THE IMAGE of two trigrams: Water above, Earth below. Water collecting on the surface of the earth. Water binding small particles. Mud. Unity

I

THE IMAGE of two trigrams: Earth above, Water below. Groundwater. Deep reserves. Potential. Danger. An army. Multitude.

I

text …

1

CHAPTER 1. INITIATING #1

2

CHAPTER 2. RESPONS #1

1 & 2

CHAPTER 1 + 2. INITIATING + RESPONSE #1

A MOVIE WITHOUT END

is being rewritten

CHAPTER 1 + 2. INITIATING + RESPONSE #2

THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD

is being rewritten

CHAPTER 1 + 2. INITIATING + RESPONSE #3

LINES AND ARROWS

is being rewritten …

3

CHAPTER 3. BEGINNING #1

CHAPTER 3. BEGINNING #2

4

CHAPTER 4. PLAY #1

CHAPTER 4. PLAY #2

5

CHAPTER 5. WAITING #1

6

CHAPTER 6. CONFLICT #1

CHAPTER 6. CONFLICT #2

7

CHAPTER 7. MULTITUDE #1

8

CHAPTER 8. UNITY #1

9

CHAPTER 9. STARTING SMALL #1

10

CHAPTER 10. WALK #1

CHAPTER 10. WALK #2

CHAPTER 11. ADVANCE #1

12

CHAPTER 12. STANDSTILL

13

CHAPTER 13. LIKE-MINDED #1

CHAPTER 13. LIKE-MINDED #2

CHAPTER 13. LIKE-MINDED #3

14

CHAPTER 14. A GREAT HARVEST #1

CHAPTER 14. A GREAT HARVEST #2

CHAPTER 14. GREAT HOLDINGS #3

CHAPTER 14. GREAT HOLDINGS #4

CHAPTER 14. A GREAT HARVEST #5

15

CHAPTER 15. MODESTY #1

CHAPTER 15. MODESTY #2

CHAPTER 15. MODESTY #3

16

CHAPTER 16. INTENSITY #1

17

CHAPTER 17. FOLLOWING #1

18

CHAPTER 18. DECAY #1

CHAPTER 18. DECAY #2

CHAPTER 18. DECAY #3

CHAPTER 18. DECAY #4

CHAPTER 19. APPROACHING #1

CHAPTER 20. OBSERVING #1

CHAPTER 20. OBSERVING #2

CHAPTER 20. OBSERVING #3

CHAPTER 21. BEAUTY

A TOUR THROUGH THE HOUSE - DAY 2

CHAPTER 23. SHATTERING

CHAPTER 24. RETURNING #1

CHAPTER 24. RETURNING #2

CHAPTER 24. RETURNING #3

CHAPTER 24. RETURNING #4

25

CHAPTER 25. UNITY #1

CHAPTER 26. ACCUMULATION #1

27

CHAPTER 27. JAWS #1

CHAPTER 27. JAWS #2

28

CHAPTER 28. GROTE OVERMAAT

29

CHAPTER 29. DARK #1

CHAPTER 29. DARK #2

CHAPTER 29. DARK #3

CHAPTER 29. DARK #4

30

CHAPTER 30. LIGHT #1

31

CHAPTER 31. RESONANCE #1

32

CHAPTER 32. RESILIENT #1

33

CHAPTER 33. WITHDRAWAL #1

34

CHAPTER 34. GREAT STRENGTH #1

35

CHAPTER 35. STRAIGHT AHEAD #1

36

CHAPTER 36. DARKENING OF THE LIGHT #1

37

CHAPTER 37. FAMILY #1

CHAPTER 37. FAMILY #2

CHAPTER 37. FAMILY #3

38

CHAPTER 38. ESTRANGEMENT #1

39

CHAPTER 39 OBSTACLES #1

40

CHAPTER 40. LIBERATION #1

41

CHAPTER 41. DECREASE #1

42

CHAPTER 42. INCREASE #1

43

CHAPTER 43. BREAK-THROUGH #1

44

CHAPTER 44. ENCOUNTER #1

45

CHAPTER 45. GATHERING TOGETHER #1

46

CHAPTER 46. GROWING UPWARD #1

47

CHAPTER 47. EXHAUSTION #1

48

CHAPTER 48. REGENERATION #1

49

CHAPTER 49. LEAVING THE OLD BEHIND #1

CHAPTER 49. LEAVING THE OLD BEHIND #2

50

CHAPTER 50. EMBRACING THE NEW #1

51

CHAPTER 51. SHOCK #1

CHAPTER 52. KEEPING STILL #1

53

CHAPTER 53. GRADUALLY #1

54

CHAPTER 53. SUBORDINATE #1

55

CHAPTER 55. ABUNDANCE #1

56

CHAPTER 56. GUEST #1

57

CHAPTER 57. GENTLE AND PENETRATING #1

58

CHAPTER 58. MIRROR #1

CHAPTER 58. MIRROR #2

CHAPTER 58. MIRROR #3

59

CHAPTER 59. DISPERSION #1

CHAPTER 59. DISPERSION #2

60

CHAPTER 60. CONCENTRATION #1

61

CHAPTER 61. INNER TRUTH #1

62

CHAPTER 62. KLEINE OVERMAAT #1

CHAPTER 63. PERFECT #1

64

CHAPTER 64. BACK TO SQUARE ONE #1

BACKGROUND

THE IMAGE of two trigrams: Water above, Thunder below. A thunderstorm, moisture, an electrical discharge, creation, a beginning.

In 1953, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey conducted an experiment in which a mixture of substances such as ammonia, methane and water vapour was subjected to electrical discharges. This experiment simulated the conditions of the early Earth. In this laboratory ‘primordial soup’, amino acids – building blocks of life – appeared as if by magic.

