DECISION - MAKING
Language Game
Based on ZHOUYI, the "Urtext" of I-Ging, the DECISION-MAKING Language Game App for Android and iOS supports you in solving serious problems. Depending on the language presetting of your devices, you will get a German or English release.
Start playing the DECISION-MAKING Language Game as follows:
1. Take the displayed values of date and time.
2. Contemplate your question before typing it in, starting with something like why, how come, etc. Avoid questions that can only be answered with "yes" or "no".
3. You’ll get an immediate answer, including a number that reflects a hexagram and a defining line (more on these later).
4. That’s it!
Sample:
Give your mind space to playfully encircle the received response, which at first may seem obscure or even irrelevant - while you rest your eyes on the shore, the sea and the light in the background.
You may come across previously hidden things that stood in the way of solving the problem.
First a short explanation of ZHOUYI:
The original source for I Ching (partly also I-Ging written), ZHOUYI, is a collection of aphorisms in China dating back about 3,000 years. The core of this comprises 64 chapters (hexagrams), each with six lines of text, the defining lines. These six lines are divided into two groups of three lines each (the lower and upper trigram). One of the lines you get is actually the answer.
The front of the two numbers given by the program denotes the hexagram and the rear the determining line, so you could go to an I CHING book edition of your choice for a detailed, traditional answer.
Method:
An alphabetical code (a=1, b=2, and so on) is used to convert the letters in the question into numbers, which are then added. The sum (according to Shao Yong), is transformed into the upper trigram.
The month and year are derived from the Chinese Zodiac (animal signs). A specific algorithm is applied to combine these with the day and convert them into the lower trigram and a defining line (again according to Shao Yong). Your answer is hidden here, depending on the hexagram number.
Texts:
The answers are based i.a. on the commentaries on the Lines of the Imperial Edition of the I Ching, prepared for Emperor Kangxi in 1715 A.D. by Li Guangdi, the era's leading I Ching expert, that I have in the interpretations of Taoist scholar Liu I-ming (1734 – 1821) and Christian sinologist Richard Wilhelm (1873 - 1930).
Mostly, however, I refer to the extraordinary translation of Richard Alan Kunst (The Original Yijing, University of California, Berkeley, 1985). If I found proverbs whose semantic fields either coincide or at least overlap with those of the line texts, I used them, trying to empathise with the "anthology of omens and their prognostications, popular sayings and wisdom about nature" (R.A.Kunst) of ZHOUYI. This finally resulted in a relatively independent canon of answers, reminiscent of the ZHOUYI, but also following its systematics so stringently that it becomes possible to access them according to Shao Yong's guidelines.
Thus, it should also be clear that the language game is in no way a new version of I-Ging, but rather offers an opportunity for catharsis in the manner of I-Ging.
The affinity to the original source material was additionally judged in terms of the translation by Edward L. Shaughnessy (I Ching, Ballantine Books, New York 1997), which also takes into account the Mawangdui manuscript from 190 B.C., found in 1975.
Source text below the sample: Zhouyi Yinde,
Havard-Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series, Supplement No.10, October 1935. Peiping (Beijing), China.
In the end, I always chose comprehensibility over authenticity. I do hope the brilliant Chinese creators of ZHOUYI and Richard Wilhelm, whose unrivaled work, “I-GING, Das Buch der Wandlungen” (published by Eugen Diederichs, Jena 1924) is responsible for turning my attention to ZHOUYI, will forgive me.
This language game was developed by following the ancient Chinese book of wisdom, I Ching. The game abides by the instructions of the Chinese philosopher in the Song Dynasty, Shao Yong (1011–1077 A.D.), as reproduced by Da Liu (I Ching Numerology, Harper & Row Publishers, 1979)