Four Images
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Four Images
The Four Images (四象, sixiang, a.k.a. ssu-hsiang) are the four two-line figures of Chinese cosmology — the stage of differentiation between the Two Modes (yin and yang) and the Eight Trigrams. The Xici zhuan ("Appended Statements") of the Yijing states the generative sequence: "In the Changes there is the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji), which generates the Two Modes; the Two Modes generate the Four Images; the Four Images generate the Eight Trigrams."[1] Stacking a yin or yang line upon a yin or yang base yields the four: greater yang (taiyang ⚌), lesser yin (shaoyin ⚍), lesser yang (shaoyang ⚎), and greater yin (taiyin ⚏) — correlated with the four seasons, the four directions, and (in divination) the so-called moving lines of the hexagrams. In LP terms, the Four Images mark the second step of the Unfolding of Creation: the point where simple polarity differentiates into a working spectrum of phases.
Concept Map
Key Terms
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Notes
Place in the Generative Chain
The Four Images belong to the standard emanation sequence of Chinese cosmology: Wuji (undifferentiated) → Taiji (first stir) → the Two Modes (yin–yang) → the Four Images → the Eight Trigrams → the sixty-four hexagrams of the Yijing → the ten thousand things. Their function in the chain is transitional but essential: they are polarity becoming relational. A single line can only be yin or yang; two lines can express degrees — full yang, yang-within-yin, yin-within-yang, full yin. The Four Images thus introduce graduated states, the precondition for modeling real processes (seasons turning, day waxing, things rising and declining) rather than static opposites.[1]
Correspondences
| Image | Name | Composition | Season | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⚌ | Greater yang (taiyang) | yang over yang | Summer | South |
| ⚍ | Lesser yin (shaoyin) | yin over yang | Autumn | West |
| ⚎ | Lesser yang (shaoyang) | yang over yin | Spring | East |
| ⚏ | Greater yin (taiyin) | yin over yin | Winter | North |
In Yijing divination, the four figures also name the four possible line values produced by the stalk or coin method (6 = moving yin, 7 = stable yang, 8 = stable yin, 9 = moving yang) — the "moving" lines that transform into their opposites and drive a reading's dynamics.[2]
Lightning Path Contextualization
The Four Images are a small but telling piece of cosmological engineering: the recognition that Force and Formation are never found pure — every actual state is a mixture in motion, yang shading toward yin and back. This is exactly the logic the Taijitu draws (each pole containing the seed of the other), expressed numerically: two bits of information, four states, and from there an open-ended grammar of change. For the LP the chain Wuji → Taiji → Two Modes → Four Images → trigrams is a classical analogue of emanation itself — differentiation within the Fabric of Consciousness proceeding by lawful, patterned stages rather than by arbitrary decree.
Cautions and Distortions
- Stages, not substances. The sequence describes patterns of differentiation, not cosmic furniture or chronological creation-events.
- Don't overload the little figures. Later speculation stacked vast correspondence systems onto the Four Images; the core insight is structural (gradation within polarity), and the rest is commentary.
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Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Yijing, Xici zhuan (Great Appendix), as discussed in Kohn, Livia. Introducing Daoism. London: Routledge, 2009. "Cosmos, Gods, and Governance"; Yao, Xinzhong. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- ↑ Kohn, Introducing Daoism, "Background to Daoism: The Yijing."