New Studies On Zhou-Yi Divination Process

　　In this book, the Zhou-Yi and its Divination Process are reviewed from mathematical perspectives which provide a completely new understanding of its meaning and operation features. The highlights are:-

　　1. The Generalized Yi Systems Group consists of an infinite number of Yi Systems, Zhou-Yi is just one item of the Yi System 2 in the Generalized Yi Systems Group.

　　2. Parameters of all Yi Systems can be conveniently found by a set of formulae.

　　3. The divination process of Zhou-Yi was written in a mnemonic format with hints for the steps of divination. The so called Biggest Computation Number is actually a dummy created to facilitate the counting of steps from Step 1. The actual number that affects the divination is given by subtracting 1 from the Biggest Computation Number as a hint for step 1.

　　4. Data from digital computer simulation of Zhou-Yi divination process show that in swapping the Yin-Yang Divined Numbers in a Line of a Yi Hexagram, the 6/9 swap is mathematically more logical than that of 7/8 swap.

　　5. Mathematically classified Trigram Groups and Hexagram Groups provide a new and more logical insights to the inter-relationships between the Diagrams.
 

作者簡介



Y. C. Lam

　　Born in China in 1946, the author moved to Hong Kong in 1956 and emigrated to Australia in 1987. After graduated from the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology in UK with MSc Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1970, the author worked in The Hong Kong Electric Company Ltd. in Hong Kong as an engineer until migration to Australia. The author became interested in the divination process of Zhou-Yi from 1973.  The brief description of the process in the Commentary attached to Zhou-Yi（易繫辭）included a lot of cosmological terms which caused more confusions to readers.  Interpretations by past scholars also failed to provide a logical and convincing explanation about the divination process.  For this reason, the author attempts to look at the divination process from another perspective with the help of modern digital computers which made the study possible, hence resulting in the publishing of this book.