Hexagram elements
Anyone using the Wild Crane system should become familiar with how the elements are distributed among the lines of the hexagrams. This distribution is actually among the trigrams, since hexagrams only exist because of the doubling of the trigrams, to create enough signs to accomodate the various human situations. Two major principles are illustrated in this distribution: the strict division into yang and yin parts, and the reversal of energy. If you place the 12 elements sequentially around a circle, you will see that the yang trigrams pick off the elements clockwise by the odd numbers: 1,3,5,7,9,11. The yin trigrams pick off the even numbered elements of the circle, clockwise, but these elements are placed on the lines in reverse order. For example, chui-mao-sze are placed on the lines sze-mao-chui. The male sequence of trigrams are father-eldest son-middle son-youngest son. Please note that this sequence is Later Heaven-King Wen, whereby sons are distinguished by the single yang line in the trigram (whereas the Early Heaven trigrams that are yang-male must have a yang line as the first-bottom line). This is another proof that the so-called "self" line is a borrowed concept and does not belong in the Wild Crane system. Because there are 12 elements but 16 trigrams (8 as top, 8 as bottom), there are 4 trigrams left over. These are doubled up at the corners of the circle, emphasizing the solstices and equinoxes (which is why this system uses a solar based calendar, and not a lunar calendar). Note that where father and eldest son take the bottom and top of the circle, the mother-eldest daughter trigrams get the left and right. Even though the female sequence of elements is, for instance, chui-mao-sze, the trigram sequence of mother-eldest daughter-middle daughter-youngest daughter is here mao-sze-wei, clockwise from that critical left corner. Thus chui, the second element of the circle, ends up being listed as the youngest daughter of the yu-hai-chui sequence, because yu is at the corner. So, there are several things going on simultaneously here, as befits a circular strategy, and the accomodation of number concepts including 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,and 12. The fact that this scheme ends by overlapping the circle emphasizes the endless infinity of the I Ching philosophy. Each trigram takes the same 3 elements to its lines every time, the only difference being that it depends if the trigram is upper or lower. Just as father and eldest son mirror each other top and bottom, and mother and eldest daughter mirror each other left and right, the other trigrams face themselves across the circle (as for example dway opposing itself 2 and 8.