Annotation - Chapter 7, Page 43

Revision as of 00:11, 28 February 2026

(43:3) "3 stroaks for Eusa"

One of many significant appearances of the number three. As shown in Chapter 16, adding one stroke changes the E to a Z.

In Russell Hoban: Faithful to the Strange, Graeme Wend-Walker points out that the symbol ☰ is identical to the trigram Qian or Ch'ien (Heaven) in the divination system of the I Ching. He notes that the common English translation of I Ching as the Book of Changes has a suggestive similarity to the Master Chaynjis—one of the central concepts in Riddley's religion—and describes this particular trigram's significance as

...(among other things) the force of the creative, which is the force running through the novel and through its image of history, perpetually susceptible to transforming into something destructive." (p. 149) GW

The three lines that make up a trigram in the I Ching can each be either broken or solid; these correspond respectively to yin and yang, so ☰ is the only trigram that is entirely yang. The yin/yang concepts are often symbolically correlated with feminine and masculine gender, and Riddley has just joined an entirely male priesthood after formally becoming a man—but yang also more generally connotes action in either a physical or creative sense. EB

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 One of many significant appearances of the [[numbers|number]] {{Ix|No.|three}}. As shown in [[Chapter 16]], adding one stroke changes the E to a Z.
-In ''Russell Hoban: Faithful to the Strange'', Graeme Wend-Walker points out that the symbol ☰ is identical to the trigram ''Qian'' or ''Ch'ien'' (Heaven) in the divination system of the ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching I Ching]''. He notes that the common English translation of ''I Ching'' as the ''Book of Changes'' has a suggestive similarity to the [[Chapter 6|Master Chaynjis]]—one of the central concepts in Riddley's religion—and describes this particular trigram's significance as
+In ''Russell Hoban: Faithful to the Strange'', [[Contributors#GW|Graeme Wend-Walker]] points out that the symbol ☰ is identical to the trigram ''Qian'' or ''Ch'ien'' (Heaven) in the divination system of the ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching I Ching]''. He notes that the common English translation of ''I Ching'' as the ''Book of Changes'' has a suggestive similarity to the [[Chapter 6|Master Chaynjis]]—one of the central concepts in Riddley's religion—and describes this particular trigram's significance as
 : ...(among other things) the force of the creative, which is the force running through the novel and through its image of history, perpetually susceptible to transforming into something destructive." ''(p. 149)'' {{By|GW}}
-The three lines that make up a trigram in the ''I Ching'' can each be either broken or solid; these correspond respectively to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang yin and yang], so ☰ is the only trigram that is entirely yang. The yin/yang concepts are often symbolically correlated with feminine and masculine gender, and Riddley has just become a man in an entirely male priesthood, but yang also more generally connotes action in either a physical or creative sense. {{By|EB}}
+The three lines that make up a trigram in the ''I Ching'' can each be either broken or solid; these correspond respectively to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang yin and yang], so ☰ is the only trigram that is entirely yang. The yin/yang concepts are often symbolically correlated with feminine and masculine gender, and Riddley has just joined an entirely male priesthood after formally becoming a man—but yang also more generally connotes action in either a physical or creative sense. {{By|EB}}
 [[Category:Chapter 7]]