Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 16.djvu/92

  In the sixth (or topmost) line, undivided, (we see its subject as) the dragon exceeding the proper limits. There will be occasion for repentance.

(The lines of this hexagram are all strong and undivided, as appears from) the use of the number nine. If the host of dragons (thus) appearing were to divest themselves of their heads, there would be good fortune. The Text under each hexagram consists of one paragraph by king Wăn, explaining the figure as a whole, and of six (in the case of hexagrams 1 and 2, of seven) paragraphs by the duke of Kâu, explaining the individual lines. The explanatory notices introduced above to this effect will not be repeated. A double space will be used to mark off the portion of king Wăn from that of his son.

Each hexagram consists of two of the trigrams of Fû-hsî, the lower being called 'the inner,' and the one above 'the outer.' The lines, however, are numbered from one to six, commencing with the lowest. To denote the number of it and of the sixth line, the terms for 'commencinglowest [sic]' and 'topmost' are used. The intermediate lines are simply 'second,' 'third,' &amp;c. As the lines must be either whole or divided, technically called strong and weak,  and , this distinction is indicated by the application to them of the numbers   and. All whole lines are, all divided lines,.

Two explanations have been proposed of this application of these numbers. The  trigram, it is said, contains 3 strokes, and the   6. But the  contains the   in itself, and its representative number will be 3+6=9, while the , not containing the  , will only have its own number or 6. This explanation, entirely arbitrary, is now deservedly abandoned. The other is based on the use of the 'four ,' or emblematic figures ( the great or old ,  the young  ,  the old  , and  the young  ). To these are assigned (by what process is unimportant for our present purpose) the numbers 9, 8, 7, 6. They were 'the old ,' represented by 9, and 'the old  ,' represented by 6, that, in the manipulation of the stalks to form new diagrams, determined the changes of figure; and so 9 and 6 came to be used as the