searching for the origins
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The tidal gua and the moons
The sundial, how does it work
Discussion
FROM GUI TO GUA
searching for the origins
Rutt (Zhouyi,
1996) gives most information. He says (p.88):
”The word gua itself seems originally to have meant yarrow-wand
divination, and is written by combining a graph for ‘baton’ with a graph for
‘divining’ that looks like a crack in a tortoiseshell. Perhaps this reflects the
bamboo or other slips, shaped like batons, on which the hexagrams were first
written”.
(p.100-102) The bagua numerals: groups of 6 symbols, the oldest
reliably dated ones from the reign of Wuding (1238-1180 BC). Zhang Zhenglang
identified them as being probably hexagrams. They usually occur at the end of an
inscription, sometimes as two groups of three chevrons placed side by side, most
often as a group of six lines, chevrons, or numerals set vertically one above
another. When the groups consist of lines, the broken lines may have three
parts, rather than two. When the signs are numerals, they are easily recognized
Chinese figures from 1 to 9, in groups such as 766718.
.. The bagua numerals are much older than any hexagram drawings now
known. Little detailed information has been gained about them since they have
been identified.
LINK to pictures of the bagua
numerals
(.."When the groups
consist of lines, the broken lines may have three parts, rather than two"..
This was the only thing which I saw as a real counter indication for my idea.
All the others are no proof that I am wrong. Maybe there is an explanation for
the three lines. The Tai Xuan Jing consists of
tetragrams of single, double and triple lines. Maybe in the beginning
there were more
oracles,
some without triple lines too,
and did
they not survive the times.
I don't expect to find any real proof, I don't think that is possible
after so many centuries. The only
criterion may be 'does it make sense'. My
search goes on..)
Calendrical groups
Some scholars have wondered whether the counting of days in cycles of sixty,
giving six ten-day ‘weeks’ to a cycle, underlies the hexagram form. In late Shang times tortoise-shell auguries were taken at the beginning of each ten-day
period, on the gui* day. Hexagram 55.1 may reflect this usage. The
results of these divinations were inscribed on oracle bones in columns
containing six items, often read from bottom to top. [James Menzies proposed the
idea that this custom may have suggested the hexagram form of Zhouyi (Kunst
p.23, Shaughnessy 1983
p.109f).
Kunst (p. 23, about Menzies):
"The typical series of six ten-day week
divinations comprising a full 60-day sexagenary cycle corresponds to the six
line texts of a hexagram. .. In Japan Naito Torajiro (1923) and Kaizuka Shigeki
(1947) reached a different conclusion, they successively developed the idea that
the six lines of a hexagram corresponded not to the divinations for the six
ten-day weeks, but to each day of a ten-day week. They argued ..
there were only five lines to a hexagram chapter, and a pair of adjacent
chapters formed one large one of ten lines. .. when the Zhou took this system
over from the Shang, they modified it to fit their own calendar of four lunar
phases, which was tantamount to a month of four seven-day weeks. Like the Shang,
the Zhou ignored the last day of the cycle, leaving a total of six days, .. the
oracle sayings were thus also arranged in corresponding units of six, rather
than in nine as with the Shang (It has been confirmed by Prof. K. Takashima that
there is indeed an absence of gui-days in .. divinations. Gui day may have been
a day of rest or of taboo on which nothing, except the ten-day divination, was
conducted". Kunst p.220, note 13).
* This gui is a different character than the 'sundial'. It is the tenth stem or calendrical sign, 'yin water'. It can be found back in the name of hexagram 38.
Sundials
My search for the guibiao (tablet-with-gnomon sundial) did not yield anything helpful yet. The pictures with text on them come from http://ccms.nkfust.edu.tw/~jochi/index.htm
Duke Zhou's Gnomon?,
Dengfeng-xian Observatory in the Yuan dynasty.
40 chi Gnomon in the Yuan
dynasty, Dengfeng-xian Ancient Observatory, Dengfeng-xian, Henan, China.
The gnomons (above) indicate the seasons, the round sundials
(below) indicate the
hours of the day.
Sundial, Dengfeng-xian Observatory in the Yuan dynasty.
http://www.nmns.edu.tw/New/Multimedia/china/A-1-8_display.htm
Ancient Observatory, Kyonju, Korea.