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94-514: The Lo Shu is part of the legacy of ancient Chinese mathematical and divination (cf. the I Ching 易經 ) traditions, and is an important emblem in Feng Shui ( 風水 )—the art of geomancy concerned with the placement of objects in relation to the flow of qi ( 氣 ), or "natural energy". A Chinese legend concerning the pre-historic Emperor Yu ( 夏禹 ) tells of the Lo Shu, often in connection with

188-486: A herbal mixture known as gruit used in the flavoring of beer prior to the use of hops . The flowers and leaves are used in making some liquors and bitters . Yarrow is used as a companion plant , attracting some beneficial insects and repelling some pests. A. millefolium can be planted to combat soil erosion due to the plant's resistance to drought . Before the arrival of monocultures of ryegrass, both grass and pasture contained A. millefolium at

282-627: A child". This is apparently a corruption of the Achilles myth in which Jesus uses the plant to heal his adoptive father. For this reason, in France, it was called ' herbe de St. Joseph ', and it has also been called 'carpenter's weed' in this regard. Various other common names include arrowroot , death flower , eerie , hundred-leaved grass , knyghten , old man's mustard , sanguinary , seven-year's love , snake's grass , and soldier . The names milfoil and thousand leaf come refer to

376-552: A complete mystery to academics. Regardless of their historical relation to the text, the philosophical depth of the Ten Wings made the I Ching a perfect fit to Han period Confucian scholarship. The inclusion of the Ten Wings reflects a widespread recognition in ancient China, found in the Zuo zhuan and other pre-Han texts, that the I Ching was a rich moral and symbolic document useful for more than professional divination. Arguably

470-576: A consensus formed around 2nd-century AD scholar Ma Rong 's attribution of the text to the joint work of Fuxi, King Wen of Zhou, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius , but this traditional attribution is no longer generally accepted. Another tradition about the I Ching was that most of it was written by Tang of Shang . The basic unit of the Zhou yi is the hexagram ( 卦 guà ), a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines ( 爻 yáo ). Each line

564-733: A density of about 0.3 kg/ha. One factor for its use in grass mixtures was its deep roots, with leaves rich in minerals, minimizing mineral deficiencies in ruminant feed. It was introduced into New Zealand as a drought-tolerant pasture. Some pick-up sticks are made of yarrow. Yarrow can be used for dying wool as it contains apigenin and luteolin . Depending on the mordant the color may be green to yellow. Yarrow has been found with Neanderthal burials , suggesting its association with human species dates to at least 60,000 years ago. Yarrow and tortoiseshell are considered to be lucky in Chinese tradition . The stalks are dried and used as

658-715: A germination temperature of 18–24 °C (64–75 °F). It has a relatively short life in some situations, but may be prolonged by division in the spring every other year, and planting 30 to 46 cm (12–18 in) apart. It can become invasive . The species use in traditional gardens has generally been superseded by cultivars with specific 'improved' qualities. Some are used as drought-tolerant lawns , with periodic mowing. The many different ornamental cultivars include: 'Paprika', 'Cerise Queen', 'Red Beauty', 'Red Velvet', 'Saucy Seduction', 'Strawberry Seduction' (red), 'Island Pink' (pink), 'Calistoga' (white), and 'Sonoma Coast' (white). The following are recipients of

752-512: A method of yarrow stalk divination that is still used throughout the Far East. In the modern period, Gao Heng attempted his own reconstruction, which varies from Zhu Xi in places. Another divination method , employing coins, became widely used in the Tang dynasty and is still used today. In the modern period; alternative methods such as specialized dice and cartomancy have also appeared. In

846-625: A misreading of the Records of the Grand Historian . Although it rested on historically shaky grounds, the association of the I Ching with Confucius gave weight to the text and was taken as an article of faith throughout the Han and Tang dynasties. The I Ching was not included in the burning of the Confucian classics , and textual evidence strongly suggests that Confucius did not consider

940-632: A more cosmopolitan distribution include Aethes smeathmanniana (Smeathmann's aethes moth), Chloroclystis v-ata (v-pug), Choristoneura diversana , Cochylidia richteriana , Epiblema graphana , Eupithecia succenturiata (bordered pug), E. vulgata (common pug), Jordanita budensis and Thiodia citrana (lemon bell). The Noctuid Agrotis stigmosa has also been reared on A. millefolium . Cassida denticollis , Galeruca tanaceti , Hypocassida subferruginea and Phytoecia virgula are cosmopolitan species of beetles that feed on A. millefolium . Chrysanthia viridissima

