The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese
divination text that is among the oldest of the
Chinese classics
Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confuci ...
. Originally a divination manual in the
Western Zhou
The Western Zhou ( zh, c=, p=Xīzhōu; c. 1045 BC – 771 BC) was a royal dynasty of China and the first half of the Zhou dynasty. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye and ended when the Quanrong n ...
period (1000750), the ''I Ching'' was transformed over the course of the
Warring States
The Warring States period () was an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the Qin wars of conquest ...
and early imperial periods (500200) into a
cosmological
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
text with a series of philosophical commentaries known as the "
Ten Wings
The Ten Wings ( ''shí yì'') is a collection of commentaries ( ''zhuan'') to the classical Chinese ''Book of Changes'' ( ''Yì jīng'') traditionally ascribed to Confucius.
# ''Tuan zhuan'', or Commentary on the Judgment, the 1st
#''Tuan zhuan ...
". After becoming part of the
Five Classics
The Four Books and Five Classics () are the authoritative books of Confucianism, written in China before 300 BCE. The Four Books and the Five Classics are the most important classics of Chinese Confucianism.
Four Books
The Four Books () are ...
in the 2nd century BC, the ''I Ching'' was the subject of scholarly commentary and the basis for divination practice for centuries across the Far East, and eventually took on an influential role in Western understanding of East Asian philosophical thought.
As a divination text, the ''I Ching'' is used for a traditional Chinese form of
cleromancy known as
''I Ching'' divination, in which bundles of
yarrow stalks are manipulated to produce sets of six apparently random numbers ranging from 6 to 9. Each of the 64 possible sets corresponds to a
hexagram, which can be looked up in the ''I Ching''. The hexagrams are arranged in an order known as the
King Wen sequence. The interpretation of the readings found in the ''I Ching'' has been endlessly discussed and debated over the centuries. Many commentators have used the book symbolically, often to provide guidance for moral decision making as informed by
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a ...
,
Taoism
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...
and
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...
. The hexagrams themselves have often acquired cosmological significance and been paralleled with many other traditional names for the processes of change such as
yin and yang
Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and ya ...
and
Wu Xing Wuxing may refer to:
Places in China Counties and districts
*Huzhou, formerly Wuxing County, Zhejiang, China
*Wuxing District (吴兴区), central district of Huzhou
Subdistricts (五星街道)
*Wuxing Subdistrict, Mudanjiang, in Dong'an District ...
.
The divination text: ''Zhou yi''
History
The core of the ''I Ching'' is a
Western Zhou
The Western Zhou ( zh, c=, p=Xīzhōu; c. 1045 BC – 771 BC) was a royal dynasty of China and the first half of the Zhou dynasty. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye and ended when the Quanrong n ...
divination text called the ''Changes of Zhou'' (). Various modern scholars suggest dates ranging between the 10th and 4th centuries BC for the assembly of the text in approximately its current form. Based on a comparison of the language of the ''Zhou yi'' with dated
bronze inscriptions, the American sinologist
Edward Shaughnessy
Edward Louis Shaughnessy (born July 29, 1952) is an American Sinologist, scholar, and educator, known for his studies of early Chinese history, particularly the Zhou dynasty, and his studies of the ''Classic of Changes'' (''I Ching'' 易經).
...
dated its compilation in its current form to the last quarter of the 9th century BC, during the early decades of the reign of
King Xuan of Zhou (). A copy of the text in the
Shanghai Museum corpus of
bamboo and wooden slips (discovered in 1994) shows that the ''Zhou yi'' was used throughout all levels of Chinese society in its current form by 300 BC, but still contained small variations as late as the
Warring States period
The Warring States period () was an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the Qin wars of conquest ...
(c. 475–221). It is possible that other divination systems existed at this time; the ''
Rites of Zhou'' name two other such systems, the ''Lianshan'' and the ''
Guicang''.
Name and authorship
The name ''Zhou yi'' literally means the "changes" () of the
Zhou dynasty
The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by ...
. The "changes" involved have been interpreted as the transformations of hexagrams, of their lines, or of the numbers obtained from the divination.
Feng Youlan proposed that the word for "changes" originally meant "easy", as in a form of divination easier than the
oracle bone
Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. '' Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for ...
s, but there is little evidence for this. There is also an ancient
folk etymology that sees the character for "changes" as containing the sun and moon, the cycle of the day. Modern Sinologists believe the character to be derived either from an image of the sun emerging from clouds, or from the content of a vessel being changed into another.
The ''Zhou yi'' was traditionally ascribed to the Zhou cultural heroes
King Wen of Zhou and the
Duke of Zhou
Dan, Duke Wen of Zhou (), commonly known as the Duke of Zhou (), was a member of the royal family of the early Zhou dynasty who played a major role in consolidating the kingdom established by his elder brother King Wu. He was renowned for acting ...
