Dao House... Yijing

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Yijing (I Ching)

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Commentaries on the I Ching

Basics

www.yarrowstalk.com/iching/bookplan/

Laozi

Ralph H. Abraham (University of California, Santa Cruz, Mathematics) offers an introduction and three chapters of a book he abandoned in 1972, covering the early legends, history, and commentaries of the text.

Zhuangzi

Metaphysics

"In China, archaeological research has not been very extensive so far, and most of the mysteries are due simply to lack of evidence... We owe our knowledge of the early historical period to the peculiar divination practices of the Shang people..."

Early

Later

Yijing

Fengshui

Oracle Bone with Translation

Alchemy

http://faculty.vassar.edu/brvannor/translation.html

Practical

Photo and partial translation by David N. Keightley, from Sources of Shang History. On Bryan W. Van Norden's (Vassar College, Philosophy) site.

Archaeologists Rewrite History

Literature

www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Jun/66806

Just how old is the Yijing? Well, this article from the China.org site describes the inscribed tortoise shells recently found in 8,600-year-old graves in central China, possibly the origin of the world's earliest writing (and the Yijing). See also the "Related Stories" in the sidebar, including this one on the Yinxu oracle bones.

"He carefully brushed off the dust, and on the lower middle part of the plastron was an eye-shaped sign, which greatly resembled the later jiaguwen pictograph for 'eye' in the Yinxu oracle bones... He believes the sign is related to ancient divination."

The I Ching, [Legge]

www.sacred-texts.com/ich/

The complete James Legge 1882/1899 text from the Internet Sacred Text Archive site. Includes his preface, introduction, plates, and footnoted translation of the text.

Yi Jing. James Legge's translation

http://oaks.nvg.org/re5ra17.html

A one-page rendering of Legge's translation of the 64 hexagrams, courtesy of Tormod Byrn.

Yi Ching [Wilhelm/Baynes]

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/iching.txt

Paul Halsell (Brooklyn College) has put a terse rendering of the Richard Wilhelm/Cary F. Baynes version online, with basic instructions for casting.

I Ching, with commentaries [Wilhelm/Baynes]

www.akirarabelais.com/i/i.html

An expanded one-page Wilhelm/Baynes translation, put online by Akira Rabelais (ambient composer/musician, Los Angeles).

The I Ching or Book of Changes (Wilhelm/Baynes)

www.oocities.org/clearlight610/chou_i/chou_i.html

The Wilhelm/Baynes complete translation of Book I, The Text, and Book II, The Material, including the Shuo Kua and Ta Chuan (the latter considered especially Daoist).

The Book of Changes [Hatcher]

www.hermetica.info/

Bradford Hatcher's (Ridgeway, CO) index to a series of PDF documents, which give his "word for word" translation of the basic texts, plus such extras as key words, useful notes, illustrative quotations from world literature, and correspondences with Qabalah, Tarot, and Astrology.

[Key Words, Hexagram 1:] "Initiative, Autonomy, Higher Purpose, Calling, Vocation, Star Quality / Sovereignty, Command, Self-Mastery, Dragonhood, Genius, Authority, Cogency / Diligence, Persistence, Drive, Lasting Energy, Enduring Vigor, Persistence in Time / Higher Orders, Design, Innovation, Co-authoring with the Infinite, Dynamic Life."

Wu-Weifarer's Yijing

www.oocities.org/wu_weifarer/Yijing.html

If Legge seemes rather dated to you, Wilhelm/Baynes too moralistic and hierarchical (too Confucian), and Hatcher a bit inscrutable, try this one-page Daoistic rendition.

I Ching Divination: The Coin Method

http://brian.hoffert.faculty.noctrl.edu/TEACHING/Castcoin.html

Brian Hoffert (North Central College, Naperville, IL, History/Religious Studies) gives instructions for casting the coins, with a sample reading.

I Ching, The Book of Changes

www.iging.com

Dan Baruth presents Richard Wilhelm's introduction and Carl Jung's foreward to the text.

Psychology of the I Ching

www.the-intuitive-self.org/scripts/frameit/authorcgi?/website/author/memoir/supplements/i_ching_psychology.html

Bill Taggart, intuition consultant, provides excerpts from Carl Jung's foreward, interspersed with his own comments.

