ANTONYM
COMPARE
MOVING AXIS
BUILDING BLOCK
QUOTES
Semanticus F. Alpaerts suggests in De Denkbeeldige Ruimte (1980) that the I Ching or Book of Changes, originating from mythical antiquity, is the first semantic lexicon of mankind. In this Chinese classic, unquestionably one of the most influential books in the world’s literature, 64 chapters are coded with a double triplet line code called hexagrams.
Alpaerts used the Wilhelm (1971) translation to show a possible connection between the code lines from the I Ching and the codon encoding in the Semantic Colour Space. The open (- -) and closed (—) lines from the I Ching correspond with respectively the 0’s and 1’s from his semantic coding system. This way he could associate the concepts described in the 64 chapters of the I Ching, with the eight primary colours and their combinations (8×8) from his classification. Later, his hypothesis was confirmed by a comparative research he conducted on the similarities between his keyword-colour classifications, in which the concepts from the I Ching form an important part, and the empirical data from sociologist Eva Heller’s word-to-colour association study (Alpaerts, 1993).
The following list includes I Ching chapter titles with links to pages in the DSD (between brackets: if the title is not in the DSD, a synonym), chapter numbers, digital coding (hexagram), and colour combinations.
| chapter title | chapters | hexagram | colour combination |
|---|---|---|---|
| creative heaven | 1 | 111:111 | YL:YL |
| the receptive | 2 | 000:000 | BL:BL |
| difficulty at the beginning | 3 | 010:001 | GR:BK |
| youthful folly (inexperienced, foolish) | 4 | 100:010 | BR:GR |
| waiting | 5 | 010:111 | GR:YL |
| the fight | 6 | 111:010 | YL:GR |
| the army | 7 | 000:010 | BL:GR |
| the all-encompassing | 8 | 010:000 | GR:BL |
| the taming power of the small (newborn) | 9 | 110:111 | WH:YL |
| performing | 10 | 111:011 | YL:PL |
| peace | 11 | 000:111 | BL:YL |
| standstill (stagnation, blocking) | 12 | 111:000 | YL:BL |
| fellowship with men (together, community) | 13 | 111:101 | YL:RD |
| great possessing (imperium) | 14 | 101:111 | RD:YL |
| humbling | 15 | 000:100 | BL:BR |
| rage (rancor, attack) | 16 | 001:000 | BK:BL |
| pursue | 17 | 011:001 | PS:BK |
| correcting (addressing) | 18 | 100:110 | BR:WH |
| nearing, rapprochement | 19 | 000:011 | BL:PL |
| viewing (perception) | 20 | 110:000 | WH:BL |
| biting through (stick-it-out) | 21 | 101:001 | RD:BK |
| adorning (embellish) | 22 | 100:101 | BR:RD |
| splitting apart (slivering) | 23 | 100:000 | BR:BL |
| the turning point | 24 | 000:001 | BL:BK |
| innocence | 25 | 111:001 | YL:BK |
| the taming power of the great (steering) | 26 | 100:111 | BR:YL |
| the corners of the mouth, providing nourishment (feeding, grooming, open mouth) | 27 | 100:001 | BR:BK |
| great exceeding (overloaded) | 28 | 011:110 | PL:WH |
| the abyss | 29 | 010:010 | GR:GR |
| the clinging, fire (flame, attach) | 30 | 101:101 | RD:RD |
| influence, wooing (courtship) | 31 | 011:100 | PL:BR |
| duration, constancy | 32 | 001:110 | BK:WH |
| retreat | 33 | 111:100 | YL:BR |
| the power of the great (powerful) | 34 | 001:111 | BK:YL |
| progress | 35 | 101:000 | RD:BL |
| darkening of the Light (hiding) | 36 | 000:101 | BL:RD |
| family | 37 | 110:101 | WH:RD |
| polarising (contrasts) | 38 | 101:011 | RD:PL |
| obstruction | 39 | 010:100 | GR:BR |
| liberation | 40 | 001:010 | BK:GR |
| reduction | 41 | 100:011 | BR:PL |
| increase, beneficial, useful (growth, functional) | 42 | 110:001 | WH:BK |
| resoluteness, determination | 43 | 011:111 | PL:YL |
| meeting | 44 | 111:110 | YL:WH |
| gathering together, massing (assemble) | 45 | 011:000 | PL:BL |
| pushing upward | 46 | 000:110 | BL:WH |
| oppression, exhaustion (depletion, sucked out) | 47 | 011:010 | PL:GR |