1034-583: A more rigorous representation and interpretation of I Ching. Gao Heng , an expert in pre-Qin China, re-investigated its use as a Zhou dynasty oracle. Edward Shaughnessy proposed a new dating for the various strata of the text. New archaeological discoveries have enabled a deeper level of insight into how the text was used in the centuries before the Qin dynasty. Proponents of newly reconstructed Western Zhou readings, which often differ greatly from traditional readings of

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1128-405: A notable impact on the 1960s counterculture and on 20th century cultural figures such as Philip K. Dick , John Cage , Jorge Luis Borges , Terence McKenna and Hermann Hesse . Joni Mitchell references the six yang hexagram in "Amelia", a song on the album Hejira , where she describes the image of "...six jet planes leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain...". It also inspired

1222-518: A randomising agent in I ;Ching divination . In antiquity , the plant was known as herba militaris for its use in stanching the flow of blood from wounds. In the Classical Greek epic Iliad , Homer tells of the centaur Chiron , who conveyed herbal secrets to his human pupils and taught Achilles to use yarrow on the battlegrounds of Troy . The genus name Achillea is inspired by

1316-535: A synthesis of the two, arguing that the text was primarily a work of divination that could be used in the process of moral self-cultivation, or what the ancients called "rectification of the mind" in the Great Learning . Zhu Xi's reconstruction of I Ching yarrow stalk divination , based in part on the Great Commentary account, became the standard form and is still in use today. As China entered

1410-479: A three-by-three grid. Early records dated to 650 BCE are ambiguous, referring to a "river map", but clearly start to refer to a magic square by 80 CE, and explicitly give an example of one since 570 CE. Recent publications have provided support that the Lo Shu Magic Square was an important model for time and space. It served as a basis for city planning, and tomb and temple design. The magic square

1504-532: A total dry weight of 11,800 kg/ha (10,500 pounds per acre). It has been introduced as a feed for livestock in New Zealand and Australia , where it is a common weed of both wet and dry areas, such as roadsides, meadows, fields and coastal places. Several cavity-nesting birds, including the common starling , use yarrow to line their nests. Experiments conducted on the tree swallow , which does not use yarrow, suggest that adding yarrow to nests inhibits

1598-542: Is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae . Growing to 1 metre ( 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet) tall, it is characterized by small whitish flowers, a tall stem of fernlike leaves, and a pungent odor. The plant is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia , Europe , and North America . It has been introduced as a feed for livestock in New Zealand and Australia . Used by some animals,

1692-658: Is a mite that deforms flowers and leaves. external link to gallformers Achillea millefolium is cultivated as an ornamental plant by many plant nurseries . It is planted in gardens and natural landscaping settings of diverse climates and styles. They include native plant , drought-tolerant , and wildlife gardens . The plant is a frequent component of butterfly gardens . The plant prefers well-drained soil in full sun, but can be grown in less ideal conditions. For propagation , seeds require light for germination, so optimal germination occurs when planted no deeper than 6 mm ( 1 ⁄ 4  in). Seeds also require

1786-610: Is a European species whose adults can be found feeding on pollen and nectar. Trichodes ornatus (ornate checkered beetle) is a species found in North America whose adults can be found feeding on A. millefolium . Horistus orientalis is a species of plant bugs that feeds on A. millefolium . Hedychrum rutilans is a species of cuckoo wasps whose adults can be found feeding on A. millefolium in Europe and North Africa. Aceria kiefferi (Nalepa, 1891)

1880-416: Is a modern invention. Yin and yang are represented by broken and solid lines: yin is broken ( ⚋ ) and yang is solid ( ⚊ ). Different constructions of three yin and yang lines lead to eight trigrams (八卦) namely, Qian (乾, ☰), Dui (兌, ☱), Li (離, ☲), Zhen (震, ☳), Xun (巽, ☴), Kan (坎, ☵), Gen (艮, ☶), and Kun (坤, ☷). The different combinations of the two trigrams lead to 64 hexagrams. The following table numbers

1974-429: Is derived from mythical Greek character Achilles , who reportedly carried it with his army to treat battle wounds. The specific epithet millefolium comes from the featherlike leaves which are minutely divided. Yarrow is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia , Europe , and North America . The plant grows from sea level to 3,500 m (11,500 ft) in elevation. Common yarrow

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2068-404: Is either broken or unbroken. The received text of the Zhou yi contains all 64 possible hexagrams, along with the hexagram's name ( 卦名 guàmíng ), a short hexagram statement ( 彖 tuàn ), and six line statements ( 爻辭 yáocí ). The statements were used to determine the results of divination, but the reasons for having two different methods of reading the hexagram are not known, and it

2162-471: Is frequently found in the mildly disturbed soil of grasslands and open forests. Active growth occurs in the spring. In North America, both native and introduced genotypes, and both diploid and polyploid plants are found. It is found in every habitat throughout California except the Colorado and Mojave Deserts . Common yarrow produces an average yield of 110,000 plants per hectare (43,000/acre), with