"Since I had spent so much of my life trying to fix things and people, I wanted as well to fix the response of the I Ching rather than sink into and absorb its wisdom. The controlling mind had difficulty with a random procedure. Discovering that the way to live with nature was to leave it alone turned out to be a hard won lesson."

Richard Wilhelm's Home Page

www.schoolof wisdom.com/wilhelm.html

Interesting biographical information on the Yijing's pre-eminent translator, "the Marco Polo of the inner world of China."

"He tried... to serve as a kind of bridge of the great cultural divide between China and Europe. At first he encountered opposition and hostility to his efforts, on many fronts. Europe was nationalistic and chauvinistic. The academic community distrusted him because of his missionary background, and the religious community distrusted him because of his transcendence of Christianity."

Jung, the Tao and the Classic of Change

www.greatvessel.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=507&tabindex=2

Absorbing 1999 journal article by Stephen Karcher (scholar, translator, Wales) on Jung's intimate connection with the Yijing. One of Karcher's many excellent articles from the Great Vessel site, including a number of good introductory pages (click "The Basics").

"Jung, who felt that his psychology was bound up with the 'whole practical use of the I Ching,' saw the book as a vehicle or engine of tao, synchronicity and individuation. It was both a carrier of human experience and a door to the energy of the archetypes."

Recovering the Lost Meaning of the Yijing BA GUA

www.fengshuigate.com/bagua.html

Stephen L. Field (Trinity University, San Antonio, Chinese) speculates on the "Shuogua" chapter of the Ten Wings, the origins of the trigram names, and hypothetical connections to the art of fengshui.

"Deus, mainfest in quake and thunder, / Receives those who kneel to Him, / Reveals Himself as a bird of omen, / Is offered service on Earth, / Speaks words to the shaman, / Is feared in Heaven, / Rewards those suffering in the pit, / And fulfills his words to the doubters."

I Ching Connexion

www.mindsports.net/I_Ching_Connexion/JavaVersion/Introduction/FrameIntComp.html

This site from game-masters Christian Freeling and Ed van Zon has pages of early commentaries on the Yijing, including the "Ta Chuan" commentary. The "Compiler's Introduction" claims that:

"Lao Tzu knew the I [Ching] and may have known the early chapters of the Shuo Kua, but the Ten Wings originated around and after Confucius, and not in a day either. This explains why Lao Tzu may have had more influence on the I than vice versa. The Ta Chuan has a distinct Taoist flavour..."

Chu Hsi and Divination

www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Divination.htm

Chapter by Joseph A. Adler (Kenyon College, Religious Studies) from the book Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching, on the great 12th-century Neo-Confucian scholar Chu Hsi's (Zhu Xi) writings on the Yijing, which were influenced by Daoism (though his focus was on Confucian moral cultivation through the Yi).

"Divination, in Chu Hsi's view, is a way of learning to 'respond' (ying) to 'incipient' (chi) change, both in external events and in the mind. 'Responsiveness,' or 'moral responsiveness,' is the ability to respond intuitively, spontaneously, and in a morally correct manner to the changing pattern (li) of situations and events. It is a responsive harmony with the social and natural environment, a way of fitting into the pattern of change, of attaining harmony with the Way."

Yi Xue Qi-meng

www.wfu.edu/~moran/yxqm_01.html

Patrick Edwin Moran (Wake Forest University) translates the introduction to Zhu Xi's work on the Yijing, and provides a commentary on the commentary. Zhu was administrator of the Yun Tai Daoist monastery at the time of this work.

[Moran] "He compares the casting of a trigram, and the fundamental levels of reality, to the biological structure of a tree... the root is the Tai-ji (Great Ultimate), the ground state of the universe that comes before the Big Bang, as it were."

Process, Interaction, and the Human Situation: A Humanistic Approach to the I-Ching

www.thomehfang.com/suncrates4/1wu3.html

Summary of a chapter from Joseph S. Wu's (professor, CA) book, Foundations of Chinese Thought: Lectures on Confucianism, Taoism, and the I Ching. A Confucian-Daoist approach to the metaphysics of the Yijing.

"...the kind of change the I Ching deals with is never the kind of change which can be induced by an external efficient cause. Rather, it is the kind of change which life alone may have. It is the process of growth."

