Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1996). I Ching: The Classic of Changes. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-36243-8. I agree with Western thinking that any number of answers to myquestion were possible, and I certainly cannot assert that anotheranswer would not have been equally significant. However, theanswer received was the first and only one; we know nothing ofother possible answers. It pleased and satisfied me. To askthe same question a second time would have been tactless and soI did not do it: "the master speaks but once." Theheavy-handed pedagogic approach that attempts to fit irrationalphenomena into a preconceived rational pattern is anathema tome. Indeed, such things as this answer should remain as theywere when they first emerged to view, for only then do we knowwhat nature does when left to herself undisturbed by the meddlesomenessof man. One ought not to go to cadavers to study life. Moreover,a repetition of the experiment is impossible, for the simple reasonthat the original situation cannot be reconstructed. Thereforein each instance there is only a first and single answer. But how has this reaction come about? Because I threw three smallcoins into the air and let them fall, roll, and come to rest,heads up or tails up as the case might be. This odd fact thata reaction that makes sense arises out of a technique seeminglyexcluding all sense from the outset, is the great achievementof the I Ching. The instance I have just given is notunique; meaningful answers are the rule. Western sinologues anddistinguished Chinese scholars have been at pains to inform methat the I Ching is a collection of obsolete "magicspells." In the course of these conversations my informanthas sometimes admitted having consulted the oracle through a fortuneteller, usually a Taoist priest. This could be "only nonsense"of course. But oddly enough, the answer received apparently coincidedwith the questioner's psychological blind spot remarkably well.

Connecting hexagrams – About relationships between hexagrams: the Sequence, trigram patterns, nuclears…In medieval Japan, secret teachings on the I Ching—known in Japanese as the Eki Kyō ( 易経)—were publicized by Rinzai Zen master Kokan Shiren and the Shintoist Yoshida Kanetomo during the Kamakura era. [73] I Ching studies in Japan took on new importance during the Edo period, 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. [74] During this time, over 150 editions of earlier Chinese commentaries were reprinted across Edo Japan, including several texts that had become lost in China. [75] In the early Edo period, Japanese writers such as Itō Jinsai, Kumazawa Banzan, and Nakae Toju ranked the I Ching the greatest of the Confucian classics. [76] Many writers attempted to use the I Ching to explain Western science in a Japanese framework. One writer, Shizuki Tadao, even attempted to employ Newtonian mechanics and the Copernican principle within an I Ching cosmology. [77] This line of argument was later taken up in China by the Qing politician Zhang Zhidong. [78] Enlightenment Europe [ edit ] A diagram of I Ching hexagrams sent to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz from Joachim Bouvet. The Arabic numerals were added by Leibniz. To return to the hexagram itself. There is nothing strange inthe fact that all of Ting, THE CALDRON, amplifies the themes announcedby the two salient lines. [10] The first line of the hexagramsays: I (Ching)" in seal script (top), [note 1] Traditional (middle), and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters

From the discussion here presented, it will become self-evidentthat the Book of Changes was not a lexicon, as has been assumed in manyquarters. The I Ching has, it seems, met with a new, correct (yellow)understanding, that is, a new concept ( Begriff) bywhich it can be grasped. This concept is valuable (golden).There is indeed a new edition in English, making the book moreaccessible to the Western world than before. Arguably the most important of the Ten Wings is the Great Commentary ( Dazhuan) or Xi ci, which dates to roughly 300 BC. [note 4] 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. [26] Among other subjects, it explains how the eight trigrams proceeded from the eternal oneness of the universe through three bifurcations. [42] The other Wings provide different perspectives on essentially the same viewpoint, giving ancient, cosmic authority to the I Ching. [43] For example, the Wenyan provides a moral interpretation that parallels the first two hexagrams, 乾 (qián) and 坤 (kūn), with Heaven and Earth, [44] and the Shuogua attributes to the symbolic function of the hexagrams the ability to understand self, world, and destiny. [45] 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. [46] The eight trigrams are found occurring in various combinationsat a very early date. Two collections belonging to antiquity arementioned: first, the Book of Changes of the Hsia dynasty, [18]is called Lien Shan, which is said to have begun with thehexagram Kên, KEEPING STILL, mountain; second, the Bookof Changes dating from the Shang dynasty, [19] is entitled KueiTs'ang, which began with the hexagram K'un, THE RECEPTIVE.The latter circumstance is mentioned in passing by Confucius himselfas a historical fact. It is difficult to say whether the namesof the sixty-four hexagrams were then in existence, and if so,whether they were the same as those in the present Book of Changes.

