The Yijing as Cognitive System: The Principle of Invariance in Phenomena Dynamics Through Dual Perspectives

The relationship between motion and stillness, the finite and the infinite, change and constancy, phenomena and their ground—these paired concepts have generated perennial debate across both Eastern and Western philosophical traditions. This essay does not offer another position within these debates. Instead, it returns to a classical Chinese text—the X-i-c-i (系辞) of the I Ching（易经）—and derives from it an invariant principle of change that reframes the very terms of the discussion. The principle can be stated simply: Qian（乾） and K-un（坤） in the I Ching（易经）are dual perspectives—Qian the transcendent (viewing phenomena from without), K-un（坤） the embodied (dwelling within phenomena). Phenomena arise from their superposition; change emerges from their interaction. The observer is not a third term standing outside this structure, but is the superposition itself—there is no separate self that witnesses phenomena, only the self as the site where perspectives coincide. Grounded textually in the X-i-c-i (系辞) and methodologically in the numerological schemes of the H-e-t-u（河图） and L-u-o-s-h-u（洛书） diagrams, the essay reconstructs the I Ching's（易经） symbolic system through purely formal derivation. Beginning from a "minimally describable system"—the smallest number of elements sufficient for coherent phenomenal experience—it traces the emergence of the Five Phases, the Ten Heavenly Stems, the Eight Trigrams, and the Sixty-four Hexagrams. Each step follows not from mystical correspondence, but from the logical constraints imposed by the dual-perspective structure itself. The philosophical payoff is this: the classical dichotomies—motion/stillness, phenomenon/ground—are neither eliminated nor resolved in the usual sense. They are shown to be necessary appearances generated by a deeper invariant structure. Change takes infinite forms; the mechanism that makes change possible remains invariant. （These articles are just records of places I’ve passed by. Don’t take them too seriously, my friend — they may be full of mistakes. Trust yourself. If you want to find my recent location, please check the pinned post or updates on my homepage.）