2256-473: Is in the center cell, the sum of any two other cells that are directly through the five from each other must be 10; e.g., opposite squares and corners add up to 10, the number of the Yellow River Map . The Lo Shu is sometimes connected numerologically with the " Bagua " ( 八卦 or eight trigrams "), that can be arranged in the eight outer cells, reminiscent of circular trigram diagrams. Because north

2350-420: Is not explained, and none of the stories employ predetermined commentaries, patterns, or interpretations. Only the hexagrams and line statements are used. By the 4th century BC, the authority of the Zhou yi was also cited for rhetorical purposes, without relation to any stated divination. The Zuo Zhuan does not contain records of private individuals, but Qin dynasty records found at Shuihudi show that

2444-457: Is not known how the yarrow stalks became numbers, or how specific lines were chosen from the line readings. In the hexagrams, broken lines were used as shorthand for the numbers 6 ( 六 ) and 8 ( 八 ), and solid lines were shorthand for values of 7 ( 七 ) and 9 ( 九 ). The Great Commentary contains a late classic description of a process where various numerological operations are performed on a bundle of 50 stalks, leaving remainders of 6 to 9. Like

2538-527: Is not known why hexagram statements would be read over line statements or vice versa. The book opens with the first hexagram statement, yuán hēng lì zhēn ( 元亨利貞 ). These four words are often repeated in the hexagram statements and were already considered an important part of I Ching interpretation in the 6th century BC. Edward Shaughnessy describes this statement as affirming an "initial receipt" of an offering, "beneficial" for further "divining". The word zhēn ( 貞 , ancient form [REDACTED] )

2632-439: Is placed at the bottom of maps in China, the 3x3 magic square having number 1 at the bottom and 9 at the top is used in preference to the other rotations/reflections. As seen in the "Later Heaven" arrangement, 1 and 9 correspond with ☵ Kǎn 坎 "Water 水 " and ☲ Lí 離 "Fire 火 " respectively. In the "Early Heaven" arrangement, they would correspond with ☷ Kūn 坤 "Earth 地 " and ☰ Qián 乾 "Heaven 天 " respectively. Like

2726-514: Is produced in a flat-topped capitulum cluster and the inflorescences are visited by many insects, featuring a generalized pollination system. The small achene -like fruits are called cypsela. The plant has a sweet scent similar to that of chrysanthemums , so powerful that it may be irritating to some. The dark blue essential oil of yarrow contains chemicals called proazulenes . Chamazulene and δ-Cadinol are chemical compounds found in A. millefolium . The chromophore of azulene

2820-726: Is related to both the Dutch word gerw (alternately yerw ) and the Old High German word garawa . In the eastern counties it may be called yarroway. It was called old man's pepper due to its pungent flavor, while the name field hop came from its use in beer making in Sweden. In the Hebrides , a leaf held against the eyes was sometimes believed to give second sight . In the witchcraft trial of Elspeth Reoch in March 1616, she

2914-428: Is toxic to dogs, cats, and horses, causing increased urination, vomiting, diarrhea and dermatitis. When consumed by cows, an unfavorable flavor is given to their milk. In a standard rodent model for reproductive toxicity, aqueous extracts of yarrow produced a significant increase in the percentage of abnormal sperm. A. millefolium was used in traditional medicine , in part due to its astringent properties and

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3008-413: The 1911 Revolution , the I Ching lost its significance in political philosophy, but it maintained cultural influence as one of China's most ancient texts. Chinese writers offered parallels between the I Ching and subjects such as linear algebra and logic in computer science , aiming to demonstrate that ancient Chinese cosmology had anticipated Western discoveries. The sinologist Joseph Needham took

3102-576: The Eastern Han , I Ching interpretation divided into two schools, originating in a dispute over minor differences between different editions of the received text. The first school, known as New Text criticism, was more egalitarian and eclectic, and sought to find symbolic and numerological parallels between the natural world and the hexagrams. Their commentaries provided the basis of the School of Images and Numbers . The other school, Old Text criticism,

3196-686: The I Ching was an influential text across East Asia. In 1557, the Korean Neo-Confucianist philosopher Yi Hwang produced one of the most influential I Ching studies of the early modern era, claiming that the spirit was a principle ( li ) and not a material force ( qi ). Hwang accused the Neo-Confucian school of having misread Zhu Xi. His critique proved influential not only in Korea but also in Japan. Other than this contribution,