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In Chinese literature four holy men are cited as the authors ofthe Book of Changes, namely, Fu Hsi, King Wên, the Dukeof Chou, and Confucius. Fu Hsi is a legendary figure representingthe era of hunting and fishing and of the invention of cooking.The fact that he is designated as the inventor of the linear signsof the Book of Changes means that they have been held to be ofsuch antiquity that they antedate historical memory. Moreover,the eight trigrams have names that do not occur in any other connectionin the Chinese language, and because of this they have even beenthought to be of foreign origin. At all events, they are notarchaic characters, as some have been led to believe by the halfaccidental, half intentional resemblances to them appearing hereand there among ancient characters. [17] Now the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching are the instrumentby which the meaning of sixty-four different yet typical situationscan be determined. These interpretations are equivalent to causalexplanations. Causal connection is statistically necessary andcan therefore be subjected to experiment. Inasmuch as situationsare unique and cannot be repeated, experimenting with synchronicityseems to be impossible under ordinary conditions. [3] In the IChing, the only criterion of the validity of synchronicityis the observer's opinion that the text of the hexagram amountsto a true rendering of his psychic condition. It is assumed thatthe fall of the coins or the result of the division of the bundleof yarrow stalks is what it necessarily must be in a given "situation,"inasmuch as anything happening in that moment belongs to it asan indispensable part of the picture. If a handful of matchesis thrown to the floor, they form the pattern characteristic ofthat moment. But such an obvious truth as this reveals its meaningfulnature only if it is possible to read the pattern and to verifyits interpretation, partly by the observer's knowledge of thesubjective and objective situation, partly by the character ofsubsequent events. It is obviously not a procedure that appealsto a critical mind used to experimental verification of factsor to factual evidence. But for someone who likes to look atthe world at the angle from which ancient China saw it, the IChing may have some attraction. The I Ching, or Book of Changes, has exerted a living influence in China for thousands of years. Today, it continues to enrich the lives of readers around the world. First set down in the dawn of history as a book of oracles, it grew into a book of wisdom with the inclusion of commentaries on its oracular pronouncements, eventually becoming one of the Five Classics of Confucianism and providing a common source for both Confucianist and Taoist philosophy. This edition of the I Ching is the most authoritative and complete translation available, preserving the spirit of the ancient text while providing a vital key for anyone who seeks to live harmoniously with the immutable law of change. Smith, Richard J. (2012). The I Ching: A Biography. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-14509-9.

Some are in the section known as the Wên Yen(Commentary on the Words of the Text), some in the Ta Chuan (GreatCommentary). [Cf.p. xix.] I have shown in this example as objectively as I can how the oracleproceeds in a given case. Of course the procedure varies somewhataccording to the way the question is put. If for instance a personfinds himself in a confusing situation, he may himself appearin the oracle as the speaker. Or, if the question concerns arelationship with another person, that person may appear as thespeaker. However, the identity of the speaker does not dependentirely on the manner in which the question is phrased, inasmuchas our relations with our fellow beings are not always determinedby the latter. Very often our relations depend almost exclusivelyon our own attitudes, though we maybe quite unaware of this fact. Hence, if an individual is unconscious of his role in a relationship,there may be a surprise in store for him; contrary to expectation,he himself may appear as the chief agent, as is sometimes unmistakablyindicated by the text. It may also occur that we take a situationtoo seriously and consider it extremely important, whereas theanswer we get on consulting the I Ching draws attentionto some unsuspected other aspect impllcit in the question. McClatchie, Thomas (1876). A Translation of the Confucian Yi-king. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press.

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Reading service – Individual help through Yijing readings: a month of calls for in-depth exploration and insight. I open for readings three or four times per year; you can sign up here to be notified when readings are next available. These eight images came to have manifold meanings. They representedcertain processes in nature corresponding with their inherentcharacter. Further, they represented a family consisting of father,mother, three sons, and three daughters, not in the mythologicalsense in which the Greek gods peopled Olympus, but in what mightbe called an abstract sense, that is, they represented not objectiveentities but functions. Redmond, Geoffrey (2021). "The Yijing in Early Postwar Counterculture in the West". In Ng, Wai-ming (ed.). The Making of the Global Yijing in the Modern World. Singapore: Springer. pp.197–221. ISBN 978-981-33-6227-7. At the outset, the Book of Changes was a collection of linearsigns to be used as oracles. [6] In antiquity, oracles were everywherein use; the oldest among them confined themselves to the answersyes and no. This type of oracular pronouncement is likewise thebasis of the Book of Changes. "Yes" was indicated bya simple unbroken line ( ___), and "No"by a broken line ( _ _). However,the need for greater differentiation seems to have been felt atan early date, and the single lines were combined in pairs: