I Ching Handbook: A Practical Guide to Personal and Logical Perspectives from the Ancient Chinese Book of Changes

A compendium of study aids and technical references teaches the traditional methods of using the I Ching, reveals the meanings of symbols and names for English speakers, and discloses the themes and stories behind the hexagrams.

The Book of Changes (the I Ching) is the Chinese classic that is best-known and most widely read in Western civilization. Although it was written nearly three thousand years ago, its wisdom is still applicable to modern issues. In its multi-metaphorical themes one may find insights and solutions to personal, social, political and philosophical problems that we encounter today. Dr. Hacker's I Ching Handbook is the best compendium of study aids and state-of-the-art information now available on the ancient Book of Changes. It contains knowledge that allows the reader to achieve a deeper level of understanding of the I Ching and provides the reader with a formal presentation of the subject that is not found elsewhere. Students and scholars of the I Ching will welcome the numerous references given in the footnotes and appendices. The book is well researched and there are two annotated bibliographies: one of books on the I Ching (including unpublished Ph.D. dissertations), the other of journal articles. There is also a glossary of technical terms and a very useful concordex to the Wilhelm/Baynes translation of the I Ching. The subjects covered in the I Ching Handbook include the traditional and scholarly theories regarding the origin of the I Ching, the trigrams and their attributes, the translations of the names of the hexagrams, nuclear hexagrams and their classification, the problem of the textual sequence of the hexagrams, various ways of using the I Ching as an oracle, probability and the hexagrams, hexagram stories, hexagram cycles, and hexagram flowers. The appendices give an annotated list of the I Ching devices: the I Ching computer, I Ching cards, and so forth. The appendices also contain the source code--in True Basic--for an I Ching line analyzer, and a number of tables. One table gives the yarrow stalk probability of obtaining any hexagram from any other hexagram, another lists pairs of hexagram opposites, hexagram stories, cycles, and flowers. Dr. Edward is a professor at Northeastern University in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, where he teaches Chinese Philosophy, Logic and Introduction to Philosophy. He is also a licensed psychologist in the state of Massachusetts.