3290-559: The I Ching was the basis for divination practice for centuries across the Far East and was the subject of scholarly commentary. Between the 18th and 20th centuries, it took on an influential role in Western understanding of East Asian philosophical thought. As a divination text, the I Ching is used for a Chinese form of cleromancy known as I Ching divination in which bundles of yarrow stalks are manipulated to produce sets of six apparently random numbers ranging from 6 to 9. Each of

3384-725: The I Ching —known in Korean as the Yeok Gyeong  ( 역경 )—was not central to the development of Korean Confucianism, and by the 19th century, I Ching studies were integrated into the silhak reform movement. In medieval Japan, secret teachings on the I Ching —known in Japanese as the Eki Kyō  ( 易経 )—were publicized by Rinzai Zen master Kokan Shiren and the Shintoist Yoshida Kanetomo during

3478-624: The Royal Horticultural Society 's Award of Garden Merit : The many hybrids of this species designated Achillea × taygetea are useful garden subjects, including: 'Appleblossom', 'Fanal', 'Hoffnung', and 'Moonshine'. Yarrow can cause allergic skin rashes . It reportedly can induce menstruation and cause miscarriages. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals , yarrow

3572-522: The Shuogua attributes to the symbolic function of the hexagrams the ability to understand self, world, and destiny. Throughout the Ten Wings, there are passages that seem to purposefully increase the ambiguity of the base text, pointing to a recognition of multiple layers of symbolism. The Great Commentary associates knowledge of the I Ching with the ability to "delight in Heaven and understand fate;"

3666-515: The Tang dynasty , Emperor Taizong of Tang ordered Kong Yingda to create a canonical edition of the I Ching . Choosing Wang Bi 's 3rd-century Annotated Book of Changes ( Zhōuyì zhù ; 周易注 ) as the official commentary, he added to it further commentary drawing out the subtler details of Wang Bi's explanations. The resulting Right Meaning of the Book of Changes ( Zhōuyì zhèngyì ; 周易正義 ) became

3760-670: The Warring States period ( c.  475  – 221 BC). It is possible that other divination systems existed at this time; the Rites of Zhou name two other such systems, the Lianshan  [ zh ] and the Guicang . The name Zhou yi literally means the 'changes' ( 易 ; yì ) of the Zhou dynasty . The 'changes' involved have been interpreted as the transformations of hexagrams, of their lines, or of

3854-454: The Yellow River Map (Hetu) and the eight trigrams . In ancient China there is a legend of a huge deluge : the people offered sacrifices to the god of one of the flooding rivers, the Luo river ( 洛河 ), to try to calm his anger. A magical turtle emerged from the water with the curiously unnatural Lo Shu pattern on its shell: circular dots representing the integers one through nine are arranged in

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3948-516: The Yellow River Map , the Lo Shu square, in conjunction with the Bagua, is sometimes used as a mandalic representation important in Feng Shui geomancy. I Ching The I Ching or Yijing ( Chinese : 易經 , Mandarin: [î tɕíŋ] ), usually translated Book of Changes or Classic of Changes , is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among

4042-525: The Zhou yi a "classic". An ancient commentary on the Zhou yi found at Mawangdui portrays Confucius as endorsing it as a source of wisdom first and an imperfect divination text second. However, since the Ten Wings became canonized by Emperor Wu of Han together with the original I Ching as the Zhou Yi, it can be attributed to the positions of influence from the Confucians in the government. Furthermore,

4136-491: The Zhou yi does not contain any cosmological analogies, the I Ching was read as a microcosm of the universe that offered complex, symbolic correspondences. The official edition of the text was literally set in stone, as one of the Xiping Stone Classics . The canonized I Ching became the standard text for over two thousand years, until alternate versions of the Zhou yi and related texts were discovered in

4230-485: The Zhou yi itself, yarrow stalk divination dates to the Western Zhou period, although its modern form is a reconstruction. The ancient narratives Zuo Zhuan and Guoyu contain the oldest descriptions of divination using the Zhou yi . The two histories describe more than twenty successful divinations conducted by professional soothsayers for royal families between 671 and 487 BC. The method of divination

4324-518: The Zuo Zhuan stories, individual lines of hexagrams are denoted by using the genitive particle zhi ( 之 ), followed by the name of another hexagram where that specific line had another form. In later attempts to reconstruct ancient divination methods, the word zhi was interpreted as a verb meaning 'moving to', an apparent indication that hexagrams could be transformed into other hexagrams. However, there are no instances of "changeable lines" in

4418-600: The Zuo Zhuan . In all 12 out of 12 line statements quoted, the original hexagrams are used to produce the oracle. In 136 BC, Emperor Wu of Han named the Zhou yi "the first among the classics", dubbing it the Classic of Changes or I Ching . Emperor Wu's placement of the I Ching among the Five Classics was informed by a broad span of cultural influences that included Confucianism , Taoism , Legalism , yin-yang cosmology , and Wu Xing physical theory. While

