Digital Editions of the Yijing

Numerous rare Yijing books are now available online in digital libraries. One, the World Digital Library, part of the USA Library of Congress, gives nice summaries of the particular edition. You can download a PDF of the original or view online. Among their Yijing offerings are Cheng Yi and Kong Yingda.

Hathi Trust Digital Library also has many rare versions of the Yijing online.

Large-print and audio editions are available through Bookshare.

Ctext (ctext.org) is another resource that offers all of the Chinese classics, with learning tools such as dictionaries, transcriptions into type, as well as original book images. They have a number of editions of the Yijing at their site.

Translator Thomas Cleary 1949–2021

https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhist-translator-thomas-cleary-dies/

Casting for Hexagrams

This delightful site, curated by Remo Dentato, presents dozens of methods for creating hexagrams! Included are everything from “I Ching Versatile Divination Spinner” to dice, cards, and the traditional coin and yarrow methods.

I believe that finding a preferred method (and, possibly, building the corresponding device) for casting hexagrams, augments the feeling of connection between the question and the answer. This is what motivated me to start this collection.

Each entry has instructions, a bit about the method’s origins, and about the probabilities involved with casting.

Online Clarity’s Birthday

One of the internet’s great gifts to those of us interested in the I Ching has been Hilary Barrett’s website community Online Clarity. There, she offers seminars, educational material, and hosts a very active and robust I Ching forum with room for discussing ideas, readings, news, books, and more.

Congratulations, Hilary!

Mysteries of the I Ching’s Tenth Wing

The Zagua, the Yijing’s Tenth Wing, is a very short poem that succinctly describes the paired hexagrams. An example, translated by Richard Rutt:

“Bo (23) impies decay,
Fu (24) the homeward way”

While these succinct descriptions of hexagrams are clearly meant as aides to memorization, there are a number of mysteries about the Zagua order itself, which is quite different from the standard “received” order. While almost all the hexagrams in the Zagua are presented in pairs, the pairs are often reversed from the received order. And, with only two exceptions, pairs are placed in different linear positions. The final mystery is the end of the Zagua, where four pairs are presented singly, in an intermingled fashion.

If you’d like to explore the mysteries of the Zagua, visit our Diagrams page to download a copy of its layout, along with the received order. You can compare the two, and see what you come up with!

 

New I Ching Classes 2020

Those wishing to learn more about the I Ching (Yijing), the Chinese Book of Changes, have two opportunities this spring.

Hilary Barrett, the host of Online Clarity, a forum and resource site, will offer her Foundations course. This class is perfect for those wishing to have a solid base with which to experience the I Ching.

1. Essentials before you start

What you need to have in place to start building a relationship with the oracle: a good translation, a Yijing journal, and the means to cast a hexagram.

2. Discovering the question

This is the invisible obstacle: often, what seems to be an interpretation problem is really a confusing-question problem.

3.Connecting to images, part 1 – the trigrams

Probably the single most important element of confident reading: really experiencing the connection between the Yi’s imagery and your question. No matter how complex a reading gets, you will always be using that inner touchstone. So we have several weeks to build confidence in that – starting with something as simple and elemental as the trigrams.

4. Connecting to images, part 2: single hexagrams

Developing the skills of connecting to and applying a reading, and getting a feel for a hexagram as a whole – through both ancient text and component trigrams, together.

5. Reading structure part 1: primary and relating hexagrams

The framework for good interpretation: knowing a reading’s basic structure and how its elements ‘talk to’ one another. (No more puzzling over apparent contradictions!) Primary and relating hexagram first, then…

6-7. Reading structure parts 2 and 3: moving lines

– understood through both line positions and steps of change, so you can handle multiple moving lines without confusion.

8. Foundations for a reading practice

Different ways you can integrate readings as part of your life and keep growing a strong working relationship with the I Ching.

Harmen Mesker, who runs the site Yijing Research (Yixue) will be offering a class for more experienced I Ching users. This will focus on the hexagram construction:

The workshop will focus on the hexagrams and their composition. During the course you will be challenged to work only with the hexagrams and their structures, and to put the text of the book aside. That doesn’t mean that the text is not important, after all, it is a vital part of the Book of Changes. But focusing on the hexagrams has several advantages:

• The structure of a hexagram is easy to learn and to apply. Instead of working with four-hundred-fifty different pieces of text, you work with eight trigrams and six lines. No more, no less. Everyone can learn eight trigrams and six lines.

• You are less dependent on the text of the Yijing. Which means that…

• …you can consult the book wherever you are and whenever you want, without the need to have the book with you. Whether you are on the train, waiting for the bus or at the dentist, it doesn’t matter. You can make a hexagram everywhere and anytime and interpret it right away.