In the decades that followed, the experiment came under scrutiny. It was said to be too simplistic a view of things, a mere flash of lightning bringing life into being. Yet the power of imagination is evoked by the idea of a primordial soup – a divine brew, though could it be any more earthly? – would never leave us. It became a source of inspiration for thinkers and artists.

What are we to make of recent research at Stanford University into ‘microlightning’ – electrical discharges between individual water droplets – as a factor in the origin of life?

Some things have always been there: potatoes, Monday mornings and the National Lottery. It’s hard to imagine that they ever had a beginning. In your memory, they seem to have always been present. Other phenomena did have a beginning, an introduction, a debut on the scene. It couldn’t be any other way: at first they didn’t exist, and suddenly, without further ado, they had taken their place in our reality.

In the beginning, the opening words of Genesis. A phrase typically used to refer to something with a long or unknown history.
etymologiebank

That’s how it went with the concept of the primordial soup. I assume that before 1953, this was not part of everyday language. Now, the image of a bubbling, steaming and sparking primordial broth has become an integral part of our construct.

There was a primordial soup 4 billion years ago; before me stands a modern-day version.

What can you discover here? Tectonic plates, lava flows, umami and CV scams?

… miso and Murano …

There are parts of the world where people start their day with miso. There are people who, instead of heading for the coffee machine, begin their day by drinking/eating a bowl of miso soup. A strange habit, a fad? That remains to be seen. Just think of it this way: before you know it, the novelty has turned into a habit, the origins of which have been forgotten. That is certainly how it went with coffee.

Coffee and miso, both made from beans. Both dark brown and comforting. But there are differences too.

Coffee in the Age of Enlightenment? Coffee was the Enlightenment! And coffee was the cowboy life in the Wild West.

In the morning, the aroma of a perfectly made cappuccino. The shades of brown and caramel, white and ochre. If the day ahead holds the same richness, you can count yourself lucky.

Or perhaps an archaic Ethiopian coffee with butter and a sprig of rue.

Yesterday: mugi muso, soba, dulce, a bit of kimchi, sesame and chilli oil …

This morning: shoyu – miso’s little sister – tofu, wakame, bonito flakes, spring onions …

And finally, a few valuable tips from the miso barista …

See also:

THE IMAGE of two identical trigrams: Lake below, Lake above. Water reflects water. A mirror within a mirro

Out the door, turn left onto the narrow road. Oak trees and bare blackberry bushes line both sides. Three bends. The junction with the main road. The level crossing. A desire path. The start of one of the dead-straight avenues of the Den Berg estate. It rained last night and there are still puddles of water here and there.

The puddles reflect the trunk and bare branches of the trees. And behind them, the clouds. Water reflects water

Water reflects water.

Was the still surface of a pool of water the oldest mirror? The first mirror in which we saw our own reflection?

An eye sees an eye.

A eye-phone sees an eye.

A house of mirrors in your pocket.

Al-Haytham was one of the first to figure out that almost everything is in fact a mirror of sorts that you see because it’s the light that’s bouncing off of that object and how it does it. It comes into your eye and makes you able to see it.

BBC The Forum: Mirror Mirror on the Wall

As well as crystal-clear mirrors, there are also blurred ones.

And they come in all shapes and sizes, from small cabinet-door-window mirrors, …

… to bathroom mirrors …

… and magic mirrors …

THE IMAGE of two trigrams: Mountain above, Water below. A wild mountain stream, untamed and unspoilt.

A half-hour’s walk from our house, or ten minutes by bike, lies the Vechterweerd, a weir on the river. The Vecht may not be a wild stream, nor are there any mountains here, but the water cascading down over the weir suddenly becomes childlike again. If you stand on the narrow walkway atop the weir, lean over the railing and look down, you see an unrestrained play of eddies and roars.

In Richard Wilhelm’s I Ching translation, this chapter is called Youthful Folly. Other I Ching translations use titles such as Youth Immaturity and Youthful Inexperience'

Yes, when you’re young, you do get up to all sorts of silly antics. Sorry about that; I didn’t know any better. After all, this is my first time doing this. You’re right. Call youth foolish, and you’ll have to constantly tame, restrain and restrict it. If you see youth as play, then foolishness paves the way for new possibilities and fuels creativity.

Take away a child’s play, and you take away their childhood. To keep playing throughout your life is to preserve your youth. Therefore, I chose Play as the title for this chapter.

Let’s be honest, what would we have done back then without play? How on earth would we ever have found our way through the hall of mirrors that is the human world? Play is imagination – today I’m a fireman, you a vet, or would you rather be an explorer? Who’s Batman, and who’s the villain? Step into the shoes of: with nothing but your imagination, the adventure can begin.

Without any inhibitions, children can lose themselves in the fascinating game of imitation. Walk and dance like your idol, and even if you can’t sing very well yet, you’ll at least know what it feels like. Today you’re an astronaut; tomorrow you might just win a gold medal. You can decide for yourself what for.

Do you dare to play? An instant time machine is at your disposal. Back to the past, or a giant leap into a time yet to come. It’s all free; it’s child’s play. Unhindered by conventions and the stifling straitjacket of reason, play reveals hidden shortcuts and well-trodden paths. When you think, you see the limits; when you play, there is always a new beginning.

The hexagram of Play is an inversion of that of the preceding Chapter 3. Beginning. Most of the paired chapters are opposites of one another, but in this case they follow on from one another. To take part, it is not necessary to know the game – simply starting is enough.

Anyone can draw, as long as there’s no pressure to make it look like something. As soon as the pencil touches the paper, follow the line, the strokes, the marks and the scratches. Watch in wonder at what emerges this time. Making music, dancing, playing football – you can do it all, as long as you just have a go. As long as you don’t worry about what others think of it.

