N.B. I used the word “coagulated” above for a reason. Consider the myriad of cultural beliefs that became the Yijing as the milk. Consider the forces of history as the rennet. The Yijing is the collection of curds that coagulated from the milk, in different uneven, and slightly messy lumps. The various philosophies that came out of it (Confucianism, Daoism, et al) are the cheese that comes from pressing and aging the curds.

I explicitly avoided “crystalized” because that’s too orderly and beautiful a process for what happened.