The patterns of change

Yin and Yang give birth to the countless patterns of existence. Universal design emerge out of the bewildering profusion of beings and events. The transformations of energy can be systematically charted. To do this is a vast enterprise, accomplished by Chinese scholars thousands of years ago in a remarkable work of wisdom, the I Ching, best known as The Book of Changes. This compendium of meticulous observations offers a complex and comprehensive manual for understanding the constant flux that is continually creating and changing the world in which we live.

At the heart of The Book of Changes lies the theory of Yin and Yang. Its 64 chapters-and the many commentaries by distinguished Chinese philosophers down through the ages-carefully trace the way in which the interaction of Yin and Yang produce all the constantly changing phenomena we experience.

Now available in several translations, The Book of Changes is one of the most prodigious works ever undertaken by the human mind and has exercised a powerful influence not only over centuries of Chinese culture, but on great minds down the ages the world over.

Regular consultation of The Book of Changes as a source of divination has led to intense speculation about its nature and value. In China alone, several hundred commentaries have been written to interpret the meaning of its structure and cryptic statements. But the immportance of the work lies not merely in its value as a tool of trediction but in its startling insights into the inner mechanisms of change. "Like a part of nature," wrote the psychologist Carl Jung, "it waits until it is discovered".

The characteristics of change-and their resulting patterns-are analyzed in The Book of Changes using a deceptively simple set of eight trigrams. Each trigram consists of three lines. Each line, in turn, is either broken or unbroken. The broken line represents the force of Yinm, The female principle, and the unbroken line symbolizes the force of Yang the male principle.