huge reservoir of everything we learned through 'repeating', seeing or doing it again and again, experience.

"The noble man moves according to principles and virtue", both might have a lot to do with patterns which proved effective, and which make up that reservoir. 

And finally it might be the answer to 'how' people read the Yijing for others. Some know the rules, what comes first, what then. Others have developed patterns. And for working with patterns, the thinking mind has to be silent, and let the memory do the talking. 

Tuan: the gua poem or judgment or "to expel evil spirits"

Old character (sealscript)

Tuan, the judgment of the hexagrams, is a picture of a pig. Or that is what we are told. It is also part of the name of hex.33, withdrawing. In 33 the pig has to do with sacrificing. When one withdraws, one sacrifices all those nice things of the world 'out there'. But one also gets rid of everything which keeps one from being oneself.

The traditional character, still used in Taiwan.

The old oracle bone character does look like a pig - with some imagination. But for those who have experience with pigs, it does show one. Screaming, wriggling, big ears, and the one at right with a big belly or maybe many nipples.

The judgment is not just a description of the workings of a hexagram, it is the incantation which belongs to the moment of a hexagram. When you want to solve a situation like hex.47, you need a different invocation than in a situation like hex.11. A different 'hex'...

Judgment of 11: Mount Tai: small proceeds, great comes up. Auspicious. Expansion. 

And judgment of 47: Confined, expansion - determination. Great people auspicious. No fault. Words are not believed.

In hex.11 an expectation of better times coming along. No further specific advice.
In hex.47 advice to divine and to act on what the spirits tell you, and to look for great people, and also a warning that words will not be believed.

See Harmen's text about tuan.

Hex.28 and hex.4 Ridgepoles and rocks

Hexagram 28 has this character: the ridgepole:

棟

 In the fanyao of line 3 one finds the masonry-lined well and in the one of line 4 stone. 

The fanyao of line 3 is 47.3. There you find a rock or stone: the character is a picture of a rock falling from a ledge.

And in the fanyao of line 4, in 48.4, this character: “brick wall of a well”. Top left in the character the picture of fire. Top right probably straw, bottom unknown to me.

Hexagram 47 is the upside-down (Pang tong gua) of hexagram 48, and 47.4 corresponds to 48.3.

Hexagram 28 does not visibly change when you turn it upside-down. Or does it???
Maybe the sagging ridgepole of line 3 corresponds upside-down with the eminent ridgepole of line 4.

The Mirrors 28.3, 28.4, 47.3 and 48.4 are all four together one 'unit'. Mirrors and reflections of each other. Every mirror has a 'theme', something which connects all four. In this Mirror the theme has to do with the strength of stone and poles/ treetrunks. Organic and inorganic strength.

The structure of the question and its answer

When you cast the lines, you build up a hexagram, consisting of two trigrams. When one or more lines are 'old', there is also a relating hexagram with its trigrams.

Every trigram represents part of your question/answer. Every part of it can be found in them: the base or core, the advice, the situation, the need, the energy.

Imagine you cast hexagram 17 with lines 1 and 2 changing. The relating hexagram will be 47.
In 17 the lower trigram is Thunder, this is how you feel. Full of energy in this case, you want to make something happen.
But it is not easy, the situation is confining, 47. You probably asked the Yi because energy when you are confined is a real problem.

Yi's advice is Lake, the upper trigram of 17: reckon with other people.
The best way to do this, in THIS situation, can be found in the moving lines.

Initial line: The standards are changing. Determination auspicious. To come out of the gate and interact brings achievement.
This line turns Thunder into Lake, so the quality of 'open' is extra strong. Open like a child.

Line 2: Related to the small child, losing the big man.
This line turns Thunder into Lake, so the quality of 'open' is extra strong. Open like a child.

I chose hex.47 as relating hex, because it is not very hard to describe. Most hexagrams have a much wider range of meanings. it doesn't mean that 47 is narrower, it just needs less description.

I have a 'real' example, also with 47

Our phone company fused with another one. They had to move the data of all customers. The next day 4 of our 6 phones didn't work anymore. We couldn't reach them, because it seemed a large part of all clients were complaining. After several weeks we could finally reach the helpdesk and they gave us the advice you need when a phone stops working. They maintained that it was a problem of the phones, not caused by the migration. Mailing didn't help either, they gave just more of the same advice.

So I asked Yi how to solve the trouble with the phones: 12/2,6 - 47. Duh... Hex.47 was exactly how we felt. Confined, no working phones, no help, no solution.

12/2: To work under contract. Small men: auspicious. Great men: obstruction for expansion.
Mirror: about making a good use of misfortune.
We decided to switch company and we asked the guy who helps with our computers, and who knows all about phones as well. It is his job - his contract.
We used the problem to improve things: see below.
Here small men is the one guy: just one person versus a gigantic company, the big guy.

12/6: The obstruction is temporary. First obstruction, later rejoicing.
Mirror: how one thing makes other(s) come along.
The new company is better with phones, but also more expensive. Except for this guy, who could offer a cheaper contract through his job. And he will be a much better helpdesk as well!

Lower trigram 12, Earth: our question was how to make our 'living-space' right again, and since it changes to Water, it has to do with moving.
Yi's advice was to follow the existing laws (trigram Heaven): first asking the helpdesk, but when that road doesn't work, to follow the next law: find another one who can do the job. Heaven changes to Lake: when the rule of the responsible party doesn't work, look around in society, and there the rule is to find someone who knows, an expert.