King Wen Sequence - Structure of The Sequence

Structure of The Sequence

The 64 hexagrams are grouped into 32 pairs. For 28 of the pairs, the second hexagram is created by turning the first upside down (i.e. 180° rotation). The exception to this rule is for the 8 symmetrical hexagrams that are the same after rotation (1 & 2, 27 & 28, 29 & 30, 61 & 62). Partners for these are given by inverting each line: solid becomes broken and broken becomes solid. These are indicated with icons in the table below.

Given the mathematical constraints of these simple rules, the number of lines that change within pair partners will always be even (either 2, 4, or 6). Whereas the number of lines that change between pairs depends on how the pairs are arranged, and the King Wen Sequence has notable characteristics in this regard. Of the 64 transitions, exactly 48 of them are even changes (32 within-pairs plus 16 between-pairs) and 16 are odd changes (all between-pairs). This is a precise 3 to 1 ratio of even to odd transitions. Of the odd transitions, 14 are changes of three lines and 2 are changes of one line. Changes of five are absent.

1 ↕ 2 3 ~ 4 5 ~ 6 7 ~ 8 9 ~ 10 11 ~ 12 13 ~ 14 15 ~ 16
17 ~ 18 19 ~ 20 21 ~ 22 23 ~ 24 25 ~ 26 27 ↕ 28 29 ↕ 30 31 ~ 32
33 ~ 34 35 ~ 36 37 ~ 38 39 ~ 40 41 ~ 42 43 ~ 44 45 ~ 46 47 ~ 48
49 ~ 50 51 ~ 52 53 ~ 54 55 ~ 56 57 ~ 58 59 ~ 60 61 ↕ 62 63 ~ 64

Read more about this topic:  King Wen Sequence

Famous quotes containing the words structure of, structure and/or sequence:

    What is the structure of government that will best guard against the precipitate counsels and factious combinations for unjust purposes, without a sacrifice of the fundamental principle of republicanism?
    James Madison (1751–1836)

    I’m a Sunday School teacher, and I’ve always known that the structure of law is founded on the Christian ethic that you shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself—a very high and perfect standard. We all know the fallibility of man, and the contentions in society, as described by Reinhold Niebuhr and many others, don’t permit us to achieve perfection.
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.
    —E.M. (Edward Morgan)