Yijing Dao: Calling crane in the shade

http://biroco.com/yijing/

Steven J. Marshall's (author of The Mandate of Heaven) excellent five-page introduction to the Yijing discusses basic terms and interpretation. Don't miss page 3 on the "Ruling lines." See also Marshall's "Reviews of Yijing books" (and the entire site, for that matter).

"Dao is the same character as the Japanese 'do' in judo, kendo, meaning 'way'... By 'Yijing Dao' I do indeed intend to imply a martial arts approach to Yijing."

I Ching History Discussed in Usenet

www.luckymojo.com/iching/changeclassichistoryuse.html

Compilation of comments on the Yijing from various newsgroups.. From Catherine Yronwode's (Forestville, CA) Lucky Mojo site.

"Back in 1689 Leibniz was trying to use numbers to make a mathematical proof of god -- he didn't get very far of course, but he did start to work in binary. Then, in one magical historical moment what does he get in the mail from China but Shao-yung's binary cosmology diagrams, and an I-ching. The Jesuit Bouvet guessed he might be interested!" [Lawrence Day]

The Eight Trigrams of the I Ching

http://qi-journal.com/philosophy.asp?-token.SearchID=EightTrigrams

Eight-part article from the Qi Journal site, by Dan Miller.

"If you are inclined to embark upon a serious study of the I-Ching, I recommend that you begin by spending time and effort digesting the underlying structure of the I-Ching by studying the Early Heaven and Later Heaven arrangements of the trigrams. Your time will be well spent."

I Ching Text Comparisons

www.apocalypse.org/pub/hexagram-8/archives/ting.txt

John Seiler (mine safety engineer) has transcribed 17 versions of Yijing hexagram # 50, "The Cauldron": Wilhelm; Legge; Ritsema & Karcher; Hua-Ching Ni; Wu Wei; Huang & Huang; Crowley; Da Liu; Sector; Gill; Reifler; Palmer, Martin, Ramsay, Xiaomin & Zhao; Anthony; Cleary; Fox, Hughes & Tampion; Palmer, Kwok & O'Brien; Wang Bi (tr. Lynn).

"Each of the sixty-four hexagrams applies to personal cultivation, however, Ting especially applies to the entire process of internal 'cooking' or self-cultivation. It teaches how one can mature to ripeness and mellowness." [Hua-Ching Ni]

I Ching translations

www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_resources/translations.html

Hillary Barrett's Clarity site offers reviews of over a dozen notable translations of the Yijing. And check out her Exploring Divination Forum for practical advice, tips, discussion, and disputation, and her regularly updated blog..

Some Western-Language Works on the Yijing, Topically Organized

www.aasianst.org/EAA/smith.htm

Comprehensive bibliography and study guide by Richard J. Smith (Rice University, History). Supplemental material from the journal Education About Asia.

"Note that there are many different translations of Yijing, including I-ching, I Ching, I Ging, Yi King, Yih-king, Yi Jing... Zhouyi, Chou-i, Djohi, etc [The Zhou/Chou/Djoh Changes]. Often it is simply known as the Changes (Yi)."

The Yin-Yang System of Ancient China

www.oocities.org/paideusis/n1ms.html

Long, well-writter journal article, subtitled "The Yijing-Book of Changes as a Pragmatic Metaphor for Change Theory," by Mondo Secter (Simon Fraser University, British Columbia) on the Yijing as a management paradigm for organizations. Presents two methods for its use: as divination and as descriptive mode, and provides a useful chart of trigram attributes. [Popup alert]

"As a conceptual tool, I suggest it can be useful for understanding the underlying rules of change, for establishing a common reference for change theory, and for bridging cultural difference, which is itself a form of change."

The I Ching: Well of the Sages

www.oocities.org/Paris/Cafe/8564/articles/iching.html

Paul Mountfort article in the Rainbow Network magazine, from the Boucca Wicca site. Yes, a bit new-agey, but I like his way of turning the hexagrams into "imaginative images drawn from nature."

"Take 'The Well,' for example. Wood under Gorge translates into a simple, practical image. Gorge becomes a body of water running deep into the ground - a well. Wood becomes a wooden bucket. Together they form a straightforward but dynamic and multi-layered image: that of drawing water from a well."

