yi-jing-oracle/dist/about.js

The Yi Jing, the Oracle of Changes, available in algorithmic form along with the relevant metadata to understand it's meaning.

export const about = {
    title: 'Yi Jing (I Ching, Book of Changes)',
    overview: 'The Yi Jing is a classic Chinese divinatory text consisting of 64 hexagrams, each made of six yin (broken) or yang (solid) lines. The text has been used for millennia as a guide for divination, philosophy, governance, and personal growth.',
    history: [
        {
            period: 'Pre‑Zhou / Shang (c. 1200–1045 BCE)',
            events: 'Earliest yarrow‑stalk divination; shamanic ritual background.',
            sources: 'Oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions',
        },
        {
            period: 'Zhou (c. 1045–256 BCE)',
            events: 'Compilation of the core divinatory manual.',
            sources: 'Zhou Jing (surviving version)',
        },
        {
            period: 'Warring States (c. 475–221 BCE)',
            events: 'Confucian commentaries added; the text becomes one of the Five Classics.',
            sources: 'Early commentaries (Ten Wings)',
        },
        {
            period: 'Han (206 BCE–220 CE)',
            events: 'Canonical status; first printed editions.',
            sources: 'Wang Xi edition (3rd century CE)',
        },
        {
            period: 'Early Medieval (5th–10th CE)',
            events: 'Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian philosophical interpretations.',
            sources: 'Kang commentary (10th century)',
        },
        {
            period: 'Modern (19th–20th century)',
            events: 'Western translations; psychological and literary uses.',
            sources: 'Legge, Wilhelm, Mitchell, etc.',
        },
    ],
    structure: {
        core: {
            hexagrams: 64,
            lines_per_hexagram: 6,
        },
        ten_wings: ['Commentary', 'Rationale', 'Principles'],
        later_commentaries: [
            'Kang Yi (10th century)',
            'Huainanzi',
            'Zhuangzi',
            'Confucius (as cited)',
        ],
    },
    core_concepts: [
        {
            concept: 'Yin & Yang',
            description: 'Complementary, dynamic principles: Yin (passive, dark, receptive); Yang (active, bright, assertive).',
        },
        {
            concept: 'Hexagrams as States',
            description: 'Each hexagram symbolises a particular phase of change; there are 64 possible states.',
        },
        {
            concept: 'Changing Lines',
            description: 'Lines in motion that indicate an impending shift, leading to a new hexagram.',
        },
        {
            concept: 'Dao (Way)',
            description: 'The natural flow of the cosmos; aligning with the Dao yields harmony.',
        },
        {
            concept: 'Qi (Vital Energy)',
            description: 'Dynamic force that flows through the lines.',
        },
        {
            concept: 'Cosmology',
            description: 'Universe as a living, changing organism.',
        },
    ],
    functions: [
        {
            purpose: 'Divination',
            howUsed: 'Yarrow stalks to produce a hexagram and its changing lines.',
        },
        {
            purpose: 'Philosophy & Ethics',
            howUsed: 'Study hexagrams as models of human behavior.',
        },
        {
            purpose: 'Governance',
            howUsed: 'Rulers use it to align policy with natural order.',
        },
        {
            purpose: 'Education',
            howUsed: 'Classic in Chinese schools; cultivates moral judgment.',
        },
        {
            purpose: 'Art & Literature',
            howUsed: 'Influences poetry, painting, and opera.',
        },
    ],
    philosophical_schools: [
        {
            name: 'Daoism',
            focus: 'Cosmological harmony, the Dao, and the role of Qi.',
        },
        {
            name: 'Confucianism',
            focus: 'Moral cultivation, governance, and ethical interpretation of hexagrams.',
        },
        {
            name: 'Buddhism',
            focus: 'Impermanence, suffering, and the cyclical nature of change.',
        },
    ],
    translations: [
        {
            translator: 'Thomas R. Legge',
            year: 1959,
            features: 'Comprehensive academic translation; explanatory notes.',
        },
        {
            translator: 'John A. DeFremery',
            year: 1976,
            features: 'Clear language, cross‑referenced hexagram index.',
        },
        {
            translator: 'Richard Wilhelm',
            year: 1939,
            features: 'Philosophical commentary; influenced Jung.',
        },
        {
            translator: 'Charles F. H. T. C. & R. L. Chittick',
            year: 2008,
            features: 'Modern commentary and updated terminology.',
        },
    ],
    modern_thought: [
        {
            area: 'Jungian Archetypes',
            description: 'Hexagrams mapped to universal patterns such as ‘The Fool’ and ‘The Warrior.’',
        },
        {
            area: 'Chaos Theory',
            description: 'Dynamic changing lines resemble attractor networks and chaos maps.',
        },
        {
            area: 'Literature',
            description: 'Influences works from Toni Morrison to William S. Burroughs.',
        },
        {
            area: 'Gaming',
            description: 'Used in tabletop RPGs for random encounters and plot twists.',
        },
        {
            area: 'Mindfulness',
            description: 'Meditation practices use hexagrams to focus on impermanence.',
        },
    ],
    glossary: [
        { term: 'Yin', meaning: 'Passive, dark, receptive.' },
        { term: 'Yang', meaning: 'Active, bright, assertive.' },
        { term: 'Hexagram', meaning: 'Six‑line diagram of yin/yang.' },
        {
            term: 'Changing Line',
            meaning: 'Line that transforms to produce a new hexagram.',
        },
        {
            term: 'Ten Wings',
            meaning: 'Ten short commentaries added to the core text.',
        },
        { term: 'Dao', meaning: 'The natural order or Way.' },
        { term: 'Qi', meaning: 'Vital life energy.' },
        { term: 'Heaven', meaning: 'Divine cosmic principle.' },
        { term: 'Earth', meaning: 'Material world.' },
    ],
};