I Ching

The Oracle

This book contains a dramatic and revealing translation of this ancient classic into English. The Chinese original is set side-by-side with the translation. Two things set this work apart from other translated versions. First, archeological findings are used to uncover the meaning of passages obscured for thousands of years. Second, it preserves the flavor of the original in a poetic rendition.

An introductory part of this book provides the historical and philosophical background to the I Ching. The story is told of the ancient Chinese civilization, pointing out events and figures mentioned in the I Ching. The undisguised face of the I Ching will appeal to the modern reader, who will read it in his or her own individual way, as poetry, as discoverer of self, or as soothsayer. It is in the grand tradition of the I Ching for different people to see different things.

• To Confucius, who was born in 550 B.C., it was a source of ethics.
• To Leibnitz, the eighteenth-century inventor of calculus, it was the essence of binary mathematics.
• To Jung Freud's rival in psychology, it was an explorer of the unconscious.
• To some Wall Streeters, it predicts the stock market.

This revised edition includes a new chapter on a historical perspective, and other additions, changes and minor reformatting.

Contents:

• About the I Ching:

  • Introduction
  • Legend of the I Ching
  • The Legacy of Confucius
  • Roots of the I Ching
  • Meaning of the I Ching
  • How to Use the I Ching

• The Hexagrams:

  • Heaven
  • Earth
  • Retrenchment
  • Blindness
  • Waiting
  • The Court
  • The Army
  • Support
  • Small Cattle
  • Treading
  • Peace
  • Stagnation
  • Gathering
  • Great Harvest
  • Modesty
  • Weariness
  • The Chase
  • Work
  • Prevailing
  • View
  • Biting
  • Decoration
  • Loss
  • Return
  • Propriety
  • Big Cattle
  • The Cheeks
  • Great Excess
  • Water
  • Fire
  • Cutting
  • Steadfastness
  • The Little Pig
  • Great Injury
  • Advance
  • The Crying Pheasant
  • The Family
  • Abandoned
  • Admonishment
  • Letting Loose
  • Decrease
  • Increase
  • Stride
  • Rendezvous
  • Illness
  • Ascendance
  • Trapped
  • The Well
  • Revolution
  • The Caldron
  • Thunder
  • Mountain
  • Progress
  • The Marrying Maiden
  • Abundance
  • The Traveler
  • Wind
  • Lake
  • Flowing
  • Frugality
  • Sincerity
  • Small Excess
  • Fulfillment
  • Unfulfillment

Readership: Graduate and undergraduate students, academic researchers, scholars who are interested in Chinese classics, history and culture; general audience interested in Chinese classics and culture.
Key Features:

• Keeps only the original portion of the I Ching, and discards addition by later people
• Supplies succinct history and description of I Ching as an oracle
• Discusses the significance of I Ching in the development of the Chinese civilization