From transition to field: Exploring Verbal Epistemology through hexagonal visualization of the I Ching
Asian Qualitative Inquiry Association June 30, 2026 Seungwon Shin Seungwon Shin, Youngcook Jun Youngcook Jun
This work proposes a Verbal Epistemology that treats knowing as a dynamic, transitional process rather than a fixed state. Drawing on the author's artistic transformation of the I Ching's sixty-four hexagrams into a hexagonal visual language and the practice of Ganhwa Seon (Korean Zen meditation), the paper argues that modern epistemology mistakenly fixes its objects. It contends that posthumanism and post-qualitative inquiry, combined with East Asian concepts of change, dependent origination, and non-self, reconfigure being as a relational, verbal event. The author proposes operating principles through Transition, reset (×0), and Field Arrangement, treating affect as an achievement rather than a limitation, and privileges the continuity of operation over complete explanation.