In the modern-day use of the I Ching, there is a strong bias to interpreting each line of a hexagram as of 'equal' value to all of the rest. This is a strongly ordinal perspective. IC+ favours the viewing of each hexagram as consisting of temporal steps that help in the process of refinement. Thus the base line of a hexagram is linked to a raw characteristic that is then refined as we move through the hexagram to become the 'refined' whole at the top line; there is a qualitative change, a change rooted in cardinality.
The IC+ emphasis means that the temporal aspect is combined with a qualitative aspect, and so the hexagram has more of a pyramid/cone character than the 'traditional' block of six equal-length lines. This hierarchic 'feature' exists within the traditional I Ching, but is ignored in the context of 'value'. Thus the top line is linked to the 'sage' and the bottom to the 'worker', but the emphasis on the refining process is often missed. (taoism, strongly influenced by the I Ching, is rooted in alchemy and the concept of refinement and transformation).
What the refining process introduces is the concept of context; thus the base line of a hexagram is the overall gross context for a hexagram. What is implied here is that the base line of a hexagram is 'worth' 51% of the whole; it's character influences all that follows (the character sets the overall tone/colour). All of the other lines are thus diminishing quantitatively as we move up the hexagram, but are increasing qualitatively. This is a natural process for any 'whole', where aspectual refinement leads to an increase in apparent quality. What is implied here is that the nature of the first line is vital when creating hexagrams through non-random means - it becomes the hardest line to figure-out. This is not something 'original' to the I Ching, it is something that is 'standard' when we deal with any 'whole'. Thus, in our brain, every new situation is coloured by emotion which then influences all of the following links to that initial moment - the concept of 'first impressions being important' stems from this neurological 'fact'.
As we shall see, viewing the I Ching this way, brings out many aspects that have been overlooked in the past, where there has been more of an emphasis on viewing the I Ching along the format described in part I as "Part B" rather than that of "Part A".
Through analysis of the I Ching in the binary sequence, combined with an analysis of the 'traditional' concept of change, IC+ makes the following assertions:
(a) Any hexagram serves as a symbol of refinement, moving from the raw nature of the bottom line to the refined completeness of the top line.
(b) Since the 64 hexagrams are supposed to manifest 'all that is', we can assume that any change manifest in a hexagram demonstrates the influence of another hexagram, a 'transforming' influence.
(c) from (b), every line in a hexagram is influenced by another hexagram in that it acts as the overall context for the line. A step through a hexagram manifests change at work - change being in the form of the influence of another hexagram.
(d) Due to the refinement process, the context of line 6 (the top line of a hexagram) is in fact the hexagram itself; the position is a position of 'purity', where text and context are 'one' and we have the 'finished' product.
(e) Every hexagram has a structural opposite that serves as an extreme. Thus, hexagram and its opposite serve as the opposite sides of the same coin. This coin can be named, taking the user 'up' a level, but moving from a specific state to a more generic state.
(f) due to (b), the 'meaning' linked to every hexagram pair created in (e) can be encapsulated by another hexagram, and so every hexagram describes the interaction of a hexagram pair.
(g) from (f), since every hexagram has an opposite, every hexagram pair is in fact described by another hexagram pair. The nature of the description is biased to the nature of the bottom line. For example, the pair 01/02 are found to describe the interaction of the pair 15/10. 01 describes the 15 to 10 movement (expansive bias) whereas 02 describes the 10 to 15 movement (contractive bias).
(h) from (g), since a specific hexagram has an overall contextual influence on a line position, it is asserted that the hexagram pair that this hexagram describes, functions at the level of the line change process. For example, line 1 of hexagram 1 is found to be linked with hexagram 28 (see link below for the method of discovering this influence). Hexagram 28 is found to describe the movement from hexagram 16 to hexagram 09, and in the context of line 1 of hexagram 1, hexagram 16 is biased to the line unchanging, and hexagram 09 is biased to the line changing. Thus, in the context of the whole, hexagram 28 describes the gross context. In the context of the parts (the base position), hexagram 28 reveals the two hexagrams that directly influence line change. This 'primitive' level, where each line is influenced by a hexagram pair, is layed-out in the extensions to the hexagram commentaries, found by accessing the hexagram table. The overall line position influences (like 28 mentioned above) are expanded below.
(i) the I Ching is not just a divining system developed within the chinese culture. It is an extremely well-developed categorization system, and as such, every line has a meaning both when changing and when unchanging. This is a point overlooked in the traditional texts in that the emphasis is on line change and line position. By bring-out the nature of the unchanging lines, so we find a 'path' through every hexagram where we can identify specific waypoints on the journey from bottom to top; a journey along a path of refinement.
It is obvious from these assertions that we are dealing with hierarchy and thus any analysis of a hexagram or group of hexagrams is dependent on context. We next cover the method for deriving context other than the 'random' method of described previously.