The Key to the Yi Jing

www.mcelhearn.com/article.php?story=20060530090519692

Kirk McElhearn's well-written essay discusses the schemata of the Yijing, drawing on history, psychology, and especially linguistics.

"If the Yi Jing were written today, it would be necessary to use situations and schemata that correspond to our world-view and our understanding of the interrelations of the world. Some hexagrams would talk about politics, and we can imagine one called Cohabitation."

I Ching Plus

http://members.iimetro.com.au/~lofting/myweb/newindex.html

Symbols and Metaphors: Creating Reality

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~ddiamond/

Mega site from Chris Lofting links the Yijing to neurological "patterns of meaning" and a "general template that all metaphors conform to." Among the Related Essays: "The Structure of Mind," "Jungian Typology and the I Ching," and "Yang before Yin." For still more, check the exhaustive Link Index to the pages on this site.

I Ching (HoTu and LoSun), Genetic Code, T'ai Hsuan Ching, and the D4-D5-E6-E7-E8-VoDou Physics Model

www.valdostamuseum.org/hamsmith/ichgene6.html

Tony Smith's long page is not just for the scientifically/mathematically inclined. Includes some great diagrams.

"The genetic code, the I Ching, and the D4-D5-E6-E7 physics model are all just different representations of the same fundamental structure... The same fundamental structure is also shared by Penrose tilings and musical sequences."

Becoming-Being Complementarity

http://them.polylog.org/3/amb-en.htm

Scholarly article from the Polylog intercultural journal by Bo Mou (San Jose State University, CA, Philosophy) gives a holistic view in his "Account of the Yin-Yang Metaphysical Vision of the Yijing."

"It could be argued that a more suitable paraphrase of the title Yijing might be 'Book of Unity of Changing and Unchanging', not merely 'Book of Changing and Unchanging' and much less "Book of Changes'."

The Book of Changes and Taiji Quan

http://users.erols.com/dantao/yiching.html

Sat Hon, of the Dantao School (NY), set out to discover how the Yijing relates to Taijiquan and found:.

"...that the Taiji form is an interactive self study course which will unlock the secret of Taoist alchemy, Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Book of Change."

Schizophrenia and the Book of Changes

www.noapologiespress.com/others/pkd1.html

Excerpts from a Philip K. Dick essay (1965). If you're schizophrenic, maybe you need a copy of the Yijing...

"If you're totally schizophrenic now, by all means use the I Ching for everything, including telling you when to take a bath and when to open a can of cat tuna for your cat Rover."

I Ching [fUSION Anomaly]

http://fusionanomaly.net/iching.html

Fascinating stuff from the far side: Terence McKenna links the Yijing to the Eschaton, "a universal and fractal morphogenic field." Jose Arguelies links it to the Tzolk'in cycle of Mayan number harmonics, and John Cage finds correlations with musical harmonies.

Derivation of the Timewave from the King Wen Sequence of Hexagrams

www.datachurch.com/articles/people/terence%20mckenna/essay_derivation_of_the_timewave.html

Here's McKenna's (visionary scholar, 1946-2000) account of the mathematical process by which he arrived at his Novelty Theory, wherein time ends abruptly on Dec. 12, 2012.

"Can it be coincidence that the length of a lunar month, 29.53 days, times 13 is 383.89? I believe that what we have here is a 384 day lunar calendar with resonances to other naked eye astronomical phenomena known to be of interest to the ancient Chinese... sunspot cycles... zodiacal ages... precession of the equinoxes..."

A New Look At An Ancient Oracle: The I Ching As The Super-Computer Of Destiny

http://alternativeapproaches.com/pnuke1/Sections-article2-p1.html

Three-part article by Vincent Bridges (esoteric historian, NC) on ancient and contemporary constructions of the Yijing, including correspondences with DNA and the McKenna theories. From the Alternative Approaches site.

"Interestingly enough, the Taoist alchemists of the Sung Dynasty (960-1127 CE) seemed to understand the concept of alchemical time and the transformative process at the heart of King Wen's arrangement. In a curious mandala entitled The Cauldron, Furnace, Medicines, and Firing Process, the King Wen sequence is used to describe the alchemical process."

Wu-Weifarer's Daily Yijing

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Daily_Yijing

Free daily reading and Daoist quote by email, through Yahoogroups, with an online archive.

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