Divination and repentance

zhen:12 3 hui:1 2
zhen 1: oracle bones, 2: bronze, Western Zhou, 3: bronze, Eastern Zhou

The trigrams of a hexagram are called the lower or inner trigram, and the upper or outer trigram. In Chinese they bear the names ZHEN¹ (divination) and HUI⁴ (repentance).
   Zhen is a cauldron, a Ding, the same one as the name of hexagram 50, with (later) at the top a 'pu' added. Pu is the crack in the oracle-bone, the diviner, the act of divination or its answer, to predict. It is a drawing of the crack, caused by the heat.
   Hui is a picture of a mother (a woman with breasts) and something on her head, like branches coming out of it, or according to Wang Hongyuan a feather headdress (MEI³ , picture 2). She is the teacher, the one who says no, most of the characters with this mother in it have meanings like regret, trouble, to improve, to correct, dark and such. Mei means on oracle bones: clouded sky, dark weather. Later: always, every, fertile, rich, plural. Mei³: beautiful.
   With the radical words or speak: plan (of the ancients, which has to be done), warning, teach. Together with pu, the same one as in zhen, it indicates the upper trigram. Same meaning, and regret, has Mei with heart radical, HUI³.

   Together they give a clue about the meaning of the trigrams. The inner or lower one is more or less predestined, ordained by the gods, something one has to do or follow. One can only consult the gods and act according to their advice, and then things may turn out auspicious. It is probably also close to instinctive behavior and inescapable reactions.
   Jou Tsung-Hwa says the inner trigram is space: length, width and height, and the outer one is time: past, present and future. One cannot change the size of the earth, space is always all around. It is the basic fact of being here in this life.
   The upper or outer one is, to some extent, one's own choice and can be influenced by one's thinking, wishes or conscious reactions. One's own feelings can change the course of events: the 'time'. Many actions will cause regret, but regret is also the beginning of change for the better, and the surroundings will react to one's actions.

   The peculiar thing about HUI in 'regret disappears' is, that it figures like this only in the hexagrams from 31 to 64, but in more places than the other uses of regret.

The character ZHEN¹ can be found in the Far-East dictionary nr.5749, Mathews’ nr.346, Karlgren GSR.nr.834, Li Leyi p.465, Schuessler p.822, Wieger p.150, Wang HongYuan p.184, Ricci 609, rad.154/2.
Mei^3,4 : Ricci 7673, Wang Hongyuan 180, Li Leyi 214, Far East 2727
The character HUI³ can be found in the Far-East dictionary nr.1584, Mathews’ nr.2335/6/7, Karlgren GSR.nr.947, Schuessler p.257, Ricci 5067, ?, rad.61/6.