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Looking for a book that explain the I Ching

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I'm using the I Ching since some years now and I have quite understood how it works.

 

Anyway I'd like to go even more deep on the subject, in order to well understand the whole system, also in connection with tcm, martial arts and alchemy.

 

Can you suggest me any book of this kind ?

 

Best

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I'm using the I Ching since some years now and I have quite understood how it works.

 

Anyway I'd like to go even more deep on the subject, in order to well understand the whole system, also in connection with tcm, martial arts and alchemy.

 

Can you suggest me any book of this kind ?

 

Best

 

Check out Carol Anthonys' books.

They don't . however, deal with tcm or martial arts

Da Liu - Tai Chi Chuan and the I Ching

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I'm using the I Ching since some years now and I have quite understood how it works.

 

Anyway I'd like to go even more deep on the subject, in order to well understand the whole system, also in connection with tcm, martial arts and alchemy.

 

Can you suggest me any book of this kind ?

 

Best

 

The greatest question ever asked on this forum.

 

Ta Chuan, The Great Treatise on the Changes, is the answer. :)

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The greatest question ever asked on this forum.

 

Ta Chuan, The Great Treatise on the Changes, is the answer. :)

Is there an English translation you can recommend?

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Is there an English translation you can recommend?

 

Since i wasn't asked i like the Wilhelm / Banes :)

I used it for my I Ching paintings

Edited by mYTHmAKER
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Since i wasn't asked i like the Wilhelm / Banes :)

I used it for my I Ching paintings

:)

Glad to hear recommendations from all.

Is the Wilhelm / Baynes a translation of Ta Chuan, I Ching, or both?

The only English translation of Ta Chuan I've come across so far is Karcher.

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:)

Glad to hear recommendations from all.

Is the Wilhelm / Baynes a translation of Ta Chuan, I Ching, or both?

The only English translation of Ta Chuan I've come across so far is Karcher.

 

 

Wilhelm / Baynes is both

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Master Zhongxian Wu has a book on the Iching.

 

I really enjoyed this book. It gets quite deeply into each trigram and presents a different Taoist method of divination using trigrams rather than hexagrams, and I have found this method to be remarkably precise and consistent.

 

How did I miss Ta Chuan, The Great Treatise? Thanks TM!

 

There is a pfd of Wilhelm's version online.. ;)

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Thank you all for the nice answers, i've just ordered Chuan, The Great Treatise on the Changes :D

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I really enjoyed this book. It gets quite deeply into each trigram and presents a different Taoist method of divination using trigrams rather than hexagrams, and I have found this method to be remarkably precise and consistent.

 

How did I miss Ta Chuan, The Great Treatise? Thanks TM!

 

There is a pfd of Wilhelm's version online.. wink.gif

 

Harmonious Experience... do you still have the link to Wilhelm's version by chance? Thanks!

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Does anyone know who Wilhelm was translating for the general chapters and the commentary for the lines? For example, for 15. Ch'ien/Modesty:

 

MODESTY creates success.
The superior man carries things through.

 

It is the law of heaven to make fullness empty and to make full what is modest; when the sun is at its zenith, it must, according to the law of heaven, turn toward its setting, and at its nadir it rises toward a new dawn. In obedience to the same law, the moon when it is full begins to wane, and when empty of light it waxes again. This heavenly law works itself out in the fates of men also. It is the law of earth to alter the full and to contribute to the modest. High mountains are worn down by the waters, and the valleys are filled up. It is the law of fate to undermine what is full and to prosper the modest. And men also hate fullness and love the modest.

 

The destinies of men are subject to immutable laws that must fulfill themselves. But man has it in his power to shape his fate, according as his behavior exposes him to the influence of benevolent or of destructive forces. When a man holds a high position and is nevertheless modest, he shines with the light of wisdom; if he is in a lowly position and is modest, he cannot be passed by. Thus the superior man can carry out his work to the end without boasting of what he has achieved.

 

Who originally wrote this commentary?

 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

btw, sent you a PM Rene..

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btw, sent you a PM Rene..

 

Thanks HE, and that's okay you dont have the PDF. I might be able to find a link somewhere. (-:

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Have fun! :wub:

 

Do you have experience with other versions, SB? I was some ten years into the I Ching before I could deal with this one. Aside from the introduction, It explains absolutely nothing! :ph34r::D

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The commentaries was written by Wen Wang(文王) when he was under house arrest.

 

King Wen of Zhou

 

Actually, this couldn't be correct for Wilhelm's line commentaries, though it likely is for the general character-commentaries.

 

For example, see this from the "Heng/Duration" commentary:

 

"Six at the beginning means:

Seeking duration too hastily brings misfortune persistently.

Nothing that would further.

 

Whatever endures can be created only gradually by long-continued work and careful reflection. In the same sense Lao-tse says: "If we wish to compress something, we must first let it fully expand." He who demands too much at once is acting precipitately, and because he attempts too much, he ends by succeeding in nothing."

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Found Wilhelm's intro:

 

 

http://www.iging.com/intro/introduc.htm

 

The Book of Changes escaped the fate of the other classics at the time of the famous burning of the books under the tyrant Ch'in Shih Huang Ti. Hence, if there is anything in the legend that the burning alone is responsible for the mutilation of the texts of the old books, the I Ching at least should be intact; but this is not the case. In reality it is the vicissitudes of the centuries, the collapse of ancient cultures, and the change in the system of writing that are to be blamed for the damage suffered by all ancient works.

After the Book of Changes had become firmly established as a book of divination and magic in the time of Ch'in Shih Huang Ti, the entire school of magicians (fang shih) of the Ch'in and Han dynasties made it their prey. And the yin-yang doctrine, which was probably introduced through the work of Tsou Yen,[23] and later promoted by Tung Chung Shu, Liu Hsin, and Liu Hsiang,[24] ran riot in connection with the interpretation of the I Ching.

The task of clearing away all this rubbish was reserved for a great and wise scholar, Wang Pi,[25] who wrote about the meaning of the Book of Changes as a book of wisdom, not as a book of divination. He soon found emulation, and the teachings of the yin-yang school of magic were displaced, in relation to the book, by a philosophy of statecraft that was gradually developing. In the Sung[26] period, the I Ching was used as a basis for the t'ai chi t'u doctrine -- which was probably not of Chinese origin -- until the appearance of the elder Ch'êng Tzú's[27] very good commentary. It had become customary to separate the old commentaries contained in the Ten Wings and to place them with the individual hexagrams to which they refer. Thus the book became by degrees entirely a textbook relating to statecraft and the philosophy of life. Then Chu Hsi[28] attempted to rehabilitate it as a book of oracles; in addition to a short and precise commentary on the I Ching, he published an introduction to his investigations concerning the art of divination.

The critical-historical school of the last dynasty also took the Book of Changes in hand. However, because of their opposition to the Sung scholars and their preference for the Han commentators, who were nearer in point of time to the compilation of the Book of Changes, they were less successful here than in their treatment of the other classics. For the Han commentators were in the last analysis sorcerers, or were influenced by theories of magic. A very good edition was arranged in the K'ang Hsi[29] period, under the title Chou I Chê Chung; it presents the text and the wings separately and includes the best commentaries of all periods. This is the edition on which the present translation is based.

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