From chart to linear

 

 

As we render our initial 36 hexagrams (we will get the 64 later by mirroring some of them), a new question emerges: how should we order them into a chart?

A 6x6 matrix would be obvious, but we have groups of fours and eights, and it's quite impossible to place them harmonically into six rows and columns. Besides, our matrix should reflect the original circular order somehow.

This way, the 4x6 matrix resembles the original ring, and the initial great signs flow outside the circle. Now we can fill the rest inside the ring.

It seems perfect, but we bump into a new problem: we can't place the four hexagrams in the middle. The four special, partly hidden, self-reflecting core hexagrams. What should we do now?

We better put them aside and deal with them later. We will start the transcription with the eight great signs and finish it with the four small ones.

Now we can make our linear arrangement from the chart. First, we take the four great pairs from the four corners; they will mark the beginning, the middle and the end of our sequence.

Then we'll take the first row of our chart, break it into two halves, and distribute it equally between the two points of the upper half.

Here comes the second row, from left to right:

Then the third row, from right to left:

The fourth row, from right to left again:

Fifth row, left to right:

And the sixth row, from right to left:

Almost finished. The only thing we have to do is find the place of the four missing pieces. We can check the middle of our original circle if we can't place them. (In this case, they should be between the blue ones.) 

Seventh place in the upper row and fifth place in the lower.

That concludes our work: We made a circular diagram from the Early Heaven bagua, a square chart from the diagram, then a linear reading from the chart. The final result slightly differs from the original circular reading, but it has kept its spirit. With the same method, we can reconstruct the King Wen sequence.