4512-478: The 1960s, with the translations of Wilhelm and John Blofeld attracting particular interest. Richard Rutt 's 1996 translation incorporated much of the new archaeological and philological discoveries of the 20th century. The most commonly used English translations of the I Ching are: Other notable English translations include: Achillea millefolium Achillea millefolium , commonly known as yarrow ( / ˈ j æ r oʊ / ) or common yarrow ,

4606-442: The 1968 song " While My Guitar Gently Weeps " by The Beatles . The modern period also brought a new level of skepticism and rigor to I Ching scholarship. Li Jingchi spent several decades producing a new interpretation of the text, which was published posthumously in 1978. Modern data scientists including Alex Liu proposed to represent and develop I Ching methods with data science 4E framework and latent variable approaches for

4700-530: The 20th century. Part of the canonization of the Zhou yi bound it to a set of ten commentaries called the Ten Wings . The Ten Wings are of a much later provenance than the Zhou yi , and are the production of a different society. The Zhou yi was written in Early Old Chinese , while the Ten Wings were written in a predecessor to Middle Chinese . The specific origins of the Ten Wings are still

4794-616: The 64 possible sets corresponds to a hexagram , which can be looked up in the I Ching . The hexagrams are arranged in an order known as the King Wen sequence . The interpretation of the readings found in the I Ching has been discussed and debated over the centuries. Many commentators have used the book symbolically, often to provide guidance for moral decision-making, as informed by Confucianism , Taoism and Buddhism . The hexagrams themselves have often acquired cosmological significance and been paralleled with many other traditional names for

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4888-634: The American sinologist Edward Shaughnessy dated its compilation in its current form to the last quarter of the 9th century BC, during the early decades of the reign of King Xuan of Zhou ( r.   c.  827  – 782  BC). A copy of the text in the Shanghai Museum corpus of bamboo and wooden slips discovered in 1994 shows that the Zhou yi was used throughout all levels of Chinese society in its current form by 300 BC, but still contained small variations as late as

4982-473: The I Ching as mentioned in his writings. The psychologist Carl Jung took interest in the possible universal nature of the imagery of the I Ching , and he introduced an influential German translation by Richard Wilhelm by discussing his theories of archetypes and synchronicity . Jung wrote, "Even to the most biased eye, it is obvious that this book represents one long admonition to careful scrutiny of one's own character, attitude, and motives." The book had

5076-489: The I Ching was central to Leibniz's characteristica universalis , or 'universal language', which in turn inspired the standards of Boolean logic and for Gottlob Frege to develop predicate logic in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, Jacques Derrida identified Hegel's argument as logocentric , but accepted without question Hegel's premise that the Chinese language cannot express philosophical ideas. After

5170-640: The Kamakura era. I Ching studies in Japan took on new importance during the Edo period , during which over 1,000 books were published on the subject by over 400 authors. The majority of these books were serious works of philology, reconstructing ancient usages and commentaries for practical purposes. A sizable minority focused on numerology, symbolism, and divination. During this time, over 150 editions of earlier Chinese commentaries were reprinted across Edo Japan, including several texts that had become lost in China. In

5264-551: The Shanghai Library, was almost certainly arranged in the King Wen sequence, and it has even been proposed that a pottery paddle from the Western Zhou period contains four hexagrams in the King Wen sequence. Whichever of these arrangements is older, it is not evident that the order of the hexagrams was of interest to the original authors of the Zhou yi . The assignment of numbers, binary or decimal, to specific hexagrams,

5358-459: The Ten Wings directly into the central text of the I Ching , creating such a persuasive narrative that Han commentators were no longer considered significant. A century later Han Kangbo added commentaries on the Ten Wings to Wang Bi's book, creating a text called the Zhouyi zhu . The principal rival interpretation was a practical text on divination by the soothsayer Guan Lu . At the beginning of

5452-513: The Ten Wings tends to use diction and phrases such as "the master said", which was previously commonly seen in the Analects , thereby implying the heavy involvement of Confucians in its creation as well as institutionalization. In the canonical I Ching , the hexagrams are arranged in an order dubbed the King Wen sequence after King Wen of Zhou, who founded the Zhou dynasty and supposedly reformed

5546-540: The alleged use of the herb by Achilles to treat his soldiers' wounds. Other names implying the plant's historical use in healing—particularly in the military—include bloodwort , knight's milfoil , staunchweed , and, from its use in the United States Civil War , soldier's woundwort . Its use in either starting or stopping nosebleeds led to the common name nosebleed . The English name yarrow comes from its Saxon ( Old English ) name gearwe , which

