Michael: Created page with "{{navmenu}}

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..."
2026-11-12T20:41:00Z

Created page with "{{navmenu}} <h1 class="customtitle">{{FULLPAGENAME}}</h1> <blockquote class="definition">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..."

New page
{{navmenu}}
<h1 class="customtitle">{{FULLPAGENAME}}</h1>
<blockquote class="definition">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|yin]] and [[Yang|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."<ref name="xici">''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.</ref> 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.</blockquote>

== Concept Map ==

=== Key Terms ===

[[World System]] > {{#ask:[[Is a key term::World System]]|format=ul}}

[[Human Development Framework]] > {{#ask:[[Is a key term::Human Development Framework]]|format=ul}}

=== Daoism Key Terms ===

[[Daoism]] > {{#ask:[[Is a key term::Daoism]]|format=ul}}

== 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.<ref name="xici" />

=== Correspondences ===

{| class="wikitable"
!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.<ref>Kohn, ''Introducing Daoism,'' "Background to Daoism: The Yijing."</ref>

=== 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.

{{endstuff}}

[[category:terms]]
[[category:taoism]]
[[Is a key term::Daoism| ]]

Four Images - Revision history

Michael: Created page with "{{navmenu}}

{{FULLPAGENAME}}