What is Heaven to Earth, I Ching? - What is the Change Cycle? 

To date, most I Ching books follow the King Wen hexagram arrangement.  He created the 64 hexagrams around 1150 B.C. and he ordered hexagrams into pairs with one the opposite, or polar image of the other.   

On the right, notice how hexagram Heaven 1t is opposite to hexagram Earth 2t.  The “t” refers to the traditional King Wen arrangement.  Also, observe how hexagram 3t is the inverse of 4t.  No clear connection between the 32 pairs of hexagrams has been found. 

Nearly a thousand years ago, Shao Yung offered the world an alternative arrangement of the 64 hexagrams.  His sequential arrangement can be found on pages 730-1 of the Wilhelm-Baynes edition of the I Ching.  I describe his arrangement as the Change Cycle shown as the Master Sheet of All Hexagrams.  Here is an animation of the Change Cycle.

Heaven to Earth, I Ching takes the I Ching a revolutionary step forward based on the Shao Yung/Change Cycle arrangement.  In a reading, the old concept of changing lines is updated to active lines.  Active lines act independently of each other to create additional hexagrams.  Arranging reading hexagrams by the Change Cycle clears way for making change successful because options are revealed.  Why?

When reading hexagrams are in Change Cycle order, hexagrams are "timed" to events in sync with other hexagrams.  There is a remarkable parallel between hexagram counsel and experience.   I don't know what Shao Yung was thinking, but his ancient hexagram arrangement begins new insights about the I Ching and how it can change your life.  Heaven to Earth, I Ching starts that journey.

The image below is modified from the Master Sheet.  On the far left is the all solid line Heaven 1c.  The “c” refers to the Change Cycle number.  To its right, a single broken Yin line enters a hexagram to create hexagram 2c.  That single Yin line continues up for a third hexagram 3c.  At hexagram 8c, two Yin lines pair to repeat upper movement.  The process continues through all 64 until the all Yin broken line hexagram is reached.

In the image below, change begins in the upper left with the all solid line hexagram.  The sequence ends in the lower right corner with the all broken line hexagram.  For another version, see the Master Sheet of All Hexagrams.

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What Makes Heaven to Earth, I Ching Different?

Contact:
James R. (JR) Wilkinson

503.269.4263 - jrw@changecycle.org
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Copyright (c) 2008 James R. Wilkinson.
Hexagram and line text used with R.L. Wing permission.
All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

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