I Ching - Softcover

Huang, Kerson; Huang, Rosemary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0894803190 ISBN 13: 9780894803192

Publisher: Workman Publishing Company, 1987

Synopsis

For three thousand years, people have sought personal insight and a window on the future from the I Ching, or the Book of Changes, the classic Chinese oracle and book of wisdom. Drawing on archeological findings, previously published only in Chinese, indicating how the I Ching was actually used by those who created it, and motivated by a lifetime of personal use and fascination, Kerson Huang has created a new translation of great significance.

Restoring the I Ching to its original form, Huang underscores its first use as a practical oracle by Chinese farmers. His translation beautifully preserves the starkly poetic voice of the original, while his comments clearly and simply explain the images and detail the historical references buried within the verse. Huang reveals the I Ching as an epic poem equivalent to The Iliad and The Odyssey--one hexagram recalls the dethroning of Feng Feng; a series of lines portray Wang Hai, one of the three High Ancestors of the Shang dynasty; a third contains a sage proclamation of Lord Tang.

Each hexagram and its corresponding interpretation is presented on a two-page spread, making this version unusually easy to use and understand. Introductory chapters detail the evolution of the I Ching, from the philosophical reinterpretations of Confucius to the modern musings of Carl Jung, and clearly explain both the coin method and yarrow-stalk method for consulting the oracle.

Over 55,000 copies in print.

About this title

About the Authors

Rosemary Huang has consulted the I Ching regularly and pursued her translation through years of research.

Kerson Huang, Ph.D., grew up in Canton, China and is currently a professor of physics at MIT. He and his wife Rosemary have consulted the I Ching regularly and pursued their translation through years of research.

From the Back Cover

Three thousand years ago, the I Ching was created as a simple oracle, consulted by farmers and kings alike. Now, stripping away more than two millenia of interpretive distortion and dogma superimposed on the text by successive generations of scholars, world-renowned physicist Kerson Huang and his wife Rosemary have succeeded in restoring the book to its original form.

In this important new translation, the Huangs reveal the stark poetry of the authentic I Ching, reconstruct the numerous historical tales that were once an essential element of the text, and present the hexagrams and their judgements clearly and concisely. Most importantly, they allow the ancient classic to serve its intended purpose as a practical handbook for divination.

A professor of particle physics at MIT, Kerson Huang has been consulting the I Ching since his childhood in Canton. He brings to this work both a unique ability to bridge the cultures of East and West, and the fascinating perspective of the scientific mind confronting the great mysteries of the human soul.

"Rosemary and Kerson Huang, poet and physicist-poet, have made a superb translation and appreciation of the bone-old book." -Phillip Morrison, author of Powers of Ten

Edition details

• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0894803190
• ISBN 13: 9780894803192
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 207