![]() The previous R function returns six Yin Yang elements coded from 6 to 9 following the traditional method to obtain I Ching hexagrams as explained by Richard Wilhelm. Richard Wilhelm translation of the I Ching, but next you can see this process in the more precise and concise R language. For a complete human language explanation of the process I highly recommend you Mr. At each division a calculation is done, a number of stems are left out and the process is repeated. ![]() ![]() This ancient method consists in dividing three times and into two groups a set of 50 stems of Artemisia or Yarrow. In this case, the Old Yin / Yang extension is done evenly with the same probability (2/16) when using three coins. The Three Coinsįor the coin version we toss three coins six times and we build an hexagram from bottom up with the following correspondence and probabilities:Įvery hexagram has a meaning and, if it has Old Yang or Old Yin lines, its meaning is extended by the I Ching with further advises. We will now compare the results from the traditional Artemisia / Yarrow method to obtain the two I Ching oracle trigrams as explain by Richard Wilhelm in his The I Ching: The book of changes with those from the simplified coin version described in the same book. Pero en las grietas está Dios, que acecha. Our life Is a future and well-traveled track. That is no more than a single, silent letter So, before we plunge into the mathematical details of the traditional algorithm to draw oracles, let’s share this poem from Borges about the I Ching to break the ice. This is not only the oldest book in human history, but a beautiful one. And regardless you believe or not whether it has magical properties, what is certain is that it has deep psychological sapiential ones. This book has impressed mathematicians like Leibniz, psychologists like Jung, poets like Jorge Luis Borges and all kind of intellectuals all over the world for centuries. For those interested in having a traditionally sound oracle in terms of probability, I will show a few simple ways to achieve just that at the end of this post. I am not a sinologist nor a psychologist so I cannot really tell what version would have a better influence among practitioners lives, but I know though that the traditional form promotes Yang among those seeking advice which, at first glance, seems like a positive thing to do and, since this book is used by millions of people, maybe experts in the field should advice to practitioners not to use three coins anymore when using the I Ching. This means that The I Ching, in its traditional form to draw oracles, promotes Yang behaviour over Yin, that is, it promotes among its users action, imagination, creativity, strength whereas, nowadays, with the simplified three coin version, the active and passive answers are even out. In this post I will show how the three coins method yields an equal proportion on Old Yin and Old Yang oracles signs whereas the traditional method yields three times more Old Yang signs than Old Yin! Well, a mathematical curiosity you might think, but does it matter? It might! Millions of people seek advice using the simplified coin version to render the I Ching Yin Yang oracles. I always thought that the traditional form was just a magical way to do the same thing that we can do by tossing three coins, but today, for no particular reason that having too much free time in my hands, I gave a deeper mathematical look to this traditional form and it turns out that it renders a complete different random result that tossing three coins! And although I acquired this ancestral book a long, long, time ago, truth is that when reading it as an oracle I always used the simplified version for lazy busy people consisting in simply tossing three coins and checking the combination of heads and tails. The I Ching divination process requires to randomly select two trigrams via a rather convoluted process using either stems of Artemisia or Yarrow. ![]() So you can imagine my surprise when I saw in this four to five thousand years old Chinese divination book called I Ching a RNG algorithm that reminds modern Linear Congruential Generators! But why the need for such a complex procedure to render random numbers? Artemisia Stems One would think that humanity would not have a need for good random number generators until computers and simulations were invented since, for most practical purposes, tossing a coin or throwing a die should suffice us all. ![]()
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