Playing is sweet and innocent. A few scrapes and a plaster – and then it’s back to business as usual. You lose track of time, and before you know it, the day is over. Play is risky and dangerous. It takes you to places you would never otherwise have gone. You feel the power of your muscles, the dexterity of your hands and the strength of your words. Play is full of the unexpected; it creeps where it cannot go, meandering like a river.

Inevitably, the time comes when you have to earn a living. Playing was for the little ones, and as they grow older, the fun is over; then it’s time for serious business.

At some point as we get older, however, we are made to feel guilty for playing. We are told that it is unproductive, a waste of time, even sinful. The play that remains is, like league sports, mostly very organized, rigid, and competitive. We strive to always be productive, and if an activity doesn’t teach us a skill, make us money, or get on the boss’s good side, then we feel we should not be doing it. Sometimes the sheer demands of daily living seem to rob us of the ability to play.
Play - Stuart Brown

Play is then replaced by study. Next comes work, and by working hard, you earn your free time. Wonderful! That free time comes with the promise of a return to play. Alas! Play is now called sport. Spontaneity has been swapped for rules. No meandering adventure, but a competition along straight lines.

You rarely see such a lack of variety as during the Olympic Games, even though the Games hold such great promise. Just taking part is for losers. Victory goes to the one-dimensional specialist. A skater who only skates in a counter-clockwise direction. A sprinter who can’t keep running for more than ten seconds. Steroids and diving.

After more than a century of football, only a handful of clubs still matter. They have the money, they can buy the best players, and they win the trophies. The rest are mere extras. The advertising on the football shirts is from a gambling company and promotes cars or airlines. The transfer market is funded by tech companies and oil-rich nations. This football is war, it is politics, it is business, but it is certainly not a game. How much simpler it was to spend hours playing football in the street with friends after school.

It sounds like a conspiracy. First, you take away the children’s space. The streets are full of cars, and the only place left to play is a football cage. Then you take away their time too, with phones and games. Free play has been successfully tamed.

A high fence surrounds the nature reserve – or what remains of its natural wilderness. Unauthorised entry is prohibited, let alone climbing trees, lighting fires and building huts. Who is being protected from whom?

Emma Marris writes in Rambunctious Garden:

Which means that they (the national parks) are the absolute worst places to take your children on vacation, because you can't do anything there. You can't climb the trees. You can't fish the fish. You can't make a campfire out in the middle of nowhere. You can't take home the pinecones. There are so many rules and restrictions that from a child's point of view, this is, like, the worst nature ever. Because children don't want to hike through a beautiful landscape for five hours and then look at a beautiful view. That's maybe what we want to do as adults, but what kids want to do is hunker down in one spot and just tinker with it, just work with it, just pick it up, build a house, build a fort, do something like that.

There is always hope. Free play lies dormant just beneath the surface. Let children make mistakes. Embrace failure. Skate clockwise. Get rid of the football cage. Tear down the fences and let the remaining wildness in. Set the river free. Think in twists and turns. Celebrate the folly of youth!

Mountain above Water, the image of a wild mountain stream, of a meandering lowland river, of play. In the absence of mountains in the Netherlands, Mountain above Water can also be read as a weir in the river. The river may seem tamed, but if you stand on the spillway above the Vechterweerd weir, lean over the railing and look down, you will see that the wildness and the youthful folly are very much alive.

Continuation of day 7.

Where were we? The day before yesterday was the day of the return of an unsightly dandelion. And yesterday was all about a wooden chopping board, a flat, rectangular earth.

Once again, the dice rolls, and this time it's a six.

The top line is next, and changes to yang.

Five broken lines with one unbroken line at the top. A Mountain on top of the Earth. A mountain in the middle of a mountain range does not really stand out. If it stood alone on an open plain, it would attract full attention and the elements would have free rein on its flanks. After all, high mountains catch a lot of wind. And rain, sun and frost too. The once-imposing mountain eventually ends up as sand on the beach. The inevitable consequence of Shattering.

A Mountain on the Earth as a representation of gathering and accumulating. The hexagram resembles a tall, narrow warehouse, a silo, a storage container, and, indeed, a wheelie bin. A tall, open space closed at the top with a lid. The reality of the waste bin and wheelie bin unites gathering and fragmentation.

Better to stop short than fill to the brim.
Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.
Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.
Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow.
Retire when the work is done.
This is the way of heaven.
Tao Te Ching 9, vertaling van Gia Fu Feng

Chapter 23. Shattering describes the dynamics between gathering and falling apart. If you zoom out, you can see this same tension in the relationship between chapter 24. Returning and chapter 23. Shattering. Whereas in one hexagram the active line enters from below, in the other hexagram that same line disappears from the top.

One thing comes and another goes. Life consists of moving things around. A continuous alternation between hunting and gathering, leaving things behind and saying goodbye.

Are Returning and Shattering really that opposite? As phases of breathing and as seasonal phases, they are actually very close to each other.

Shattering as the final farewell in October ..

... and Returning as the brand new beginning in December.

Read as well:

The packaging of the food we buy usually states the product’s origin. In some cases, you can even use a code to find out the name and details of the farmer who grew it. Would it be a good idea to print an additional code on the packaging that would allow you to see where the waste it includes is destined to go?

Kleine bergen worden grote bergen.

If you state the origin, please also mention the destination.

How did that go again: a Mountain on Earth?

Was that wad of paper a symbol of Shattering, yet when you look to its future, you will see Returning.

A glance into the depths of the rubbish bin reveals the apocalyptic darkness of Shattering.

