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THE IMAGE of two trigrams: Fire below, Heaven above. The sun shines on the earth and heat rises from its surface. This thermal current carries water vapour, which, when it reaches a sufficient height, condenses and forms clouds. The energy released in this process further intensifies the upward movement.
Is there anything more impressive than watching clouds expand in slow motion? Boring? Nothing special? You can save yourself a trip to the mountains and just stay at home. Look up and watch imposing mountain formations drift past you. No two days are the same on the cloud front. Marvel at modest cumulus clouds, the ‘cumulus humilis’. Or the stacking of an imposing ‘cumulus congestus’. And then, at the end of a warm summer's day, higher than a Himalayan giant, the awe-inspiring ‘cumulonimbus’. Fire below, heaven above: the image of rising warm air, cloud formation, accumulation.
If humans had developed full telepathic abilities, the spoken word would be superfluous. If our skills and culture were innate, passed down through our blood, the written word would have no raison d'être. Things turned out differently. Contact between one human mind and another requires the condensation of language.
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