The Image of the Cosmos in the I Ching

The Yi-globe

A study on the traditional (King Wen's) sequence of the sixty-four hexagrams

"In the last analysis the world ... is a cosmos, not a chaos.
This belief is the foundation of Chinese philosophy,
as of all philosophy." (R. Wilhelm / C. Baynes tr.)

The Yi-globe is a relatively new configuration in the history of the I Ching (Yijing, Book of Changes)[*]. It is a spherical structure constructed from the 64 hexagrams, and as such, in all probability, it represented the Chinese cosmology in the mythical past. This arrangement of the hexagrams perfectly reflects the image of the world: as Chinese people imagined the origin, the make-up, and the operation of the universe sometime before the first millennium BC. This latent (perhaps secret or purposely hidden, or simply lost or forgotten) cosmic order is fully revealed and reconstructed in this study. The whole work is based on the words of the I Ching, and can be verified easily by reading the book.

The three-dimensional arrangement puts the hexagrams in a new perspective. In this form new light is thrown on the whole I Ching, and its true meaning will be illuminated. Thus, all the readers of the I Ching - the adherents of Taoism in the first place - can get new, specific information from here. The practitioners can gain a reliable basis for the interpretation of the hexagrams, especially in divination.

In addition to the description of the cosmos, the Yi-globe also resolves two much-discussed questions: Why were the hexagrams arranged in the I Ching in the known specific order? Where did the King Wen's sequence originate?

(The contents of this site is a shortened version of a longer manuscript.
Here, all the essential ideas are included but some less important passages have been left out.
So please, don't fret over the breaks in continuity.)

The Yi-globe
(simplified form)

This spherical arrangement clearly demonstrates the ancient Chinese concept of cosmology.
The Yi-globe locates the hexagrams in space and time. The three axes show the four cardinal points, and the zenith and nadir. The horizontal circles demonstrate the cyclic character of time; the twelve meridians correspond to the twelve months.

Contents:
Contents with subtitles
Preface
Synopsis
I. Introduction
II. The reconstruction of the Yi-globe
III. The analysis of the Yi-globe
IV. The Yi-globe and the microcosm
V. The origin of the KW sequence
VI. The analogues of the Yi-globe
News, Q&A, Addenda

NEW: The Yi-spiral

References
Contact

[*] Practically the same form was published in Lothar Teikemeier's book, in the "Lyra, I-Ging gleich Tarot" in 1998 (Holos Verlag) and even in private edition, in 1988. He created this arrangement on the basis of special mathematical principles and named it 'ichingsphere'. The author used it to demonstrate certain relations between the Tarot and the I Ching. Presently, this diagram is connected to his site: http://www.trionfi.com.
In the Yi-globe the hexagrams have been arranged according to another, independent method: following the Taoist principles and the words of the I Ching. It deserves attention that the resulting forms still coincide with each other. On this site the Taoist method comes to the fore and the new, inner qualities of the sphere are disclosed and analyzed.