De etymologie van afvalemmer leidt ons naar:

afval ‘dat wat na bewerking als nutteloze rest overblijft’ -> Engels offal ‘overschot, vuilnis; slachtafval’;? Duits Abfall ‘snipper; ingewanden, vuilnis’; Esperanto defalaĵo ‘vuilnis’ <via Duits>; Zuid-Afrikaans-Engels afval ‘eetbare ingewanden van dieren, orgaanvlees’ <via Afrikaans>; Indonesisch afal ‘dat wat na een bewerking als overtollig overblijft’; Negerhollands afval ‘dat wat na bewerking als nutteloze rest overblijft’; Surinaams-Javaans afal ‘dat wat na een bewerking als overtollig overblijft’.
etymologiebank.nl

en:

emmer zn. ‘vat met hengsel’ Mnl. emer ‘emmer’ [1240; Bern.], emmer- ‘emmer-’ [1434; MNHWS]. Oude Germaanse ontlening aan Latijn ampora, een variant van amphora ‘tweeorige kruik’ (zie → amfoor), vandaar de Oudhoogduitse en Oudengelse vormen met a-. Daarna volksetymologisch geherinterpreteerd als samenstelling van ein (Hoogduits) of → een (Nederduits, Nederlands) en een ablautvorm van het werkwoord bēran- ‘dragen’ (zie → baren, → baar 1), vanwege het ene handvat aan de emmer.
etymologiebank.nl

Het kan dus verkeren. Een vuilnisemmer met hengsel als amfoor. En eem lang geleden achteloos weggegooide amfoor die weer opduikt als archeologische vondst. De versplinterde terugkeer.

To be continued tomorrow...

Continuation of day 6.

A few days ago, we paused at an inconspicuous dandelion, which, after a few cold winter months, had found its way back up through a crack between the tiles of the courtyard. A symbol of return, but which one? Because return comes in many shapes and sizes. That of the prodigal son, the return to normality? To the origin, or to the homeland, the freedom of yesteryear? Or a dreaded return to the dark Middle Ages, or rather to noble wildness, or to our childhood?

The dice rolls and it’s a one.

The bottom, the first line, changes from yang to yin.

Six broken lines. Earth below, Earth above. Returning changes into Response. The latter is the title of one of the two opening chapters of the book. A response following an initiation. An echo to a sound. And if creation did indeed begin with a single word, then chapter 2 describes the subsequent answer.

Chapters 1 and 2 must be read simultaneously. Over the past year, I wrote about this prelude to the I Ching three times and posted them as An Infinite Film, The Navel of the World and Lines and Arrows. I remember being quite satisfied with their content, but after rereading them recently, I quietly deleted them. Not good enough as a sparkling overture. The ability to delete sentences, even entire chapters, from a digital publication after the fact offers a way out. If these texts had been printed on paper and sent out into the world, there would have been no turning back, and I would have been stuck with mediocre sentences forever.

Once the three pieces have been polished up a bit, they will reappear under the same titles, or perhaps different ones. More on that later. For now: Response.

The Response hexagram consists of two identical building blocks, two Earth trigrams. Two instances of a field, a farmland, a support surface, a foundation, a tabletop, a tray, a cutting board.

In the kitchen, the chopping board is the representative of the earth. A small, four-sided, flat field. The use of the chopping board, its ability to bear weight, lies on the upper side. Just like that of a cracker or toast.

It is written: the Heaven is round, the Earth is square.

The Heaven around the Earth. The Japanese coin depicts this cosmological truth well. In the Netherlands, we express this differently, but here too there is a play between round and square.

Whatever you want, round or square, but definitely sweet.

Tian is the Chinese character for 'field', a chequered landscape.

During my tour of the house and grounds, I come across the checkered pattern of the tiled courtyard. (On the side, you can just see the returned dandelion.)

A similar earthy pattern in the bathroom and in the brick exterior wall.

From clay-formed bricks, it is only a small step to square ceramic oven tray

And from there, a further step towards pleasant, earthy roundness.

Or perhaps, once more back to angular? Because let's face it, the square shape is very practical.

Knife and board, flat, round and square.

To be continued in:

Continuation of day 5.

What was it that caused prosperity to decline and the light to fade almost imperceptibly?

Nothing lasts forever; even deep darkness does not remain. In which line does change now dawn? The dice answer: three.

The third line changes from yang to yin.

Thunder beneath Earth. From the earthly darkness – five yin lines – something irresistible pushes its way upwards. Read also:

Of course, the dandelion did not disappear; it withdrew and gathered its strength deep in its roots. To long to rise again in the earliest spring. How deep do the roots go? When you dig up a dandelion, or any other plant, and then try to pull it out of the ground with force, it will always break. To get to know the entire root system, including all the hair roots, you will need to dig a deep trench next to the plant.

A trench two and a half metres deep?

Botanist John Weaver (1884-1966) developed a laborious, painstaking technique for exposing and drawing a network of prairie roots in situ--a labor that must have suited his own precise personality for he conducted his field research wearing a three piece suit and a green eyeshade, like some accountant who had lost his way in the country. He drew the roots in great detail, documenting them at depths of up to fifteen feet from the ground surface.

To be continued in:

Continuation of day 4.

Peace becomes all too familiar. Prosperity quickly becomes the norm, as if it had always been there. They apparently make us complacent. You thought it would last forever, but it doesn’t take much for erosion to set in.

Which line changes first? If we ask the dice: the second line.

This changes from unbroken to broken.

The Fire beneath Earth. The sun has set, the light is out. Are we facing a long night, a long winter? A small shift and the situation turns from Prosperity to Darkening of the Light.

Is this a reference to a return to the Dark Ages? Or is it a hint at the transformative world of the intestines and the microbiome, where no light can penetrate?

Jonas' transformation took place inside a whale. In the bottomless depths of the sea. It is indeed pitch dark there.

Things can change: in the belly of the sea monster, Geppetto and Pinocchio made themselves comfortable and lit a few candles.