5640-533: The early Edo period, Japanese writers such as Itō Jinsai , Kumazawa Banzan , and Nakae Tōju ranked the I Ching the greatest of the Confucian classics. Many writers attempted to use the I Ching to explain Western science in a Japanese framework . One writer, Shizuki Tadao , even attempted to employ Newton's laws of motion and the Copernican principle within an I Ching cosmology. This line of argument

5734-401: The early modern period, the I Ching took on renewed relevance in both Confucian and Daoist studies. The Kangxi Emperor was especially fond of the I Ching and ordered new interpretations of it. Qing dynasty scholars focused more intently on understanding pre-classical grammar, assisting the development of new philological approaches in the modern period. Like the other Chinese classics,

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5828-1419: The growth of parasites . Achillea millefolium is a food source for many species of insects, although is not particularly attractive to ladybirds . The larvae of the moths Bucculatrix clavenae , B. cristatella , B. fatigatella , B. humiliella , B. latviaella , Cnephasia abrasana , Cochylimorpha elongana , Coleophora argentula , C. carelica , C. ditella , C. expressella , C. follicularis , C. gardesanella , C. millefolii , C. partitella , C. ptarmicia , C. quadristraminella , C. succursella , C. vibicigerella , Depressaria olerella , D. silesiaca , Dichrorampha alpinana (broad-blotch drill), D. petiverella , D. vancouverana (tanacetum root moth), Eupithecia millefoliata (yarrow pug), E. nanata (narrow-winged pug), Gillmeria pallidactyla , Idaea pallidata , Isidiella nickerlii , Loxostege manualis , Phycitodes maritima , P. saxicola , Pyncostola bohemiella , Sophronia sicariellus and Thetidia smaragdaria ( Essex emerald ) feed on Achillea millefolium in Europe. The larvae of Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria (blackberry looper), Coleophora quadruplex and Sparganothoides lentiginosana (lentiginos moth) feed on A. millefolium in North America. Other species of moths with

5922-485: The hexagrams in King Wen order. The sinologist Michael Nylan describes the I Ching as the best-known Chinese book in the world. Eliot Weinberger wrote that it is the most "recognized" Chinese book. In East Asia, it is a foundational text for the Confucian and Daoist philosophical traditions, while in the West, it attracted the attention of Enlightenment intellectuals and prominent literary and cultural figures. During

6016-478: The hexagrams in a format that resembles modern binary numbers , although he did not intend his arrangement to be used mathematically. This arrangement, sometimes called the binary sequence , later inspired Gottfried Leibniz . The 12th century Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi, co-founder of the Cheng–Zhu school, criticized both of the Han dynasty lines of commentary on the I Ching , saying that they were one-sided. He developed

6110-617: The hexagrams were privately consulted to answer questions such as business, health, children, and determining lucky days. The most common form of divination with the I Ching in use today is a reconstruction of the method described in these histories, in the 300 BC Great Commentary , and later in the Huainanzi and the Lunheng . From the Great Commentary ' s description, the Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi reconstructed

6204-409: The image and number work of Jing Fang , Yu Fan and Xun Shuang , is no longer extant. Only short fragments survive, from a Tang dynasty text called Zhou yi jijie . With the fall of the Han, I Ching scholarship was no longer organized into systematic schools. The most influential writer of this period was Wang Bi , who discarded the numerology of Han commentators and integrated the philosophy of

6298-470: The largest and most petiolate towards the base; they are 5–20 centimetres (2–8 in) long and fernlike , divided bipinnately or tripinnately . The inflorescence has 4 to 9 phyllaries and contains ray and disk flowers which are white to pink, blooming from March to October. There are generally 3 to 8 ray flowers, which are 3 millimetres ( 1 ⁄ 8  in) long and ovate to round. The tiny disk flowers range from 10 to 40. The inflorescence

6392-418: The line number, the line statements may make oracular or prognostic statements. Some line statements also contain poetry or references to historical events. Archaeological evidence shows that Zhou dynasty divination was grounded in cleromancy , the production of seemingly random numbers to determine divine intent. The Zhou yi provided a guide to cleromancy that used the stalks of the yarrow plant , but it

6486-419: The line statements, but it is also possible that the line statements were derived from the hexagram names. The line statements, which make up most of the book, are exceedingly cryptic. Each line begins with a word indicating the line number, "base, 2, 3, 4, 5, top", and either the number 6 for a broken line, or the number 9 for a whole line. Hexagrams 1 and 2 have an extra line statement, named yong . Following

6580-424: The method of interpretation. The sequence generally pairs hexagrams with their upside-down equivalents; the eight hexagrams that do not change when turned upside-down, are instead paired with their inversions (exchanging yin and yang lines). Another order, found at Mawangdui in 1973, arranges the hexagrams into eight groups sharing the same upper trigram. But the oldest known manuscript, found in 1987 and now held by

