There is a complete and rigorous order system in the universe that guides the development and transformation of life and matter. However, in the era of ‘slash-and-burn’ agriculture, people lived in chaos and could not understand how the wind blew or how the water flowed. With the evolution of civilisation, people began to establish logical relationships and use what is known to try to explain what is unknown, gradually glimpsing the true face of the world.
It can be said that using order to control chaos is an eternal theme in human life. In the process of exploring the origin of the world, the Book of Changes, also known as the I Ching or Zhouyi, was born in China during the Bronze Age. It has been compiled and developed by many scholars over generations, covering knowledge in divination, astronomy, calendrics, and other fields, and was considered a compulsory subject for ancient Chinese government officials’ selection exams. From a classical philosophical perspective, it explains the laws of the universe’s operation through the theory of Yin and Yang.
The inventor of binary, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, believed that there was a significant similarity between the logical symbols in the Book of Changes and his binary number system. This book will be based on Leibniz’s perspective, using a graphical visual language to explain the mathematical and classical philosophical principles in the Book of Changes by analysing the binary structure, and elucidating the relationship between the concepts of Yin and Yang and algorithms from a modern perspective.