I was researching about one-eyed humanoids when I saw a blogpost in Chinese about Genesis-Yi Jing similarities, so I decided to share it with ATSers
with and English version. (I Ching is a Wade-Giles transliteration. I'm not sure why it's still the prevalent form in English, but it annoys me a bit,
so I'll use Yi Jing for the rest of the post. Sorry if you're uncomfortable with that.)
I'll use the King James version of the Bible and Wilhelm's version of the Yi Jing. (I reserve the right to alter Wilhelm's translation if I think it
was mistranslated.)
For those who don't know about Yi Jing, A trigram consists of three lines. Each line may be solid (yang) or detached (yin). Each permutation of these
three lines is a trigram; thus there are 2^3 = 8 trigrams, each representing a natural phenomenon. A hexagram consists of two trigrams, one on top of
the other. There are six lines, giving 2^6 = 64 hexagrams. Each hexagram also has its own title. Each hexagram is accompanied by a very brief and
hard-to-understand explanation. Confucius and his disciples have kindly written the
Ten Wings to annotate each hexagram. I will be quoting the
Judgement (wings 1-2) and the
Image (wings 3-4) from time to time.
Admittedly, 'similarities' is not that accurate a term; to be exact, there seems to be a correspondence between lines in Genesis and Yi Jing
hexagrams. A few of the connections are quite weak, and it's possible that there's no correlation at all and we're all just imagining it, but as a
whole, IMO, it is really amazing to see such a correspondence.
Without further ado...
Source:
blog.sina.com.cn...
Day 1
Genesis: 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Yi Jing: The first and second hexagrams are Sky and Earth. Enough said.
Genesis: 2 And the earth was without form, and void;
Yi Jing: The third hexagram was 'Difficulty at the Beginning'.
Genesis: and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Yi Jing: The fourth hexagram, meng, refers to youthful folly (the world is 'young') but also represents 'misty'.
Genesis: And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Yi Jing: The 59th hexagram is wind blowing over water. Quote from the
Image:
The wind drives over the water:
The image of DISPERSION.
Thus the kings of old sacrificed to the Lord
And built temples.
Genesis: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Yi Jing: The 51th hexagram is shock/thunder. Thunder and lightning were muddled-up concepts at the time.
Genesis: And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Yi Jing: The 40th hexagram is 'taking apart'.
Genesis: And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
Yi Jing: The 35th hexagram, 'progress' is fire above, earth below. Fire rises (progresses) from the earth. Quote from the
Image:
The sun rises over the earth:
The image of PROGRESS.
Thus the superior man himself
Brightens his bright virtue.
Genesis: And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Day 2
Genesis: And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Yi Jing: In the 29th hexagram 'gorge', there's a 'gorge' between the two 'water' (gorge) trigrams.
Genesis: And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament...
Yi Jing: The sixth hexagram = Water under heavens
Genesis: ...from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Yi Jing: The fifth hexagram = Water above heavens
Genesis: And God called the firmament Heaven.
Yi Jing: The first hexagram = Both trigrams are heavens
Genesis: And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Day 3
Genesis: And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Yi Jing: The 19th hexagram = earth above lake.
Genesis: And God called the dry land Earth;
Yi Jing: The second hexagram = earth above earth
Genesis: and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
Yi Jing: The 58th hexagram = lake above lake
Genesis: And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in
itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Yi Jing: The 57th hexagram = wind above wind; wind disperses seeds.
Genesis: And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his
kind: and God saw that it was good.
Yi Jing: The 47th hexagram ('ascending' - trees growing) is wind above earth. Quote from the
Image:
Within the earth, wood grows:
The image of PUSHING UPWARD.
Thus the superior man of devoted character
Heaps up small things
In order to achieve something high and great.
Genesis: And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Day 4
Genesis: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Yi Jing: The 14th hexagram = sky above fire. Quote from the
Image:
Fire in heaven above:
The image of POSSESSION IN GREAT MEASURE.
Thus the superior man curbs evil and furthers good,
And thereby obeys the benevolent will of heaven.
Genesis: And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
Yi Jing: The 30th hexagram is double fire: two great lights. Quote from the
Image:
That which is bright rises twice:
The image of FIRE.
Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness,
Illumines the four quarters of the world.
Genesis: And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the
light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Yi Jing: Tied to the above in the original blogpost, but may be interpreted as the 14th hexagram, using my 35th hexagram interpretation for the first
line.
Genesis: And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
[On an off-topic note, why did the previous days have evening and morning?
]
[Continued in the next post]
edit on 29/7/13 by diqiushiwojia because: (no reason given)
edit on 29/7/13 by diqiushiwojia
because: (no reason given)
edit on 29/7/13 by diqiushiwojia because: (no reason given)