, and was also associated with the legendary world ruler
Fu Xi
Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲 ~ 伏犧 ~ 伏戲) is a culture hero in Chinese legend and mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking as well a ...
. According to the canonical ''Great Commentary'', Fu Xi observed the patterns of the world and created the
eight trigrams
The bagua or pakua (八卦) are a set of eight symbols that originated in China, used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each li ...
(), "in order to become thoroughly conversant with the numinous and bright and to classify the myriad things." The ''Zhou yi'' itself does not contain this legend and indeed says nothing about its own origins. The ''Rites of Zhou'', however, also claims that the hexagrams of the ''Zhou yi'' were derived from an initial set of eight trigrams. During the Han dynasty there were various opinions about the historical relationship between the trigrams and the hexagrams. Eventually, a consensus formed around 2nd-century AD scholar
Ma Rong's attribution of the text to the joint work of Fu Xi, King Wen of Zhou, the Duke of Zhou, and
Confucius
Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
, but this traditional attribution is no longer generally accepted.
Structure
![Shang dynasty inscribed tortoise plastron](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Shang_dynasty_inscribed_tortoise_plastron.jpg)
The basic unit of the ''Zhou yi'' is the
hexagram ( ''guà''), a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines ( ''yáo''). Each line is either broken or unbroken. The received text of the ''Zhou yi'' contains all 64 possible hexagrams, along with the hexagram's name ( ), a short hexagram statement ( ), and six line statements ( ''yáocí''). The statements were used to determine the results of divination, but the reasons for having two different methods of reading the hexagram are not known, and it is not known why hexagram statements would be read over line statements or vice versa.
The book opens with the first hexagram statement, (). These four words, translated traditionally by
James Legge
James Legge (; 20 December 181529 November 1897) was a Scottish linguist, missionary, sinologist, and translator
who was best known as an early translator of Classical Chinese texts into English. Legge served as a representative of the London ...
as "originating and penetrating, advantageous and firm," are often repeated in the hexagram statements and were already considered an important part of ''I Ching'' interpretation in the 6th century BC. Edward Shaughnessy describes this statement as affirming an "initial receipt" of an offering, "beneficial" for further "divining".
The word (, ancient form
![貞-oracle-alt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/%E8%B2%9E-oracle-alt.svg)
) was also used for the verb "divine" in the
oracle bone
Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. '' Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for ...
s of the late
Shang dynasty
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...
, which preceded the Zhou. It also carried meanings of being or making upright or correct, and was defined by the Eastern Han scholar
Zheng Xuan
Zheng Xuan (127– July 200), courtesy name Kangcheng (), was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer near the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was born in Gaomi, Beihai Commandery (modern Weifang, Shandong), and was a student of Ma R ...
as "to enquire into the correctness" of a proposed activity.
The names of the hexagrams are usually words that appear in their respective line statements, but in five cases (2, 9, 26, 61, and 63) an unrelated character of unclear purpose appears. The hexagram names could have been chosen arbitrarily from the line statements, but it is also possible that the line statements were derived from the hexagram names. The line statements, which make up most of the book, are exceedingly cryptic. Each line begins with a word indicating the line number, "base, 2, 3, 4, 5, top", and either the number 6 for a broken line, or the number 9 for a whole line. Hexagrams 1 and 2 have an extra line statement, named ''yong''. Following the line number, the line statements may make oracular or prognostic statements. Some line statements also contain poetry or references to historical events.
Usage
![Yarrow stalks for I Ching](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Yarrow_stalks_for_I_Ching.JPG)
Archaeological evidence shows that Zhou dynasty divination was grounded in
cleromancy, the production of seemingly random numbers to determine divine intent. The ''Zhou yi'' provided a guide to cleromancy that used the stalks of the
yarrow plant, but it is not known how the yarrow stalks became numbers, or how specific lines were chosen from the line readings. In the hexagrams, broken lines were used as shorthand for the numbers 6 () and 8 (), and solid lines were shorthand for values of 7 () and 9 (). The ''Great Commentary'' contains a late classic description of a process where various numerological operations are performed on a bundle of 50 stalks, leaving remainders of 6 to 9. Like the ''Zhou yi'' itself, yarrow stalk divination dates to the Western Zhou period, although its modern form is a reconstruction.
The ancient narratives ''
Zuo zhuan'' and ''
Guoyu'' contain the oldest descriptions of divination using the ''Zhou yi''. The two histories describe more than twenty successful divinations conducted by professional soothsayers for royal families between 671 BC and 487 BC. The method of divination is not explained, and none of the stories employ predetermined commentaries, patterns, or interpretations. Only the hexagrams and line statements are used. By the 4th century BCE, the authority of the ''Zhou yi'' was also cited for rhetorical purposes, without relation to any stated divination. The ''Zuo zhuan'' does not contain records of private individuals, but
Qin dynasty
The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), ...
records found at
Shuihudi show that the hexagrams were privately consulted to answer questions such as business, health, children, and determining lucky days.
