The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi

by Richard John Lynn, Pi Wang, Wang Bi

Overview

Used in China as a book of divination and source of wisdom for more than three thousand years, the I Ching has been taken up by millions of English-language speakers in the nineteenth century. The first translation ever to appear in English that includes one of the major Chinese philosophical commentaries, the Columbia I Ching presents the classic book of changes for the world today.

Richard Lynn's introduction to this new translation explains the organization of The Classic of Changes through the history of its various parts, and describes how the text was and still is used as a manual of divination with both the stalk and coin methods. For the fortune-telling novice, he provides a chart of trigrams and hexagrams; an index of terms, names, and concepts; and a glossary and bibliography.

Lynn presents for the first time in English the fascinating commentary on the I Ching written by Wang Bi (226-249), who was the main interpreter of the work for some seven hundred years. Wang Bi interpreted the I Ching as a book of moral and political wisdom, arguing that the text should not be read literally, but rather as an expression of abstract ideas. Lynn places Wang Bi's commentary in historical context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231082945
Publisher:	Perseus (for Columbia University Press)
Publication date:	12/01/1994
Series:	Translations from the Asian Classics Series
Pages:	620
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Richard John Lynn has a Ph.D. in Chinese from Stanford University. Acclaimed as one of the outstanding translators of our time, he has taught at the University of California, Berkeley; Auckland University; and the University of British Columbia. He is currently professor of Chinese thought and literature at the University of Toronto. Lynn has also served as a Humanities Administrator in the Division of Research at the NEH, in charge of the Translators Grants Program.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
General Remarks on the Changes of the Zhou, by Wang Bi
Commentary on the Appended Phrases, Part One
Commentary on the Appended Phrases, Part Two
Providing the Sequences of the Hexagrams
The Hexagrams in Irregular Order
Explaining the Trigrams
The Sixty-Four Hexagrams, with Texts and Commentaries
Bibliography
Glossary
List of Proper Nouns
Index

Editorial Reviews

For beginners and devotees alike, Columbia's I Ching is the clearest and most authoritative translation of this ancient classic.

Philosophy East & West - Kidder Smith

This is the best I Ching that has so far appeared.

Times Literary Supplement (London)

Familiar with current historical and textual research, having no truck with 'ageless wisdoms' and leery of spirituality, Richard Lynn's translation of the I Ching as retranslated, explicated and interpreted by the young scholar Wang Bi and his followers, feels a world apart from that of Wilhelm.

London Review of Books

[Lynn]'s provided us with the materials from which to reconstruct Wang Bi's vision of the text. The result is clearly written and presented—the best entry into anI Ching world that we have so far.

Shambala Sun

Lynn has... produce[d] a translation of whose accuracy one can be optimally confident... [T]his is a solidly and attractively produced volume.

Religion

This, I would suggest, is the single best introduction to theYijing currently available.

Kidder Smith

The I Ching or Book of Changes is a Chinese manual for divination (also called a book of wisdom), compiled in the ninth century B.C.E. A person consulting the I Ching is said to be able to see into the true nature of the universe, and, by acting according to its dictates, avoid personal failures and disasters. Most available editions of the I Ching are based on the James Legge translation, a work produced over 140 years ago and characterized by romanticized and idiomatic Victorian English. Although not more accurate or revealing than the Legge, this new translation is welcome because of its crisp usage of modern-day English. Lynn supplies a chart of trigrams and hexagrams, a glossary, and a list of proper names. Of special interest to students of classical Chinese text is a commentary by Wang Bi, a third-century A.D. Chinese scholar. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-Glenn Masuchika, Chaminade Univ. Lib., Honolulu

Library Journal

This is the best I Ching that has so far appeared.

Time Magazines Literary Supplement (London)