• Through ‘reading’ the hexagram you will immediately get a general impression of the answer to your question. Hexagrams can tell you what your situation needs and how you should act. And when, for instance, two parties are involved (like with relationship questions, or business-client matters, colleagues etc.) you can instantly see how they relate to each other and how they interact.

• When you know and understand the value of the hexagram, working with the text becomes much easier: the two parts of the book complement each other like yin and yang.

Review: Cook’s Classical Chinese Combinatrics

Classical Chinese Combinatorics: Derivation of the Book of Changes Hexagram Sequence
by Richard S Cook
University of California, Berkeley: STEDT Monograph Series, Vol. 5, 2006
paperback, 660 pages
US$64
ISBN: 9780944613443
Order through Lulu

It seems fitting that a linguist, someone attentive to how patterns combine to produce meaning, would tackle the great puzzle of the Yijing’s hexagram order. The hexagram order, often referred to as the “King Wen order” is the traditional arrangement found in almost all Yijing books; other orders include the Mawangdui order (see I Ching translated by Edward Shaughnessy) and the Zagua order (the Yijing’s Tenth Wing).

Dr. Richard Cook’s Classical Chinese Combinatorics makes use of mathematical theories of Fibonacci, Pythagoros, the Golden Mean, among others. He proposes organizing hexagram by “classes” such as gender (female, male, neuter) based on quantity of yin and yang lines in a hexagram. He uses these theories to try to uncover deeper layers of organization to the traditional hexagram sequence. The merits of Cook’s theories await analysis by those with deeper mathematical skills; in lieu, we offer the publisher’s description:

The first and most enigmatic of the Chinese classics is the Book of Changes, and the reasoning behind its binary hexagram sequence remained an unsolved mystery for some 3,000 years (according to the tradition ascribing it to King Wen of Zhou, d. -11th c.). This Monograph resolves the classical enigma: Richard Cook provides a comprehensive analysis of the hexagram sequence, showing that its classification of binary sequences demonstrates knowledge of the convergence of certain linear recurrence sequences (LRS; Pingala -5th c.?, Fibonacci 1202) to division in extreme and mean ratio (DEMR, the “Golden Section” irrational; Pythagoras -6th c.?, Euclid -4th c.). It is shown that the complex hexagram sequence encapsulates a careful and ingenious demonstration of the LRS/DEMR relation, that this knowledge results from general combinatorial analysis, and is reflected in elements emphasized in ancient Chinese and Western mathematical traditions.

Cook is a linguist associated with the large, ongoing project The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT) at the University of California, Berkeley. This project began in 1987 with the goal of creating “an etymological dictionary of Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST), the ancestor language of the large Sino-Tibetan language family. This family includes Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese, and over 200 other languages spoken in South and Southeast Asia.” Cook’s prior work has been in developing Chinese language software, including ancient scripts.

Preview pages, including an abstract, can be viewed at this link. The price of the book, $64 (the symbolism is not lost on us), puts it beyond all but the most serious Yijing students, however copies can be found also in various libraries.

For a deeper analysis of Cook’s theories, we refer the reader to a recent review written by József Drasny for Yijing Dao, which can be read here. Drasny, a retired engineer in Hungary, has created his own interesting theories, including a three-dimensional “Yi-globe.”

Classical Combinatrics is a challenging read, but contains a number of interesting ideas.

 

Review: Richard Smith on the I Ching

The I Ching: A Biography
Richard J. Smith
Princeton University Press, 2012
ISBN 978-0691145099

Hardcover, 304 pp.

US$24.95

Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World
The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China
Richard J. Smith

University of Virginia Press, 2008, 2018 (paper)

Paper, 416 pp.

ISBN 9780813940465

US$35.00

Mapping China and Managing the World: Culture, Cartography and Cosmology in Late Imperial Times

Routledge, 2012

Paper, 288 pp.

US$55.95

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Richard Smith, a professor of Chinese history from Rice University in Texas, has written several outstanding books about the Yijing that will be of interest to readers looking to learn about where the Yijiing came from, what it meant, and how it spread around the world.

The first, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China is an in-depth look at almost every aspect of the Yijing: how it was used and by whom, the schools of thought that used and extended its meaning,  how its use evolved, the key personalities who wrote about it, and how it came to have such a global impact. Fathoming the Cosmos is a key starting point for any English-language Yijing research. Even a cursory look through it will demonstrate that dozens more volumes could easily be written on Yijing topics. The book has recently been reissued in paperback. In a companion volume, The I Ching: A Biography, Smith revisits the material of Fathoming the Cosmos, reworking it to create a volume for a general audience. Both books have thorough notes, indexes, and bibliographies.

 

Smith is author of several other highly regarded books that look at aspects of imperial Chinese history, culture, ritual, and ordering of the world. Fortunetellers and Philosophers: Divination in Traditional Chinese Society (1991) was his first foray into the Yijing, and also looked at topics such as fengshui, mediums, and face-reading.