The most common form of divination with the ''I Ching'' in use today is a reconstruction of the method described in these histories, in the 300 BC ''Great Commentary'', and later in the ''
Huainanzi
The ''Huainanzi'' is an ancient Chinese text that consists of a collection of essays that resulted from a series of scholarly debates held at the court of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, sometime before 139. The ''Huainanzi'' blends Daoist, Confuci ...
'' and the ''
Lunheng
The ''Lunheng'', also known by numerous English translations, is a wide-ranging Chinese classic text by Wang Chong (27- ). First published in 80, it contains critical essays on natural science and Chinese mythology, philosophy, and literature ...
''. From the ''Great Commentarys description, the Neo-Confucian
Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi (; ; October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese calligrapher, historian, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty. Zhu was influential in the development of Neo-Confucianism. He con ...
reconstructed a method of yarrow stalk divination that is still used throughout the Far East. In the modern period,
Gao Heng
Gao Heng (; 570–577), often known in history as the Youzhu of Northern Qi (, meaning 'child ruler'), was briefly an emperor of the Chinese Northern Qi dynasty. In 577, Northern Qi was under a major attack by rival Northern Zhou. Gao Heng's fa ...
attempted his own reconstruction, which varies from Zhu Xi in places.
Another divination method, employing coins, became widely used in the Tang dynasty and is still used today. In the modern period; alternative methods such as specialized
dice and
cartomancy
Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were first introduced into Europe in the 14th century. Huson, Paul (2004). ''Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancien ...
have also appeared.
In the ''Zuo zhuan'' stories, individual lines of hexagrams are denoted by using the genitive particle (), followed by the name of another hexagram where that specific line had another form. In later attempts to reconstruct ancient divination methods, the word was interpreted as a verb meaning "moving to", an apparent indication that hexagrams could be transformed into other hexagrams. However, there are no instances of "changeable lines" in the ''Zuo zhuan''. In all 12 out of 12 line statements quoted, the original hexagrams are used to produce the oracle.
The classic: ''I Ching''
In 136 BC,
Emperor Wu of Han named the ''Zhou yi'' "the first among the classics", dubbing it the ''Classic of Changes'' or ''I Ching''. Emperor Wu's placement of the ''I Ching'' among the
Five Classics
The Four Books and Five Classics () are the authoritative books of Confucianism, written in China before 300 BCE. The Four Books and the Five Classics are the most important classics of Chinese Confucianism.
Four Books
The Four Books () are ...
was informed by a broad span of cultural influences that included
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a ...
,
Taoism
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...
,
Legalism,
yin-yang cosmology, and Wu Xing physical theory. While the ''Zhou yi'' does not contain any cosmological analogies, the ''I Ching'' was read as a microcosm of the universe that offered complex, symbolic correspondences. The official edition of the text was literally set in stone, as one of the
Xiping Stone Classics
The Xiping Stone Classics () are a collection of Han dynasty stone carved books on various Confucian classics. Named for the Xiping reign era (AD 172–178) of Emperor Ling of Han, the stone classics were carved over an eight-year period from AD ...
. The canonized ''I Ching'' became the standard text for over two thousand years, until alternate versions of the ''Zhou yi'' and related texts were discovered in the 20th century.
Ten Wings
Part of the canonization of the ''Zhou yi'' bound it to a set of ten commentaries called the
Ten Wings
The Ten Wings ( ''shí yì'') is a collection of commentaries ( ''zhuan'') to the classical Chinese ''Book of Changes'' ( ''Yì jīng'') traditionally ascribed to Confucius.
# ''Tuan zhuan'', or Commentary on the Judgment, the 1st
#''Tuan zhuan ...
. The Ten Wings are of a much later provenance than the ''Zhou yi'', and are the production of a different society. The ''Zhou yi'' was written in Early
Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 ...
, while the Ten Wings were written in a predecessor to
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
. The specific origins of the Ten Wings are still a complete mystery to academics. Regardless of their historical relation to the text, the philosophical depth of the Ten Wings made the ''I Ching'' a perfect fit to Han period Confucian scholarship. The inclusion of the Ten Wings reflects a widespread recognition in ancient China, found in the ''Zuo zhuan'' and other pre-Han texts, that the ''I Ching'' was a rich moral and symbolic document useful for more than professional divination.
Arguably the most important of the Ten Wings is the ''Great Commentary'' (''Dazhuan'') or ''
Xi ci'', which dates to roughly 300 BC. The ''Great Commentary'' describes the ''I Ching'' as a microcosm of the universe and a symbolic description of the processes of change. By partaking in the spiritual experience of the ''I Ching'', the ''Great Commentary'' states, the individual can understand the deeper patterns of the universe. Among other subjects, it explains how the eight trigrams proceeded from the eternal oneness of the universe through three
bifurcations. The other Wings provide different perspectives on essentially the same viewpoint, giving ancient, cosmic authority to the ''I Ching''. For example, the ''Wenyan'' provides a moral interpretation that parallels the first two hexagrams, 乾 (qián) and 坤 (kūn), with
Heaven and Earth, and the ''Shuogua'' attributes to the symbolic function of the hexagrams the ability to understand self, world, and destiny. Throughout the Ten Wings, there are passages that seem to purposefully increase the ambiguity of the base text, pointing to a recognition of multiple layers of symbolism.
