Themes
The Book speaks in a small, fixed vocabulary — supreme success, no blame, perseverance furthers. Thirty threads, each traced through every chapter that carries it.
- Crossing the Great WaterCrossing the great water is one of the oracle's most vivid formulas — "It furthers one to cross the great water" — and it counsels resolute action in the face of danger: the undertaking of a great, decisive venture, as one crosses a wide river toward the far shore.
- DevotionDevotion is the defining attribute of THE RECEPTIVE — the yielding, earthlike power that completes rather than initiates.
- Duration" It is the title-theme of hexagram 32, whose commentary defines it: Its Judgment shows that endurance is not stagnation but continued, purposeful motion: Duration is already implicit in THE CREATIVE, where the ceaseless movement of heaven "never stops nor slackens, just as one day follows another in an unending course.
- EmptinessEmptiness in the Book of Changes is never mere lack: it is the productive hollow, the condition of receiving, as the valley receives the waters.
- FellowshipFellowship is the bond of genuine community — union founded not on partisan interest but on shared, open-hearted purpose.
- Furthering", "Perseverance furthers").
- Good Fortune" Good fortune and Misfortune are, in the Great Treatise's phrase, the images of gain and loss.
- Having Somewhere to GoHaving somewhere to go is the oracle's formula "It furthers one to have somewhere to go" — the counsel that in this situation it is favorable to set a definite goal and move toward it, rather than to remain passive.
- HumiliationHumiliation (Chinese lin) is the second of the lesser verdicts, the darker twin of Remorse.
- Inner Truth" It is the title-theme of hexagram 61, whose commentary measures its power against the hardest possible case: The image is of an egg-like emptiness at the heart of the hexagram — a heart free of prejudice, and therefore open to others.
- Light and DarknessLight and darkness are the two primal powers of the Book of Changes in their cosmic and political struggle.
- MisfortuneMisfortune is the oracle's basic unfavorable verdict, the counterpart of Good Fortune.
- ModestyModesty is, for the Book of Changes, not mere self-effacement but the one attitude that keeps a person in accord with the movement of heaven and earth — and therefore the surest road to lasting success.
- NaturalnessNaturalness is the Taoist tzu-jan, the "self-so": acting from one's original nature rather than from calculation.
- No BlameNo blame (Chinese wu chiu) is one of the oracle's subtle verdicts: not a promise of good fortune, but the assurance that a fault has been, or can be, set right.
- NourishmentNourishment is the care by which life and character are sustained — both what one takes in and what one gives out.
- Perseverance" Wilhelm gives its literal sense: It is not stubborn endurance but constancy in what is right.
- RemorseRemorse (Chinese hui) is one of the two lesser verdicts that fall between good and ill fortune.
- ReturnReturn (Chinese fu) is the turning point: the moment when, after decline has run its course, the light quietly re-enters and a new cycle begins.
- Sublime SuccessSublime success renders the first two of the Creative's four attributes (Chinese yüan heng).
- Supreme SuccessSupreme success is the heightened promise the oracle makes when a difficult or pregnant situation nevertheless carries the seed of a great outcome.
- TaoTao — "the Way" — is the single law running through all the transformations the Book of Changes describes.
- The Firm and the YieldingThe firm and the yielding are the two kinds of line from which every hexagram is built — the unbroken yang line and the broken yin line — and their interplay is the engine of all change.
- The Great ManThe great man is the one in whom the creative power has become fully effective, so that his mere presence sets the world in order.
- The MeanThe mean — the central and correct — is the structural virtue of the Book of Changes.
- The SageThe sage or holy man is the human being who stands in contact with the higher, unseen ideas and, through that contact, "awakens and develops the higher nature" of others.
- The Superior ManThe superior man (Chinese chün-tzu, "son of the ruler," the noble or realized person) is the recurring human ideal of the Book of Changes.
- The TimeThe time is among the deepest ideas in the Book of Changes: every situation has its own moment, and wisdom lies in reading that moment and acting in accord with it.
- Waxing and WaningWaxing and waning is the law that fullness cannot last: the sun at its zenith turns toward setting, and the moon nearly full stands at the moment before reversal.
- Wu WeiWu wei, non-action, is the Taoist art of accomplishing without forcing: acting so entirely in accord with the time that the result arrives of itself.
In the constellation
Every theme is ringed by the chapters that carry it. Eight of them, taken across the list.