Smith’s recent book, Mapping China and Managing the World (2013) revises a number of his lectures and articles. Several of these, updated into full chapters, are directly about the Yijing. “The Languages of the Yijing and the Representation of Reality,” is a thorough overview of Yijing studies. “Divination in the Qing” shows how involved the Qing dynasty rulers were with Yijing study and divination (remembering that the Qing themselves were Manchurians, not Chinese), while “Jesuit Interpretations of the Yijing in Global Perspective” covers the intriguing and complex interactions between European Christians and the Chinese during that dynasty. Smith’s introduction to the book also provides a good summary of current questions and issues about Chinese studies in general, and explains how he came to be interested in the Yijing. Central to this was comprehending that the Yijing is deeply connected with all aspects of Chinese culture and society.

Richard Smith’s books are excellent resources for anyone wishing to trace the Yijing’s history, whether for a class paper or for personal enrichment.

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Review: Cheng Yi’s Yi River Commentary of the Book of Changes

The Yi River Commentary on the Book of Changes
by Cheng Yi, edited and translated by L. Michael Harrington
Introduction by L. Michael Harrington and Robin R. Wang
Yale University Press, 2019
ISBN: 9780300218077
Hardcover, 576 pages
$85 USD

Cheng Yi (1033–1107) lived during the Song dynasty, and was one of the era’s great thinkers. His Yijing commentary greatly influenced subsequent generations. Understanding the Yijing was important, but difficult, it was by then already a 2000-year-old book. Translator L. Michael Harrington, a professor of philosophy, gives a succinct overview of Cheng Yi’s thoughts and his influence on subsequent generations, including our own. He notes an important feature of Cheng’s commentary, that it offers full discussion of the hexagram components, rather than the snippets of explanation and terse definitions common to other commentaries. In addition, Cheng Yi creates a “coherent conceptual structure: the principle that governs the interaction between different capacities and functions in any state of affairs.”

The Yi River Commentary is an excellent companion to I Ching editions of Richard Wilhelm (translated by Cary Baynes), and Wang Bi (translated by Richard John Lynn). These are all dependable translations that introduce readers to particular strains of Yijing interpretations. In Cheng’s presentation, we can, in particular, see the roots of Richard Wilhelm’s work eight centuries later, both using a “teaching voice” that seeks to engage the student in depth.

Translating the Yijing is a difficult task, and Harrington clearly describes methods used in his effort to see the Yijing through Cheng’s eyes. He explains translation choices, as well. One interesting choice, for example, is the name “Ebb” for Hexagram 59 渙, which is “Dispersion/Dissolution” in the classic Wilhelm/Baynes I Ching. Harrington includes an introduction (written with colleague Robin Wang), notes on Cheng’s quotations of other material, extensive glossary, and a thorough index.

Avid Yijing readers will undoubtedly want to compare this translation of Cheng Yi’s work to others. Harrington’s is a model of transparency, detailing sources, methodology, and what material is included. Another English translation of Cheng Yi, by Thomas Cleary, is titled I Ching: The Tao of Organization. As with his other Yijing translations, The Taoist I Ching, The Buddhist I Ching, and I Ching Mandalas  (all from Shambhala Books) Cleary has succeeded in his effort to reach an educated popular audience. However, in each translation, he offers little clarity about his source material or methods, and, in this particular case, interpolates modern ideas (e.g., sociology). In addition, Cleary severely edited the original material, leaving out what Harrington estimates to be more than half of Cheng’s comments, in particular, on the Ten Wings as related to each hexagram. An interested reader would have to do their own comparative reading of the original to figure out what Cleary included or omitted, and what of Cheng’s text is actually quotes of other material. Harrington, in contrast, includes thorough information, greatly enriching the reading experience.

The Yi River Commentary is a well-made book physically, with a sturdy hardcover binding, though it weighs in at over two pounds. Unfortunately, the price for this book is set for libraries and specialists, not for the average Yijing reader, who would undoubtedly find this book of interest. The book is missing two key items for general readers: a hexagram finding chart and instructions for how to use the Yijing. Fortunately, these are easily found elsewhere (see our Basics page for such).

The Yi River Commentary is highly recommended for Yijing readers who enjoy pondering the deeper meaning of this ancient book and what it meant to the philosophers of imperial China, and for those readers who may be interested in the sources of modern interpretations.

 

Analog Morals, Modern Tech

“As arrogant occupants of 21st-century Earth, who can rightly boast of creating exciting innovations, like the computer, talking paint, and the margarita blender, it serves us to believe we’re also the more enlightened generation.

….Alas, ethically and morally speaking, we moderns are merely the new models, not the better ones….”

Read this interesting article by Jim Blasingame about our human condition here. He mentions the I Ching as an important “analog” ancient source of wisdom.