The ''Great Commentary'' associates knowledge of the ''I Ching'' with the ability to "delight in Heaven and understand fate;" the sage who reads it will see cosmological patterns and not despair in mere material difficulties. The Japanese word for "metaphysics", ''keijijōgaku'' (;
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
: ''xíng ér shàng xué'') is derived from a statement found in the ''Great Commentary'' that "what is above form
'xíng ér shàng''is called
Dao
Dao, Dão or DAO may refer to:
* Tao (Chinese: "The Way" 道), a philosophical concept
* Dao (Chinese sword) (刀), a type of Chinese sword
* Dao (Naga sword), a weapon and a tool of Naga people
People and language
* Yao people, a minority ethni ...
; what is under form is called a tool". The word has also been borrowed into Korean and re-borrowed back into Chinese.
The Ten Wings were traditionally attributed to
Confucius
Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
, possibly based on a misreading of the ''
Records of the Grand Historian
''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...
''. Although it rested on historically shaky grounds, the association of the ''I Ching'' with Confucius gave weight to the text and was taken as an article of faith throughout the Han and Tang dynasties. The ''I Ching'' was not included in the
burning of the Confucian classics, and textual evidence strongly suggests that Confucius did not consider the ''Zhou yi'' a "classic". An ancient commentary on the ''Zhou yi'' found at Mawangdui portrays Confucius as endorsing it as a source of wisdom first and an imperfect divination text second. However, since the Ten Wings became canonized by Emperor Wu of Han together with the original I Ching as the Zhou Yi, it can be attributed to the positions of influence from the Confucians in the government.
[ Furthermore, the Ten Wings tends to use diction and phrases such as "the master said", which was previously commonly seen in the Analects, thereby implying the heavy involvement of Confucians in its creation as well as institutionalization.]
Hexagrams
In the canonical ''I Ching'', the hexagrams are arranged in an order dubbed the King Wen sequence after King Wen of Zhou, who founded the Zhou dynasty and supposedly reformed the method of interpretation. The sequence generally pairs hexagrams with their upside-down equivalents, although in eight cases hexagrams are paired with their inversion. Another order, found at Mawangdui in 1973, arranges the hexagrams into eight groups sharing the same upper trigram. But the oldest known manuscript, found in 1987 and now held by the Shanghai Library, was almost certainly arranged in the King Wen sequence, and it has even been proposed that a pottery paddle from the Western Zhou period contains four hexagrams in the King Wen sequence. Whichever of these arrangements is older, it is not evident that the order of the hexagrams was of interest to the original authors of the ''Zhou yi''. The assignment of numbers, binary or decimal, to specific hexagrams, is a modern invention.
Yin and yang are represented by broken and solid lines: yin is broken (⚋) and yang is solid (⚊). Different constructions of three yin and yang lines lead to eight trigrams
The bagua or pakua (八卦) are a set of eight symbols that originated in China, used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each li ...
(八卦) namely, Qian (乾, ☰), Dui (兌, ☱), Li (離, ☲), Zhen (震, ☳), Xun (巽, ☴), Kan (坎, ☵), Gen (艮, ☶), and Kun (坤, ☷).
The different combinations of the two trigrams lead to 64 hexagrams.
The following table numbers the hexagrams in King Wen order.
Interpretation and influence
The sinologist Michael Nylan describes the ''I Ching'' as the best-known Chinese book in the world. In East Asia, it is a foundational text for the Confucian and Daoist philosophical traditions, while in the West, it attracted the attention of Enlightenment intellectuals and prominent literary and cultural figures.
Eastern Han and Six Dynasties
During the Eastern Han
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
, ''I Ching'' interpretation divided into two schools, originating in a dispute over minor differences between different editions of the received text. The first school, known as New Text criticism, was more egalitarian and eclectic, and sought to find symbolic and numerological parallels between the natural world and the hexagrams. Their commentaries provided the basis of the School of Images and Numbers. The other school, Old Text criticism, was more scholarly and hierarchical, and focused on the moral content of the text, providing the basis for the School of Meanings and Principles. The New Text scholars distributed alternate versions of the text and freely integrated non-canonical commentaries into their work, as well as propagating alternate systems of divination such as the ''Taixuanjing
The text ''Tài Xuán Jīng'' ("Canon of Supreme Mystery", ) is a guide for divination composed by the Confucian writer Yang Xiong (53 BCE – 18 CE). The first draft of this work was completed in 2 BCE (in the decade before the fall of the West ...
''. Most of this early commentary, such as the image and number work of Jing Fang
Jing Fang (, 78–37 BC), born Li Fang (), courtesy name Junming (), was born in present-day 東郡頓丘 (Puyang, Puyang, Henan) during the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). He was a Chinese people, Chinese music theory, music theorist, ma ...
, Yu Fan
Yu Fan (, , ; 164–233), courtesy name Zhongxiang, was a Chinese essayist, politician, and writer of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. Initially a minor officer under Wang Lang, the Administrator of Kuaiji Com ...
and Xun Shuang
Xun Shuang (128–190), courtesy name Ciming, was a Chinese essayist, politician, and writer who lived during the Eastern Han dynasty of China. Born in the influential Xun family of Yingchuan Commandery (around present-day Xuchang, Henan), Xun ...
, is no longer extant. Only short fragments survive, from a Tang dynasty text called ''Zhou yi jijie''.
With the fall of the Han, ''I Ching'' scholarship was no longer organized into systematic schools. The most influential writer of this period was Wang Bi
Wang Bi (226–249), courtesy name Fusi, was a Chinese philosopher and politician, expertise in Yijing and Xuanxue
Life
Wang Bi served as a minor bureaucrat in the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. He was married with a dau ...
, who discarded the numerology of Han commentators and integrated the philosophy of the Ten Wings directly into the central text of the ''I Ching'', creating such a persuasive narrative that Han commentators were no longer considered significant. A century later Han Kangbo
Han may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group.
** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese ...
added commentaries on the Ten Wings to Wang Bi's book, creating a text called the ''Zhouyi zhu''. The principal rival interpretation was a practical text on divination by the soothsayer Guan Lu.
Tang and Song dynasties
At the beginning of the Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
, Emperor Taizong of Tang
Emperor Taizong of Tang (28January 59810July 649), previously Prince of Qin, personal name Li Shimin, was the second emperor of the Tang dynasty of China, ruling from 626 to 649. He is traditionally regarded as a co-founder of the dynasty ...
ordered Kong Yingda
Kong Yingda (; 574 – 648), courtesy names Chongyuan () and Zhongda (), was a Chinese philosopher during the Sui and Tang dynasty. An amorous Confucianist, who is considered one of the most influential Confucian scholars in Chinese history. H ...
to create a canonical edition of the ''I Ching''. Choosing Wang Bi
Wang Bi (226–249), courtesy name Fusi, was a Chinese philosopher and politician, expertise in Yijing and Xuanxue
Life
Wang Bi served as a minor bureaucrat in the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. He was married with a dau ...
's 3rd-century "Annotated Zhou-dynasty (Book of) Changes" ('; ) as the official commentary, he added to it further commentary drawing out the subtler details of Wang Bi's explanations. The resulting work, the "Right Meaning of the Zhou-dynasty (Book of) Changes" ('; ), became the standard edition of the ''I Ching'' through the Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
.
By the 11th century, the ''I Ching'' was being read as a work of intricate philosophy, as a jumping-off point for examining great metaphysical questions and ethical issues. Cheng Yi, patriarch of the Neo-Confucian Cheng–Zhu school, read the ''I Ching'' as a guide to moral perfection. He described the text as a way to for ministers to form honest political factions, root out corruption, and solve problems in government.
The contemporary scholar Shao Yong rearranged the hexagrams in a format that resembles modern binary numbers, although he did not intend his arrangement to be used mathematically. This arrangement, sometimes called the binary sequence
A bitstream (or bit stream), also known as binary sequence, is a sequence of bits.
A bytestream is a sequence of bytes. Typically, each byte is an 8-bit quantity, and so the term octet stream is sometimes used interchangeably. An octet may ...
, later inspired Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of ma ...
.
Neo-Confucianism
The 12th century Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi (; ; October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese calligrapher, historian, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty. Zhu was influential in the development of Neo-Confucianism. He con ...
, cofounder of the Cheng–Zhu school, criticized both of the Han dynasty lines of commentary on the ''I Ching'', saying that they were one-sided. He developed a synthesis of the two, arguing that the text was primarily a work of divination that could be used in the process of moral self-cultivation, or what the ancients called "rectification of the mind" in the '' Great Learning''. Zhu Xi's reconstruction of I Ching yarrow stalk divination, based in part on the ''Great Commentary'' account, became the standard form and is still in use today.
As China entered the early modern period, the ''I Ching'' took on renewed relevance in both Confucian and Daoist studies. The Kangxi Emperor
The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to ...
was especially fond of the ''I Ching'' and ordered new interpretations of it. Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...
scholars focused more intently on understanding pre-classical grammar, assisting the development of new philological approaches in the modern period.
East Asia
Like the other Chinese classics, the ''I Ching'' was an influential text across East Asia. In 1557, the Korean Neo-Confucianist philosopher Yi Hwang
Yi Hwang (January 3, 1502– January 3, 1571) was the most important Korean philosopher, writer, and Confucian scholar of the Joseon Dynasty. He was a figure of the Neo-Confucian literati, established the Yeongnam School and set up the Dosan S ...
produced one of the most influential ''I Ching'' studies of the early modern era, claiming that the spirit was a principle (''li'') and not a material force ('' qi''). Hwang accused the Neo-Confucian school of having misread Zhu Xi. His critique proved influential not only in Korea but also in Japan. Other than this contribution, the ''I Ching''—known in Korean as the ''Yeok Gyeong''()—was not central to the development of Korean Confucianism, and by the 19th century, ''I Ching'' studies were integrated into the ''silhak
Silhak was a Korean Confucian social reform movement in late Joseon Dynasty. ''Sil'' means "actual" or "practical", and ''hak'' means "studies" or "learning". It developed in response to the increasingly metaphysical nature of Neo-Confucianism ( ...
'' reform movement.
In medieval Japan, secret teachings on the ''I Ching''—known in Japanese as the ''Eki Kyō''()—were publicized by Rinzai Zen
The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan E ...
master Kokan Shiren
Kokan Shiren ( Japanese: こかんしれん, Kanji: 虎関師錬; 9 May 1278 – 11 August 1347), Japanese Rinzai Zen patriarch and celebrated poet. He preached Buddhism at the Imperial court, and was noted for his poetry in the Literature of the ...
and the Shintoist Yoshida Kanetomo
was a Japanese Shinto priest of the Sengoku period. He was a seminal figure in the evolution of a coherent descriptive and interpretive schema of Shinto ritual and mythology.Itō Satoshi "Yoshida Kanetomo,"''Encyclopedia of Shinto.'' April 15, 2 ...
during the Kamakura era. ''I Ching'' studies in Japan took on new importance during the Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
, during which over 1,000 books were published on the subject by over 400 authors. The majority of these books were serious works of philology, reconstructing ancient usages and commentaries for practical purposes. A sizable minority focused on numerology, symbolism, and divination. During this time, over 150 editions of earlier Chinese commentaries were reprinted across Edo Japan, including several texts that had become lost in China. In the early Edo period, Japanese writers such as Itō Jinsai
, who also went by the pen name Keisai, was a Japanese Confucian philosopher and educator. He is considered to be one of the most influential Confucian scholars of seventeenth century Japan, and the Tokugawa period (1600–1868) generally, his t ...
, Kumazawa Banzan
was a Japanese Confucian. He learned Yangmingism from Nakae Tōju and served Ikeda Mitsumasa, the lord of Bizen Province. In his later years, he was imprisoned for writing ''Daigaku Wakumon'', which contained criticism of Tokugawa shogunate po ...
, and Nakae Toju ranked the ''I Ching'' the greatest of the Confucian classics. Many writers attempted to use the ''I Ching'' to explain Western science in a Japanese framework. One writer, Shizuki Tadao
was a Japanese astronomer and translator of European scientific works into Japanese.
Shizuki was adopted as a child into a family of translators from Dutch to Japanese, and in 1776 Shizuki began working in the family profession; however, in 1777 ...
, even attempted to employ Newtonian mechanics and the Copernican principle within an ''I Ching'' cosmology. This line of argument was later taken up in China by the Qing politician Zhang Zhidong
Zhang Zhidong () (4 September 18375 October 1909) was a Chinese politician who lived during the late Qing dynasty. Along with Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang, Zhang Zhidong was one of the four most famous officials of the late Qing ...
.
Early European
Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of ma ...
, who was corresponding with Jesuits in China
The history of the missions of the Jesuits in China is part of the history of relations between China and the Western world. The missionary efforts and other work of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, between the 16th and 17th century played a si ...
, wrote the first European commentary on the ''I Ching'' in 1703. He argued that it proved the universality of binary numbers and theism
Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with '' deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred ...
, since the broken lines, the "0" or "nothingness", cannot become solid lines, the "1" or "oneness", without the intervention of God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
. This was criticized by Hegel, who proclaimed that binary system and Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...
were "empty forms" that could not articulate spoken words with the clarity of the Western alphabet
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...
. In their commentary, ''I Ching'' hexagrams and Chinese characters were conflated into a single foreign idea, sparking a dialogue on Western philosophical questions such as universality and the nature of communication. The usage of binary in relation to the I Ching was central to Leibniz's characteristica universalis
The Latin term ''characteristica universalis'', commonly interpreted as ''universal characteristic'', or ''universal character'' in English, is a universal and formal language imagined by Gottfried Leibniz able to express mathematical, scienti ...
, or universal language, which in turn inspired the standards of Boolean logic and for Gottlob Frege to develop predicate logic
First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantifie ...
in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, Jacques Derrida identified Hegel's argument as logocentric, but accepted without question Hegel's premise that the Chinese language cannot express philosophical ideas.