Or should we look for the darkness closer to home? Under the doormat, for example, where a dark, largely undiscovered world exists. A last frontier of micro-life. If you have time, read the fascinating book: Never Home Alone, from microbes to millipedes, camel crickets and honeybees, the natural history of where we live by Rob Dunn.

Or is it about the view during meditation and deep introspection?

Could it be a reference to censorship and blacked-out documents?

Be that as it may, nothing lasts forever. One day, the light will return.

To be continued in …

Continuation of day 3.

Did you have a tough nut to crack yesterday? How did it go again: a walnut as a symbol of accumulation? Those ancient Chinese had an unusually free associative ability, you might have thought. To be honest, the choice of a walnut came from my unrestrained interpretation of the imagery of the ancient Book of Changes.

The first thought that comes to mind when reading ‘Mountain above Heaven’ is probably that of an imposing cloud, a floating castle in the air, a drifting mountain of water and ice.

Chapter 26. Accumulation elaborates on the importance of restraint and limitation and how great vital force can be tamed. And the above image does not show enough of that.

The mountain referred to here symbolises control over unexpected forces, effervescent creativity and explosive chemistry, whether political or otherwise. ‘Mountain over Sky’: a prison wall, a beer bottle, a gas tank, rules of procedure, a pressure cooker?

All of these images are useful, but the similarity in shape between a walnut and a brain, and the reassuring protection offered by the simple shell, made me choose the nut. As an icon for Chapter 26.

So far: cupboard, lamp, nut.

How does the walk continue? Which line changes today? The dice chooses the sixth, the top line.

This changes from continuous to intermittent.

The other five lines remain as they were. The hexagram of Accumulation fades, that of Prospering appears: Earth above Heaven. Peace and Advance are used as well as title of Chapter 11. Together with that of the following Chapter 12. Stagnation, it is one of the most iconic and well-known hexagrams in Chinese culture.

The Earth is above, the Heaven below. That is strange. Because wherever you go, the sky is always above you, and wherever you are, the earth is always beneath your feet. And yet here, in this hexagram, Earth is placed above Heaven.

The Heaven above means tax cuts for the rich. The Earth below means thoughtless and heartless exploitation of the earth. These are not ingredients for sustainable prosperity.

Here, however, the guiding principle is subordinate to vulnerability. Heaven below Earth. If you have more time, read about this fascinating research on healthcare in the Stone Age.

The natural movement of the Earth is downward, and that of Heaven is upward. If Heaven were already above, and Earth already below, how could they ever meet?

Oh yes, before I forget: the photo of the table at the top of this post? A square top, horizontal like the earth. And underneath it, empty space and four round, heavenly legs.

To be continued in ...

Continuation of day 2.

Starting near the large farmhouse cupboard, yesterday we arrived at the lantern, the image of Beauty. Is there anything more transient and subjective than that, than beauty?

From there it can go in six directions again. If the first line changes, then Beauty changes back to where we started, Keeping Still. A changing second line leads to Accumulation. A third to Nourishment, a fourth to Light, a fifth to Family, and should the upper line change, the situation moves to The Darkening of Light.

The dice decide once again.

Counting from the bottom, the second line. It was broken and is now changing into an unbroken line.

The other five lines remain unchanged. The hexagram of Beauty changes to that of Accumulation: Mountain above Heaven.

Skills have been cultivated, experience gained. Capital has been accumulated, courage gathered. Supporters brought together, ideas cherished. Whatever accumulates must not leak away prematurely, like water from a leaky bucket. What has been gathered with so much effort and dedication needs to be enclosed, requires protection. Did you know that a nutshell is related to a mountain?

It was too late in the evening to walk to the bicycle shed next to our house to photograph another image for Chapter 26. So I picked an image from the internet and drew a few arrows in it. The 'Mountain over Heaven' of a bicycle tyre. Accumulated ideas and skills are all too eager to leak away. So, if you ever find yourself in that situation of preparatory gathering, take care for good tyres.

To be continued in ...

Continuation of day 1.

We continue our walk from the large farmhouse cupboard. Nothing lasts forever, even though the bookcase sometimes gives that impression. Will we ever get rid of it? We can go in six directions.

As soon as even one of the six lines changes, the image of Keeping Still will fade and a new reality will appear. Which reality? Let the dice decide.

Counting from the bottom, the first line. It was broken and is now changing into an unbroken line.

Nothing happens to the five upper lines, only the very first line, a small part of Keeping Still, changes colour, character and destination. What appears is the hexagram of Beauty: Mountain over Fire.

Give a rock, a building, a wall, a mass, a pile, a heap, a house a different lighting, and reality suddenly looks very different. Cosmetics? Christmas lights? Ritual? A new look? A lick of paint? The next fashion? The eye wants something too. And apparently not unimportant. One of the 64 chapters of the I Ching is devoted to beauty, to ornamentation, decoration, grace and elegance.

To be continued in ...

The best way to get to know the I Ching and appreciate its depth is to consult it.

In the West, and particularly the United States, the Book of Changes has become popular as a form of fortune-telling, like astrology or the reading of tarot cards. But for the Chinese, and for those countries influenced by Chinese civilization, this view is too narrow. The Book of Changes has always been understood as a book of wisdom. The practitioner of the book consults it through random divination—throwing coins or manipulating long stalks of dried plants (yarrow). But these practices of divination are designed to help the questioner confront the book’s philosophy in practical, concrete contexts. It is this philosophy, learned through formulating specific questions and interpreting the answers received, that gives the work its value. And that philosophy is best encountered not through the memorization of abstract principles but through its application to specific issues in a person’s life. One absorbs the wisdom of the Book of Changes through consulting it and allowing it to become, over time, a trusted friend and confidant.
The Laws of Change - Jack M. Balkin

Perhaps the idea of entering into dialogue with a book does not appeal to you. I can imagine that. So I suggest something else: a walk through the landscape formed by the wealth of images sketched out in the Book of Changes. A short walk, which we will continue the next day exactly where we left off the day before.

