The I CHING is a philosophy dating back to the origins of Chinese civilization that evolved along with Chinese writing and culture. This philosophy of right living is based on the premise that everything in the universe arises out of two forces, Yang and Yin, the Chinese words for creative and receptive energy or masculine and feminine forces. The concept is that if you follow the way of nature you will find the right way and right time for action or non-action in one's own life.

The hexagrams in this piece represent the elements Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

Chinese literature dating from as early as 650 BC tells the legend of Lo Shu or "scroll of the river Lo". In ancient China, there was a huge flood. The people tried to offer some sacrifice to the river god of one of the flooding rivers, the Lo river, to calm his anger. Then, there emerged from the water a turtle with a curious figure/pattern on its shell; there were circular dots of numbers that were arranged in a three by three nine-grid pattern such that the sum of the numbers in each row, column and diagonal was the same: 15. This number is also equal to the number of days in each of the 24 cycles of the Chinese solar year. This pattern, in a certain way, was used by the people in controlling the river.