Modern
After the Xinhai Revolution
The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a ...
of 1911, the ''I Ching'' was no longer part of mainstream Chinese political philosophy, but it maintained cultural influence as China's most ancient text. Borrowing back from Leibniz, Chinese writers offered parallels between the ''I Ching'' and subjects such as linear algebra
Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as:
:a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b,
linear maps such as:
:(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n,
and their representations in vector spaces and through matrices ...
and logic in computer science
Logic in computer science covers the overlap between the field of logic and that of computer science. The topic can essentially be divided into three main areas:
* Theoretical foundations and analysis
* Use of computer technology to aid logicians ...
, aiming to demonstrate that ancient Chinese cosmology had anticipated Western discoveries. The Sinologist Joseph Needham took the opposite opinion, arguing that the ''I Ching'' had actually impeded scientific development by incorporating all physical knowledge into its metaphysics. However with the advent of quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistr ...
, physicist Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 ...
credited inspiration from the Yin and Yang symbolisms in using intuition to interpret the new field, which disproved principles from older Western classical mechanics. The principle of complementarity
In physics, complementarity is a conceptual aspect of quantum mechanics that Niels Bohr regarded as an essential feature of the theory. The complementarity principle holds that objects have certain pairs of complementary properties which cannot al ...
heavily used concepts from the I Ching as mentioned in his writings. The psychologist Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...
took interest in the possible universal nature of the imagery of the ''I Ching'', and he introduced an influential German translation by Richard Wilhelm by discussing his theories of archetype
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...
s and synchronicity
Synchronicity (german: Synchronizität) is a concept first introduced by analytical psychologist Carl G. Jung "to describe circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection." In contemporary research, synchronicity e ...
. Jung wrote, "Even to the most biased eye, it is obvious that this book represents one long admonition to careful scrutiny of one's own character, attitude, and motives." The book had a notable impact on the 1960s counterculture and on 20th century cultural figures such as Philip K. Dick, John Cage, Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
, Terence McKenna
Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was an American ethnobotanist and mystic who advocated the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants. He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including ...
and Hermann Hesse
Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include ''Demian'', '' Steppenwolf'', '' Siddhartha'', and ''The Glass Bead Game'', each of which explores an individual's ...
. Joni Mitchell references the six yang hexagram in her song "Amelia" from her "Hejira" album after she describes the image of "...six jet planes leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain...". It also inspired the 1968 song While My Guitar Gently Weeps
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album '' The Beatles'' (also known as "the White Album"). It was written by George Harrison, the band's lead guitarist. Harrison wrote "While ...
by The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
.
The modern period also brought a new level of skepticism and rigor to ''I Ching'' scholarship. Li Jingchi
Li, li, or LI may refer to:
Businesses and organizations
* Landscape Institute, a British professional body for landscape architects
* Leadership Institute, a non-profit organization located in Arlington, Virginia, US, that teaches "political te ...
spent several decades producing a new interpretation of the text, which was published posthumously in 1978. Modern data scientists including Alex Liu
The Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars (IFCSS) was founded on August 1, 1989, when over 1000 Chinese student representatives from more than 200 Chinese Students and Scholars Association in major U.S. universities held their ...
proposed to represent and develop I Ching methods with data science 4E framework and latent variable
In statistics, latent variables (from Latin: present participle of ''lateo'', “lie hidden”) are variables that can only be inferred indirectly through a mathematical model from other observable variables that can be directly observed or me ...
approaches for a more rigorous representation and interpretation of I Ching. Gao Heng
Gao Heng (; 570–577), often known in history as the Youzhu of Northern Qi (, meaning 'child ruler'), was briefly an emperor of the Chinese Northern Qi dynasty. In 577, Northern Qi was under a major attack by rival Northern Zhou. Gao Heng's fa ...
, an expert in pre-Qin China, reinvestigated its use as a Zhou dynasty oracle. Edward Shaughnessy proposed a new dating for the various strata of the text. New archaeological discoveries have enabled a deeper level of insight into how the text was used in the centuries before the Qin dynasty. Proponents of newly reconstructed Western Zhou readings, which often differ greatly from traditional readings of the text, are sometimes called the "modernist school".
In fiction
The ''I Ching'' features significantly in Philip K. Dick's ''The Man in the High Castle
''The Man in the High Castle'' (1962), by Philip K. Dick, is an alternative history novel wherein the Axis Powers won World War II. The story occurs in 1962, fifteen years after the end of the war in 1947, and depicts the political intrigues b ...
'' (an alternate reality novel where the Axis Powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
won World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
), where various characters in the Japanese-controlled portion of America base their decisions on what it tells them.
''I Ching'' is also used in Philip Pullman
Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. His books include the fantasy trilogy '' His Dark Materials'' and '' The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'', a fictionalised biography of Jesus. In 2008, ''T ...
's ''His Dark Materials
''His Dark Materials'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of '' Northern Lights'' (1995; published as ''The Golden Compass'' in North America), '' The Subtle Knife'' (1997), and '' The Amber Spyglass'' (2000). It follo ...