I would like to start the walk at the statue of Chapter 52. Keeping Still. This chapter is about interrupting haste. Taking the time to see what is, instead of impatiently or ambitiously trying to go elsewhere, to things that are not yet there.

The I Ching as we know it today begins with a treatise on initiation and creation. In ancient China, there may have been two other works of this kind besides the Zhouyi, the original name of the I Ching: the Lianshan and the Guicang. Neither of these books has survived to the present day. The Lianshan is considered to have been written during the Xia dynasty (2100-1766 BC), the oldest of the three archaic Chinese dynasties. The Guicang is thought to date from the Shang dynasty (1766-1047 BC), which followed the Xia. And the Zhouyi was compiled, you guessed it, in the Zhou dynasty (1047-256 BC). The Lianshan, translated as ‘connected mountain’, opens with the equivalent of Chapter 52. Gen, The Stillness. And the Guicang with the equivalent of Chapter 2. Kun, Response (or Earth).

Since Hexagram 52 is made up of the Mountain trigram repeated above itself, this was probably an attempt to explain the name Lianshan (‘linked mountains’). Guicang (‘return and keep’) was similarly said to have belonged to Shang and to have begun with the present Hexagram 2. This also looks like an explanation of the book’s name, because Hexagram 2 consists of the Earth trigram doubled and the earth is where everything from seed to corpses returns and is kept. If these explanations are correct, both books must have been named after the hexagrams began to be analysed into constituent trigrams, late in Zhou times.
The Book of Changes, A Bronze Age Document - Richard Rutt

Knowing this, it seems appropriate to begin today's walk at Keeping Still. Beside a large Overijssel farmhouse cupboard.

To be continued in ...

Since the Enlightenment, we knew what we had to do. Straight ahead. No more medieval winding paths, the time of fools was over. Railway tracks made the world small and set the clocks everywhere to the same time. Electric light dispelled the night.

Richard Wilhelm used Progress as the title of this chapter. Alfred Huang called it Proceeding Forward and in I Ching for Teens, Julie Tallard Johnson used Improvement. And indeed, railways and electric light have undoubtedly improved our lives incredibly. They made the efficiency of our society unparalleled.

The image is Fire over Earth: the sun of consciousness shining on everything. Nothing seems to be able to hide from its relentless curiosity. Could Prometheus have imagined at the time where his actions would lead?

Straight railway lines on the earth, contrails in the sky drawn with a ruler.

A single railway in Victorian England. The world an airport.

An oil lamp eased the fear of pitch-black nights and howling wolves. The first electric lamps were a sensation. Now, the Dark Sky Society advocates occasionally turning off a few lights.

After all, every extreme can just as easily flip into its opposite. Turn the hexagram of Straight Ahead upside down and the image of Chapter 36. The Darkening of the Light appears: Fire under Earth.

The term ‘Dark Ages’ was coined during the Renaissance and Enlightenment thinkers made grateful use of it to measure progress and justify the drive for progress. After all, who would want to return to the Middle Ages?

To be continued …

Ten days of controlled decay. Chinese cabbage, pak choi, rutabaga, ginger, garlic, turmeric, a pear, rice flour, gochugaru - Korean red pepper, spring onion, bell pepper and salt. Kimchi.

THE IMAGE of the two trigrams: below the Wind, above a Mountain. Inside the mountain there is movement: micro-life, transformation of texture, smell, colour and taste, fermentation.

The I Ching dates back to the Zhou dynasty, which was the longest of all Chinese dynasties (1046-256 BC). In its first part, the Western Zhou, central authority lay with the Zhou kings. Their authority gradually weakened, and in the subsequent Eastern Zhou they had only a ceremonial role. The Eastern Zhou is divided into the Spring and Autumn Period (771-481 BC) and the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). The various states fought each other for power; coalitions were forged and broken. Eventually, the easternmost of these states gained hegemony and unified China under the Qin dynasty.

The Warring States Period marked a long period of conflict and war. Despite, or perhaps because of, all the turmoil, philosophy flourished as never before: the Hundred Schools of Thought, 諸子百家. It was the time of Confucius, Mencius, Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, Mo Zi, the Legalists, the Naturalists; the list of renowned philosophers is long.

In the introduction to Zhuang Zi, the Complete Writings, Kristofer Schipper nuances the dominant image of the Period of Warring States.

…
The emergence of the aforementioned philosophical schools is therefore consistently attributed to the desperate search by the great minds of that era for a way out of the chaos and a return to a society of order and moral values.

However, the historiography that propagated this negative view dates from a later era, namely that of the second empire, the Han dynasty (202 BC to 220 AD). Not only did this dynasty have an interest in portraying the periods that preceded it in as dark a light as possible, but Confucianism had also become the dominant ideology of the empire at that time. For the Confucians, the period they called the 'Warring States' was a time when the classical teachings of Confucius had fallen into decline. Hence, they had nothing good to say about it, neither about the culture nor about society, and least of all about Taoism, which was on the rise at the time. After all, it is precisely the Confucian moralising about moral and social order that our Zhuang Zi constantly mocks!

Suppose that the traditional Confucian view of the period in which Zhuang Zi lived is incorrect, or at least highly biased and incomplete. How can we obtain a more accurate picture? This is not easy, because all surviving Chinese historiography is eminently Confucian — something that modern researchers all too often forget. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, however, great progress has been made in Chinese archaeology, giving us a completely different picture of the period in which Zhuang Zi must have lived.

