Charts of Change

designed by Kevin Sheffield

The Lower Canon

Acknowledgements
Based on an idea by Stephen Karcher
Hexagrams by Ryan Neaveill 1995
Edited by Hilary Barrett and hosted at onlineClarity.co.uk
Many thanks to them and to the Clarity Community
Comments, corrections, insights or queries gratefully received:
Kevin@cheiron.co.uk
These charts are free for non-profit use, but please distribute them with these
acknowledgements.

Key to the charts

These charts pair the hexagrams as per the King Wen Sequence described in the
Eighth Wing - the Shuogua.
The Yijing has a very long history, with the development of many methods for
interpreting cast oracles. Indeed, different schools have used very different
techniques over the millennia.
The aim of these charts is to enable people to navigate more easily around the King
Wen Sequence: to explore the hexagrams as clusters and to find similarities and
differences in the text.
They provide an index for use in navigating the hexagrams, depending on the
preferred method(s) of reading or casting an oracle.
This is the pair of hexagrams being considered.
Below, the centre right hand column represents
the moving lines of the right hand hexagram (48),
and the centre left hand column represents the
moving lines of the hexagram on the left (47).
The un-bracketed numbers in the central columns
show the resulting hexagram when that line changes
(known as its zhi gua). 46 here is the hexagram
reached when nine in the fifth place of 48 changes.
The THRESHOLD is a reminder that there is an inner
or lower trigram and an outer or upper trigram, and
that they are dynamically different.
The numbers in brackets in the two central columns
show the nuclear hexagram (nh) of each lines zhi
gua. So 48.2 gives Hx 39, whose nh is 64.
By taking the nh of each nh, four final nuclear
hexagrams are reached: these are represented by
the colour of this hexagram in brackets. (See
Colours for key.)

The colour of the numbers in the outer columns

represents the final nuclear hexagram (nh) reached
by taking successive nhs. Yellow represents a final
nh of 64. All hexagrams progress back to one of the
following: 1, 2, 63 or 64.
Bracketed numbers represent the nh of the one
above.

These are notes to help people who want to look

at similar hexagrams, with a view to exploring
similarities and difference in the text, style and
values.

Cross lines
Note that in all hexagrams except for 1:2, 27:28, 29:30 and 61:62, the lines
generate diagonally opposite pairs of zhi gua. Line 1 pairs with line 6, line 2 pairs
with line 5, and so on. For example, 47,1 leads to hexagram 58; 48,6 leads to
hexagram 57, thus connecting the pair 47:48 to the pair 57:58. Likewise, 47,2 leads
to 45; 48,5 leads to 46.
This pattern exists for almost all lines throughout: the exceptions arise when the
zhi gua is a hexagram with vertical symmetry (1:2, 27:28, 29:30, 61:62). In these
cases, marked in white, the paired lines share a single zhi gua. See 47,3 and 48, 4,
or 47,4 and 48,3, for examples.
Colours
These represent the hexagram reached by taking successive nuclear hexagrams of
nuclear hexagrams. In this way all the hexagrams of the Yijing are seeded by
either hexagram 1, 2, 63 or 64.
Red means the successive nuclear hexagrams arrive at Hexagram 1 - Hexagram 28,
for instance.
Green means they arrive at Hexagram 2.
Blue means they arrive at Hexagram 63 (before 64).
Yellow means they arrive at Hexagram 64 (before 63).
The background colouring of the charts is only significant in that it draws
attention to the left side as the Inspiration or Light side, and the right side as being
that of the Shadow or Manifestation. This idea is laid out in the Shuogua.
The different chart background colouring/styles draw attention to fundamental
differences between the four types of pair.

31, Xian : 32, Heng

33, Dun : 34, Da Zhuang

35, Jin : 36, Ming Yi

37, Jia Ren : 38, Gui

39, Jian : 40, Jie

41, Sun : 42, Yi

43, Guai : 44, Gou

45, Cui : 46, Shen

47, Kun : 48, Jing

49, Ge : 50, Ding

51, Zhen : 52, Gen

53, Jian : 54, Gui Mei

55, Feng : 56, Lu

57, Sun : 58, Dui

59, Huan : 60, Jie

61, Zhong Fu : 62, Xiao Guo

63, Ji Ji : 64, Wei Ji