'' where it guides the physicist Mary Malone on her interactions with Dust/Dark Matter
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not a ...
and leads her to another dimension.
The episode "Grand Deceptions" (episode 4, season 8) of '' Columbo'' show the Yi Jing.
In '' The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul'' by Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), BBC radio comedy, ''The H ...
, Dirk Gently buys an electronic calculator that contains a badly-translated version of the ''I Ching'', and uses it to decide if he should buy a new fridge.
In the ''Discworld
''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat ...
'' novel ''Mort
''Mort'' is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett. Published in 1987, it is the fourth ''Discworld'' novel and the first to focus on the character Death, who only appeared as a side character in the previous novels. The title is the ...
'', Cutwell the wizard uses a similar divination technique called the Ching-Aling.
Translations
The ''I Ching'' has been translated into Western languages dozens of times. The earliest published complete translation of the ''I Ching'' into a Western language was a Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
translation done in the 1730s by the French Jesuit missionary Jean-Baptiste Régis
Jean-Baptiste Régis (11 June 1663 or 29 January 1664 – 24 November 1738) was a French Jesuit missionary in imperial China.
Biography and works
He was born at Istres, in Provence, on 11 June 1663, or 29 January 1664; died in Beijing on 24 Novem ...
that was published in Germany in the 1830s. Historically, the most influential Western-language ''I Ching'' translation was Richard Wilhelm's 1923 German translation, which was translated into English in 1950 by Cary Baynes Cary Baynes, born Cary Fink (1883-1977) was an American Jungian psychologist and translator.[James Legge
James Legge (; 20 December 181529 November 1897) was a Scottish linguist, missionary, sinologist, and translator
who was best known as an early translator of Classical Chinese texts into English. Legge served as a representative of the London ...]
had both translated the text in the 19th century, the text gained significant traction during the counterculture of the 1960s, with the translations of Wilhelm and John Blofeld
John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld (2 April 1913 – 7 June 1987) was a British writer on Asian thought and religion, especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism.
Early life
Blofeld was born in London in 1913.Blofeld 2008, pg. 4 In his youth, he happened ...
attracting particular interest. Richard Rutt
Cecil Richard Rutt CBE (27 August 192527 July 2011) was an English Roman Catholic priest and a former Anglican bishop.
Rutt spent almost 20 years of his life serving as an Anglican missionary in South Korea, a country for which he developed ...
's 1996 translation incorporated much of the new archaeological and philological discoveries of the 20th century. Gregory Whincup's 1986 translation also attempts to reconstruct Zhou period readings.
The most commonly used English translations of the ''I Ching'' are:
* Legge, James (1882). ''The Yî King''. In ''Sacred Books of the East
The ''Sacred Books of the East'' is a monumental 50-volume set of English translations of Asian religious texts, edited by Max Müller and published by the Oxford University Press between 1879 and 1910. It incorporates the essential sacred texts ...
, vol. XVI''. 2nd edition (1899), Oxford: Clarendon Press; reprinted numerous times.
* Wilhelm, Richard (1924, 1950). ''The I Ching or Book of Changes''. Cary Baynes, trans. Bollingen Series 19. Introduction by Carl G. Jung. New York: Pantheon Books. 3rd edition (1967), Princeton: Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...
; reprinted numerous times.
Other notable English translations include:
* McClatchie, Thomas (1876). ''A Translation of the Confucian Yi-king''. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press.
* Blofeld, John (1965). ''The Book of Changes: A New Translation of the Ancient Chinese I Ching''. New York: E. P. Dutton.
*
*
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*
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See also
* Lingqijing
* Taixuanjing
The text ''Tài Xuán Jīng'' ("Canon of Supreme Mystery", ) is a guide for divination composed by the Confucian writer Yang Xiong (53 BCE – 18 CE). The first draft of this work was completed in 2 BCE (in the decade before the fall of the West ...
* Lo Shu Square
The Luoshu (pinyin), Lo Shu ( Wade-Giles), or Nine Halls Diagram is an ancient Chinese diagram and named for the Luo River near Luoyang, Henan. The Luoshu appears in myths concerning the invention of writing by Cangjie and other culture heroe ...
* Qi Men Dun Jia
Notes
References
Citations
Works cited
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External links
''The texts of Confucianism, Part II: The Yî king''
(''The Sacred books of China'' 16), translated by James Legge
James Legge (; 20 December 181529 November 1897) was a Scottish linguist, missionary, sinologist, and translator
who was best known as an early translator of Classical Chinese texts into English. Legge served as a representative of the London ...
, 1882.
*
Yi Jing
' at the Chinese Text Project: original text and Legge's translation
{{DEFAULTSORT:I Ching
1st-millennium BC books
Chinese books of divination
Chinese folk religion
Esoteric schools of thought
History of philosophy
Philosophy books
Synchronicity
Thirteen Classics
Zhou dynasty texts