At that time, the 'states' of China were no longer the feudally governed countries of yesteryear, but had developed into city-states that were primarily commercial and industrial centres. The Warring States were therefore often nothing more than rival cities. The situation in China at that time was thus in many ways comparable to that of Hellas at the time. The artefacts include not only the precious ritual bronzes that traditionally played an important role in classical Chinese sacrificial religion, but also all kinds of lacquerware objects with amusing and cheerful depictions. These objects have been found in various places throughout China, indicating intensive trade. The two centuries before the beginning of the empire may have been times of conflict, but they were also times of great economic and cultural prosperity and social emancipation, in which virtually independent cities developed into centres of art and science. This evolution also brought about a great integration of the different parts of what was then China during this period, which ultimately made political unification possible in 221 BC.
Zhuang Zi, de Volledige Geschriften - Kristofer Schipper

In Welcome To The New Warring States, Chinese author Hui Huang draws an analogy between the Warring States Period and the political situation in 2026.

This is not merely a moment of disruption. It marks a paradigmatic shift in global logic. The world is moving from a system of mediated stability toward one of open rivalry. To understand this moment, China’s own history offers a useful analogy. In the Spring and Autumn period (770 to 476 B.C.E.), warfare was ritualized, legitimacy symbolically upheld by the Zhou king. But as the old order weakened, the Warring States period (approximately 475 to 221 B.C.E.) emerged. It was a time of classic anarchy marked by intense competition, innovation, and systemic transformation. Legalism, meritocracy, military standardization and bureaucratic statecraft all took shape in this crucible. The end of ritual was also the beginning of modern governance.
Hui Huang in Noēma

Read the full article recently published in Noema here.

To be continued …

On this first day of January, I wish you a very happy and healthy New Year. Perhaps a return to a simpler life is in store for you. That may not sound very appealing, a simpler life, it sounds incredibly boring. But let's be honest, would you prefer a future full of complexity and drama? Zhù nǐ píngdàn wúq, 祝你平淡无奇, is said in China: 'I wish you a normal, peaceful life.' Sincere, without irony.

1-1-2026 06.24. Early in the morning, the banging has died down. This year, 130 million euros were shot into the air in the Netherlands, no half measures to drive away the evil spirits, in order to start the year fresh and unburdened. However, there is a good chance that those evil spirits crept back in shortly after the fireworks frenzy died down. Just like the frightened birds, which settled down again after flying around for hours. The return to simplicity, the return of the evil spirits, the return of frightened birds. Everything goes in circles.

06.49. I can hear the wind. Perhaps it is better than fireworks at dispersing unwanted spirits – together with the resulting gunpowder fumes? On the weather map, I see that both are being blown away by the wind. Towards Bremen, then Copenhagen, Stockholm, Sundsvall, Trondheim, over Atlantic white caps, Aberdeen, Leeds, Amsterdam, and damn it, there they are again, back to square one. Those bloody circles there too.

The boomerang is the apotheosis, the masterpiece of circular motion. The Aboriginals knew this, as did the Egyptians in the time of Tutankhamen. You throw the boomerang away from you, it spins, turns, tilts and spirals, and returns as if by magic to the hand that threw it. How you throw it is how you get it back. Force returns as force, doubt as doubt, energy as energy.

For an accurate throw, you need space: a large field or an empty beach, a slight breeze, definitely not bitterly cold, not in direct sunlight, and of course a well-balanced boomerang. But there is another option for us. A cardboard mini boomerang that you can make in a few minutes. To perform a small New Year's ritual. A ritual to start this year off right, as an ode to spirals and circles. Unlike a wooden boomerang – it's very windy outside these days – this one is suitable for indoors!

Let's get started. I'm posting this late on Thursday evening. So, the ideal time to make a mini boomerang will be Friday during breakfast, or else this coming weekend during breakfast or brunch. What you need is an empty cornflakes box. Or any other cardboard packaging that is similar in thickness and strength. Not too thick, not too flimsy: a box of chocolate flakes, of oats, you're bound to find something.

Draw the outline of a boomerang with a pencil. The photo gives you a few ideas about possible shapes. As for size, the largest red and blue three-armed boomerang is 7 cm in a straight line, from tip to tip. If you make the boomerangs too small, they will not have enough lift to fly. Draw and then cut them out.

Frog and heron boomerangs are certainly among the possibilities. As are knife and fork boomerangs. The possibilities are endless. You can leave the coloured side of the cardboard visible, or colour the unprinted side with a marker or pencil. Or you can write your New Year's slogan or wish on it: travel!, more music! or keep your spirits up! etc.

Bend the tips of the boomerang's wings slightly upwards. Place it on your flat hand or on a book so that part of one wing sticks out. Then, using the index finger of your free hand, flip the tip of the boomerang, as shown in the clip below. It will shoot away and start spinning. With a little practice, it will fly away and come back. Try to catch it between your flat hands. Catching every opportunity! A flying boomerang – even one made from a cereal box – instantly brings magic to the air. A great activity to start the day, or even the whole year, with.

I am very curious to see what your mini boomerang will look like (send me a photo!) and how it flies and returns (send me a video!). As boomerang insiders say to each other: many happy returns!

THE IMAGE of the hexagram: a cold mass of five yin lines and one yang line penetrating at the bottom. In secret, the odds are turning. It is only one light line - more will follow later - one spark, one struck match, enough to give a glimmer of hope in the darkest of times.

Chapter 24. Returning is associated with the winter solstice period. Read more about this in:

To be continued …

The true joy of a moonlit night is something we no longer understand. Only the men of old, when there were no lights, could understand the true joy of a moonlit night.
Yasunari Kawabata

Ma Yuan 馬遠 (c. 1160–1225) was a painter who lived during the Southern Song dynasty. His great-grandfather, grandfather, father, and son were all painters and held positions at court in that capacity. A characteristic feature of much of Ma Yuan's work is a 'one-corner’ composition, in which the most important elements of the painting are brought together in one of the corners. The other parts of the painting remain more or less empty.

