My earliest brush with the I Ching was not through philosophy, but through a line quoted in a school text by Lu Xun: “Top Nine: hidden dragon, do not act.” Only later did I realize that those words came from the Book of Changes. When approaching the I Ching, one of the first questions is what the word “Yi” itself really means. In Nan Huai-Chin’s reading, it carries three intertwined ideas: change, constancy, and simplicity.
Change: everything moves, nothing stays fixed
Of the three, “change” is the most immediate and easiest to grasp. Nan stresses that everything in the universe is in a state of necessary transformation. But this is not random upheaval. More often, change works through accumulation and gradual transition.
The turning of the seasons and the alternation of day and night are obvious examples. Nature appears stable, yet its stability is inseparable from ongoing movement. What looks enduring is often a pattern sustained through change.
The same applies to human life and society. Relationships shift, feelings evolve, and the spirit of an age never remains exactly the same. Nan makes this point vividly when discussing emotional bonds: affection between men and women, or between parents and children, will inevitably change; if it never changed, it would no longer be living feeling.
This way of thinking asks us to look at the world dynamically rather than cling to fixed assumptions. The I Ching expresses this through the changing lines of the hexagrams. In the Qian hexagram, for instance, the movement from “hidden dragon, do not act” to “flying dragon in the heavens” is not a contradiction but a development through stages. The image reminds us that things unfold in sequence, and that timing matters as much as effort.
Constancy: what does not perish within change
Yet Nan does not stop at the observation that everything changes. Beneath the endless movement of phenomena, he points to something unchanging: an absolute underlying reality, a metaphysical ground that does not vanish even as forms rise and fall.
Different traditions name this differently. In Daoism it is the Dao, in Buddhism it may be called Buddha, and in Confucian thought it is associated with heavenly principle. However named, it refers to what remains fundamental amid transformation.
Nan uses the image of the sea: waves surge and break, but water itself remains. In that sense, constancy is the basis that makes change possible. He also compares it to emptiness, saying that emptiness itself does not change because it belongs to the metaphysical level. This resonates with the Dao De Jing description of the Dao as something that stands alone and does not alter, moving everywhere without exhaustion.
In modern life, this idea of constancy can be understood in practical terms. Circumstances, methods, and strategies may all need adjustment, but certain first principles cannot simply be traded away. A business may change its competitive tactics in response to the market, but integrity in how it operates should not be negotiable. Change belongs to application; constancy belongs to foundation.
Simplicity: reducing complexity to essentials
The third meaning, “simplicity,” is the methodological heart of the I Ching. Nan’s point is that the deepest patterns of the universe are not ultimately complicated. Complex appearances can be traced back to simple structural relations.
The classic example is the system of yin and yang and the symbols of the eight trigrams. From just two basic line forms—solid and broken—the tradition develops a language for describing countless phenomena. Nan even likens this to a kind of “algebra of the universe,” not unlike the way binary logic uses minimal symbols to generate enormous complexity.
The implication is not that reality is simplistic, but that understanding requires the ability to seize what is essential. Once the root pattern is grasped, complexity becomes more manageable. Simplicity here is not reduction for its own sake; it is insight into underlying structure.
The three meanings of Yi form a single whole
Nan treats these three not as separate doctrines, but as three sides of one idea.
- Change is function: things exist and renew themselves through transformation.
- Constancy is substance: an enduring ground gives order and continuity to change.
- Simplicity is method: by seeing through appearances to basic principles, the mind can navigate complexity.
Taken together, they offer a balanced model of how the world works. If one sees only change, everything becomes unstable. If one sees only constancy, one becomes rigid. If one misses simplicity, one is overwhelmed by details and loses the pattern.
What this means in ordinary life
These ideas are ancient, but their relevance is not hard to see.
- Observe change: whether in career, work, relationships, or larger social conditions, everything is in motion. The point is not to resist change blindly, but to respond to it instead of clinging to habit.
- Hold to what is constant: no matter how fast the world shifts, a person still needs a moral baseline and an inner sense of what should not be abandoned.
- Turn complexity into clarity: in confusing environments, the ability to simplify without distorting is a form of wisdom.
This may be one of the enduring attractions of the I Ching. It does not ask us to choose between flux and stability. It asks us to understand how both belong together, and how simplicity can help us move between them.