I Ching Mystery
The most ancient book ? led to our most modern machine - The Computer.
In the seventeenth century, a Jesuit missionary in China, Father Bouvet, wrote about the I Ching to his friend Gottfried von Leibniz, the philosopher and mathematician. Leibniz discovered in the pattern of the I Ching the principles of binary arithmetic and calculus, the foundation of every computer calculation performed today.
The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is the most widely read of the five Chinese Classics. The book was traditionally written by the legendary Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi (2953-2838 B.C.). It is possible that the the I Ching originated from a prehistoric divination technique which dates back as far as 5000 B.C
This ancient divination system is the most intricate numerically-based oracle ever devised.
An I Ching interpretation is performed by making six binary
decisions (a hexagram). This is called 'casting the I Ching'.
These are written down as a stack of six solid or broken lines.
This was traditionally done either by tossing yarrow stalks or
coins, although there is no reason why the hexagrams can't be
generated by some other means (such as a computer program).
The basic component of the I Ching is a three lined symbol called the Trigram. Each of the three lines in a trigram can either be straight or broken. A straight line symbolizes Yang: A broken line stands for Yin.
Yang ______________
Yin _____ _____
There are actually four possible values for each of the lines;
the two on/off values, and a line which changes from on to off or
vice versa. Thus one cast of the I Ching can generate several
different hexagrams, which adds depth to the interpretation. The
sophistication of this method has not escaped modern
interpretation, and the four-valued logic has been compared to
the biochemistry of DNA amino acids. How a Neolithic shamans'
divination technique presaged the basic logic of the human genome
is one of the ageless mysteries.
STAY HERE COMING MORE
Return to Ancient Mysteries |