Ma Yuan lived in Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song dynasty. Read also about the Lin Yin temple, West Lake and Yu Fei:

Tree Time

LEGEND AND REALITY

This post has been translated from Dutch into English with DeepL. It will be manually edited and streamlined soon…

Read more

a year ago · Peter den Dekker

To be continued …

A question from a reader in response to last week's 'rain at night' post:

‘… I don't understand how twice water produces ‘darkness’…’

That is indeed a strange association, a curious train of thought. The title of chapter 29 is 'Dark', while his image consists of a doubling of the Water trigram. How does that work?

The Book of Changes consists of two parts. Chapters 1 to 30 form the first part and describe the transformations in the natural world. The second part, chapters 31 to 64, deals with all developments and changes in human society.

The beginning and end of the first part are marked by four archetypal natural phenomena: Initiating, Response, Dark and Light. What these have in common is an image that is a doubling of a trigram. Chapter 1. Initiating consists of two Heaven trigrams. Chapter 2. Response consists of two Earth trigrams. Chapter 3. Light consists of a doubling of the Fire trigram and Chapter 4. Dark consists of two times the Water trigram.

The national flag of South Korea depicts these four trigrams. Around the taegeuk, 태극, 'the great ultimate'. In Mandarin: taichi, 太極. This symbol, here in red and blue, represents the ever-continuing interplay of separation and attraction, the essential dynamic of creation. The three yang lines opposite three yin lines represent summer and winter. A yang line hidden between two yin lines represents autumn. Two yang lines with a yin line in the middle represent spring. Together, these are four faces of change.

This arrangement of four trigrams is a simplification of the arrangement in which all eight trigrams occupy a place, the bagua, 八卦. There are two versions of this, and below is the oldest, The Arrangement of the Former Heaven, 先天八卦. At the top is the character qian, 乾 and at the bottom that of kun, 坤: Heaven and Earth. On the left side li, 離 and on the right kan, 坎: Fire and Water.

The trigrams of Heaven and Earth represent the state of absolute purity. Only unbroken lines, or only broken lines, kind with kind, no mixing whatsoever. Deep in the earth and high in the atmosphere, it is sterile. But complete purity does not last long. Where Heaven and Earth meet and merge, multiplicity arises, the amalgam. Recorded in the 62 chapters that follow.

Everything has rhythm, and rhythm comes from imbalance. Two dark yin lines with a hidden yang line are like a moonlit night. One yin line hidden between two yang lines is like the shadow that inevitably accompanies the light of the sun.

Chapter 29 is represented by not one, but two instances of the Water trigram. Not a puddle or a lake, but a deep sea, hence the name The Unfathomable. That is the title Richard Wilhelm used for this chapter in his I Ching translation. The Abysmal, without foundation, immeasurable. The Abyss, a chasm, a precipice, a dark depth. For the people of bygone times, the ocean was bottomless, dark, full of unknown dangers and monsters. We are more rational and laugh at their naive awe. Yet, we know more about the surface of the moon than what goes on in the depths of the water. Twice water is indeed very dark. Monstrously dark.

Alfred Huang, the author of The Complete I Ching, further clarifies the title of chapter 29.

Kan is a pit. It can also be interpreted as falling. Wilhelm translates Kan as Abysmal and Blofeld as Abyss. In this book the word Darkness is used. The ancient ideograph selected for this gua is a very old and beautiful form. The left half of the ideograph is a symbol for Earth. The right half is made up of two parts. The upper portion depicts a person standing on one foot with the other foot off the ground, which indicates that the person is falling. Directly underneath one foot, there is a vertical line symbolizing a falling movement. The lower portion of the ideograph looks like a pit. We have here the image of someone falling into a pit. The meaning of Kan is twofold, either a pit or falling. In the later version of the ideograph, it should  be noted, the picture of the pit was left out.
The Complete I Ching - Alfred Huang

Other translations of the I Ching use ‘A Pit’ as the title for chapter 29…

Dig a deep hole and soon there will be water at the bottom. If it rains later, the hole will fill up. Water always finds the lowest place. Dig a well and in the dark depths you can hear the bucket splashing on the water.

The English word 'pit' and the Dutch word 'put' (well, water well) are closely related etymologically. Both words are related to the Old English 'pytt', the Old Norse 'pyttr', the Middle Dutch 'putte' and the Old High German 'pfuzzi'.

A pit (and a ‘put’, a well) does indeed have a bottom, so describing Chapter 29 as 'bottomless' is too harsh. Are you in the pit? There is always hope. Once again, Alfred Huang:

The central theme of this gua is: falling but not drowned; in danger but not lost. Maintain your confidence: soothe your mind. With assurance and faith, caution and trust, you can pass through any difficult situation. Both Abysmal and Abyss carry the sense of being bottomless. Kan is a pit, but it is not bottomless. There is hope.
The Complete I Ching - Alfred Huang

If you accidentally land on square 31 of the Game of the Goose, you're in trouble. And you have to wait in the depth of the well, until another player suffers the same fate. They're in, you're out.

NB. From its genesis in Chapter 1. Initiating to Chapter 63. After Completion, aka Perfect, the I Ching has sixty-three chapters. Chapter 64 is entitled Before Completion, also called Back to Square One, and is therefore anything but an end point or a final destination. Rather, it is the beginning of a new cycle. Hmmm, sixty-three? That is exactly the number of squares on the goose board. That seems reason enough for a wild viral theory that the ancient Zhou I may well have been influenced by this traditional Dutch \ English board game.

THE IMAGE: twice the Water trigram.

Does that answer the question?

To be continued …