6674-514: The mild laxative effect of its leaves. It has been used since ancient times to heal wounds and stop bleeding, and in the sixteenth century the crushed leaves were used to stop nosebleeds. Yarrow and its North American varieties were traditionally used by many Native American nations. The Navajo historically considered it a "life medicine" and chewed the plant for toothaches and used its infusions for earaches. The Miwok in California used

6768-600: The minutely divided leaves. In Spanish , it is known as gordaldo and, in New Mexico and southern Colorado , plumajillo (Spanish for 'little feather'). In Sussex and Devonshire superstition, yarrow was used for finding one's real sweetheart. One would pluck yarrow growing on a young man's grave while reciting: and go to sleep with the yarrow under the pillow. In a similar tradition in Wicklow , girls would pick yarrow on Hallow Eve and recite: then retire for

6862-400: The most important of the Ten Wings is the Great Commentary ( Dazhuan ) or Xi ci , which dates to roughly 300 BC. The Great Commentary describes the I Ching as a microcosm of the universe and a symbolic description of the processes of change. By partaking in the spiritual experience of the I Ching , the Great Commentary states, the individual can understand the deeper patterns of

6956-429: The numbers obtained from the divination. Feng Youlan proposed that the word for 'changes' originally meant 'easy', as in a form of divination easier than the oracle bones , but there is little evidence for this. There is also an ancient folk etymology that sees the character for 'changes' as containing the sun and moon, the cycle of the day. Modern sinologists believe the character to be derived either from an image of

7050-426: The numinous and bright and to classify the myriad things". The Zhou yi itself does not contain this legend and indeed says nothing about its own origins. The Rites of Zhou , however, also claims that the hexagrams of the Zhou yi were derived from an initial set of eight trigrams. During the Han dynasty there were various opinions about the historical relationship between the trigrams and the hexagrams. Eventually,

7144-547: The oldest of the Chinese classics . The I Ching was originally a divination manual in the Western Zhou period (1000–750 BC). Over the course of the Warring States and early imperial periods (500–200 BC), it transformed into a cosmological text with a series of philosophical commentaries known as the Ten Wings . After becoming part of the Chinese Five Classics in the 2nd century BC,

7238-459: The opposite opinion, arguing that the I Ching had actually impeded scientific development by incorporating all physical knowledge into its metaphysics. However, with the advent of quantum mechanics , physicist Niels Bohr credited the yin and yang symbolism for providing inspiration of his interpretation of the new field, which disproved principles from older Western classical mechanics. The principle of complementarity heavily used concepts from

7332-454: The plant as an analgesic and head cold remedy. Native American nations used the plant for healing cuts and abrasions, relief from earaches and throat infections, as well as for an eyewash . Common yarrow was used by Plains indigenous peoples to reduce pain or fever and aid sleep. In the early 20th century, some Ojibwe people used a decoction of yarrow leaves on hot stones and inhaled it to treat headaches , or applied decoctions of

7426-400: The plant may have somewhat toxic properties, although historically it has been employed for medicinal purposes. Achillea millefolium is an erect, herbaceous , perennial plant that produces one to several stems 0.2–1 metre (8–40 inches) in height, and has a spreading rhizomatous growth form. Cauline and more or less clasping, the leaves appear spirally and evenly along the stem, with

7520-494: The processes of change such as yin and yang and Wu Xing . The core of the I Ching is a Western Zhou divination text called the Changes of Zhou ( Chinese : 周易 ; pinyin : Zhōu yì ). Modern scholars suggest dates ranging between the 10th and 4th centuries BC for the assembly of the text in approximately its current form. Based on a comparison of the language of the Zhou yi with dated bronze inscriptions ,

7614-459: The root onto skin for its stimulating effect. The entire plant is reportedly edible and nutritious, but it is advised not to consume much. The foliage is pungent; both its leaves and flowers are bitter and astringent. The leaves can be eaten young; raw, they can be added to salad. The leaves, with an aniseed -grass flavour, can be brewed as tea. In the Middle Ages , yarrow was part of

7708-482: The sage who reads it will see cosmological patterns and not despair in mere material difficulties. The Japanese word for 'metaphysics', keijijōgaku ( 形而上学 ) is derived from a statement found in the Great Commentary that "what is above form [ xíng ér shàng ] is called Tao ; what is under form is called a tool". The word has also been borrowed into Korean and re-borrowed back into Chinese. The Ten Wings were traditionally attributed to Confucius , possibly based on