| the well | 48 | 010:110 | GR:WH |
| revolution, moulting | 49 | 011:101 | PL:RD |
| the cauldron (terrine) | 50 | 101:110 | RD:WH |
| the arousing, shock, thunder | 51 | 001:001 | BK:BK |
| keeping still, mountain (still, not moving) | 52 | 100:100 | BR:BR |
| development, gradual progress | 53 | 110:100 | WH:BR |
| the marrying maiden (concubine) | 54 | 001:011 | BK:PL |
| abundance, fullness | 55 | 001:101 | BK:RD |
| the wanderer, travelling (wanderlust) | 56 | 101:100 | RD:BR |
| the penetrating, wind | 57 | 110:110 | WH:WH |
| the joyous, lake (gay) | 58 | 011:011 | PL:PL |
| dispersion, dissolution, (scattering) | 59 | 110:010 | WH:GR |
| limitation, moderation (delimitation, restriction) | 60 | 010:011 | GR:PL |
| inner truth | 61 | 110:011 | WH:PL |
| preponderance of the small (unremarkable, incompetent) | 62 | 001:100 | BK:BR |
| after completion | 63 | 010:101 | GR:RD |
| before completion | 64 | 101:010 | RD:GR |
Some of the differences in concept allocation are suggestive of real culture differences; for example: concepts like defeat, battle, thief, crime, and danger are all bad-strong-active (Osgood’s 3-factors) for Americans, Belgians, and Finns, but for the Japanese defeat, thief, crime, and danger are bad-weak-passive and battle is good-weak-active.
Osgood (1964)
The visceral brain is responsible for the fight-or-flight response in the face of danger. Neurotic individuals are easily upset in the face of very minor stresses. However, emotionally stable people are calm under such stresses because they have lesser activation levels and higher thresholds.
(Eysenck, 1990).
Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos designed his own goalkeeping kits for the national team.
The outfit in yellow-on-green in combination with the associated hue red-5, with angular, oblique shapes makes him ready to win the battle.
images from: https://www.payssl999.cf/products.aspx?cname=campos+goalkeeper+jersey&cid=60
The magic sword is a powerful weapon found in many myths around the world. Dating back from the middle ages and earlier, it is associated with knights and saints using supernatural powers to fight demonic monsters or enemies. In the Semantic Colour Space, this construction situates itself as follows: White-on-blue or Yellow-6 : sword, supernatural, holy, knight and hero.
Black-on-red or Green-4 : demonic, destructive forces depicted by dragons, serpents, griffins, and the weapon itself as a means to kill, to destroy.
Excalibur, in the Arthurian tales, is the magic sword of King Uther Pendragon, King Arthur’s father. In the account of the Sword in the Stone, Arthur obtained the British throne by pulling a sword from an anvil sitting atop a stone that appeared in a churchyard on Christmas Eve. The act could not be performed except by “the true king”, meaning the divinely appointed king or true heir of Uther Pendragon.
In the account of the Lady of the Lake the sword Excalibur came from the lake. And when Arthur was dying, he ordered Bedivere to throw the sword back into the lake. He ignored this command at first, but did so anyway, and an arm clad in white brocade took the sword to the bottom.
White-on-green: the swan (lady of the Lake), fertility.
Vilardell’s legendary sword is one of the strongest medieval legends in Catalan courtly literature, comparable to the famous Excalibur from the Arthurian tale. The bearer of the sword is said to be invincible. There are mentions that knights are said to have killed a great serpent and a dragon with the sword.
The saint story of St George defeating the dragon with his sword or lance is related to the myths described above. The Christians turned it into a moral battle between good and evil.
The yellow-6 hero with his sword fights against the green-4 dragon. The keyword ‘fight’ is classified under yellow-on-green.
i.Michiels, red.