7802-659: The standard edition of the I Ching through the Song dynasty . By the 11th century, the I Ching was being read as a work of intricate philosophy, as a jumping-off point for examining great metaphysical questions and ethical issues. Cheng Yi , patriarch of the Neo-Confucian Cheng–Zhu school , read the I Ching as a guide to moral perfection. He described the text as a way to for ministers to form honest political factions, root out corruption, and solve problems in government. The contemporary scholar Shao Yong rearranged

7896-504: The sun emerging from clouds, or from the content of a vessel being changed into another. The Zhou yi was traditionally ascribed to the Zhou cultural heroes King Wen of Zhou and the Duke of Zhou , and was also associated with the legendary world ruler Fuxi . According to the canonical Great Commentary , Fuxi observed the patterns of the world and created the eight trigrams ( 八卦 ; bāguà ), "in order to become thoroughly conversant with

7990-571: The text, are sometimes called the "modernist school". The I Ching has been translated into Western languages dozens of times. The earliest published complete translation of the I Ching into a Western language was a Latin translation done in the 1730s by the French Jesuit missionary Jean-Baptiste Régis and his companions that was published in Germany in the 1830s. Historically, the most influential Western-language I Ching translation

8084-505: The universe. Among other subjects, it explains how the eight trigrams proceeded from the eternal oneness of the universe through three bifurcations . The other Wings provide different perspectives on essentially the same viewpoint, giving ancient, cosmic authority to the I Ching . For example, the Wenyan provides a moral interpretation that parallels the first two hexagrams, 乾 ( qián ) and 坤 ( kūn ), with Heaven and Earth, and

8178-407: Was Richard Wilhelm 's 1923 German translation, which was translated into English in 1950 by Cary Baynes . Although Thomas McClatchie and James Legge had both translated the text into English already in the 19th century, while Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre and Charles de Harlez had both translated it in the same period into French, the text gained significant traction during the counterculture of

8272-643: Was alleged to have plucked "melefour", thought to be another name for yarrow, and said " In nomine Patris, Fiili, et Spiritus Sancti " to become able to cure distemper (disorders of the four humours ) and impart the faculty of prediction. For its association with the Abrahamic devil it was called bad man's plaything , devil's nettle , and devil's plaything . Yarrow was thought to bring luck due to being, according to one woman cited by James Britten ( c.  1878 ), "the first herb our Saviour put in His hand when

8366-600: Was also used for the verb 'divine' in the oracle bones of the late Shang dynasty , which preceded the Zhou. It also carried meanings of being or making upright or correct, and was defined by the Eastern Han scholar Zheng Xuan as "to enquire into the correctness" of a proposed activity. The names of the hexagrams are usually words that appear in their respective line statements, but in five cases (2, 9, 26, 61, and 63) an unrelated character of unclear purpose appears. The hexagram names could have been chosen arbitrarily from

8460-455: Was criticized by Georg Friedrich Hegel , who proclaimed that binary system and Chinese characters were "empty forms" that could not articulate spoken words with the clarity of the Western alphabet . In their commentary, I Ching hexagrams and Chinese characters were conflated into a single foreign idea, sparking a dialogue on Western philosophical questions such as universality and the nature of communication. The usage of binary in relation to

8554-586: Was discovered in yarrow and wormwood and named in 1863 by Septimus Piesse . Yarrow contains isovaleric acid , salicylic acid , asparagine , sterols , and flavonoids . It also contains phenolic acids such as gallic acid , 3, 4-dihydroxy benzoic acid , chlorogenic acid, vanillic acid, caffeic acid, syringic acid, p-coumaric acid, sinapic acid, ferulic acid, cinnamic acid and flavonoid such as myricetin , hesperidin , quercetin , luteolin , kaempferol , apigenin , rutin , hyperoside . The several varieties and subspecies include: The genus name Achillea

8648-426: Was incidentally used to designate spaces of political and religious importance. The odd and even numbers alternate in the periphery of the Lo Shu pattern; the four even numbers are at the four corners, and the five odd numbers (which outnumber the even numbers by one) form a cross in the center of the square. The sums in each of the three rows, in each of the three columns, and in both diagonals, are all 15. Since "5"

8742-475: Was later taken up in China by the Qing politician Zhang Zhidong . Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , who was corresponding with Jesuits in China , wrote the first European commentary on the I Ching in 1703. He argued that it proved the universality of binary numbers and theism , since the broken lines, the "0" or "nothingness", cannot become solid lines, the "1" or "oneness", without the intervention of God . This

8836-512: Was more scholarly and hierarchical, and focused on the moral content of the text, providing the basis for the School of Meanings and Principles. The New Text scholars distributed alternate versions of the text and freely integrated non-canonical commentaries into their work, as well as propagating alternate systems of divination such as the Taixuanjing . Most of this early commentary, such as

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