I Ching

The I Ching or Yi Jing (Chinese: 易 , Mandarin: [î tɕíŋ] ( listen)),

I Ching (Yijing)
usually translated as Book of Changes or Classic of Changes, is an
ancient Chinese divination text and among the oldest of the Chinese
classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zhou period
(1000–750 BC), over the course of the Warring States period and
early imperial period (500–200 BC) it was transformed into a
cosmological text with a series of philosophical commentaries
known as the "Ten Wings".[1] After becoming part of the Five
Classics in the 2nd century BC, the I Ching was the subject of
scholarly commentary and the basis for divination practice for
centuries across the Far East, and eventually took on an influential
role in Western understanding of Eastern thought.

The I Ching is used in a type of divination called cleromancy,

which uses apparently random numbers. Six numbers between 6
and 9 are turned into a hexagram, which can then be looked up in
the text, in which hexagrams are arranged in an order known as the
King Wen sequence. The interpretation of the readings found in the
I Ching is a matter which has been endlessly discussed and debated
over in the centuries following its compilation, and many
commentators have used the book symbolically, often to provide
guidance for moral decision making as informed by Confucianism,
Taoism and Buddhism. The hexagrams themselves have often
acquired cosmological significance and been paralleled with many Title page of a Song dynasty (c.
other traditional names for the processes of change such as yin and 1100) edition of the I Ching
yang and Wu Xing.
Original title 易 *lek [note 1]

Country Zhou dynasty (China)

Genre Divination, cosmology
Contents
Published Late 9th century BC
The divination text: Zhou yi
History I Ching
Name and authorship Book of Changes / Classic
Structure of Changes
Usage
The classic: I Ching
Ten Wings
Hexagrams
Interpretation and influence
Eastern Han and Six Dynasties
Tang and Song dynasties
Neo-Confucian
"I (Ching)" in seal script (top),[note 1]
Korean and Japanese
Traditional (middle), and Simplified
 Early European (bottom) Chinese characters
Modern Traditional Chinese 易
Translations Simplified Chinese 易经
See also
Hanyu Pinyin Yì jīng
Notes
Literal meaning "Classic of
References Changes"
Citations
Transcriptions
Sources cited
Standard Mandarin
External links
Hanyu Pinyin Yì jīng
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Yih jing
The divination text: Zhou yi Wade–Giles I4 ching1
IPA [î tɕíŋ]
Wu
History
Suzhounese Yih jin
The core of the I Ching is a Western Zhou divination text called the Hakka
Changes of Zhou (Chinese: 周易 ; pinyin: Zhōu yì).[2] Various modern Romanization Yit6 gang1
scholars suggest dates ranging between the 10th and 4th centuries BC
for the assembly of the text in approximately its current form.[3] Based Yue: Cantonese
on a comparison of the language of the Zhou yi with dated bronze Yale Romanization Yihk gīng
inscriptions, the American sinologist Edward Shaughnessy dated its Jyutping Jik6 ging1
compilation in its current form to the early decades of the reign of
IPA [jèːk kíːŋ]
King Xuan of Zhou, in the last quarter of the 9th century BC.[4] A
copy of the text in the Shanghai Museum corpus of bamboo and Southern Min
wooden slips (discovered in 1994) shows that the Zhou yi was used Hokkien POJ Ia̍ h-keng (col.)
throughout all levels of Chinese society in its current form by 300 BC, E̍k-keng (lit.)
but still contained small variations as late as the Warring States
Eastern Min
period.[5] It is possible that other divination systems existed at this
time; the Rites of Zhou name two other such systems, the Lianshan Fuzhou BUC ĭk-gĭng
and the Guicang.[6] Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese yek-geng
Name and authorship Old Chinese

易
The name Zhou yi literally means the "changes" ( ; Yì) of the Zhou
Baxter (1992) *ljek (keng)

dynasty. The "changes" involved have been interpreted as the Baxter–Sagart *lek (k-
transformations of hexagrams, of their lines, or of the numbers (2014) lˤeng)[note 1]
obtained from the divination.[7] Feng Youlan proposed that the word
for "changes" originally meant "easy", as in a form of divination easier than the oracle bones, but there is little
evidence for this. There is also an ancient folk etymology that sees the character for "changes" as containing
the sun and moon, the cycle of the day. Modern Sinologists believe the character to be derived either from an
image of the sun emerging from clouds, or from the content of a vessel being changed into another.[8]

The Zhou yi was traditionally ascribed to the Zhou cultural heroes King Wen of Zhou and the Duke of Zhou,
and was also associated with the legendary world ruler Fu Xi.[9] According to the canonical Great
Commentary, Fu Xi observed the patterns of the world and created the eight trigrams ( ; bāguà), "in order
to become thoroughly conversant with the numinous and bright and to classify the myriad things." The Zhou
yi itself does not contain this legend and indeed says nothing about its own origins.[10] The Rites of Zhou,
however, also claims that the hexagrams of the Zhou yi were derived from an initial set of eight trigrams.[11]
During the Han dynasty there were various opinions about the historical relationship between the trigrams and
the hexagrams.[12] Eventually, a consensus formed around 2nd-century AD scholar Ma Rong's attribution of
the text to the joint work of Fu Xi, King Wen of Zhou, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius, but this traditional
attribution is no longer generally accepted.[13]

Structure

The basic unit of the Zhou yi is the hexagram ( guà), a figure composed of
⽘
six stacked horizontal lines ( yáo). Each line is either broken or unbroken.
The received text of the Zhou yi contains all 64 possible hexagrams, along
with the hexagram's name ( guàmíng), a short hexagram statement (
tuàn), [note 2] ⽘
and six line statements ( yáocí).[note 3] The statements were
used to determine the results of divination, but the reasons for having two
different methods of reading the hexagram are not known, and it is not known
why hexagram statements would be read over line statements or vice
versa.[14]

The book opens with the first hexagram statement, yuán hēng lì zhēn
(Chinese: 元 貞 ). These four words, translated traditionally by James
Legge as "originating and penetrating, advantageous and firm," are often
repeated in the hexagram statements and were already considered an
important part of I Ching interpretation in the 6th century BC. Edward
Shaughnessy describes this statement as affirming an "initial receipt" of an Oracle turtle shell featuring
貞
offering, "beneficial" for further "divining".[15] The word zhēn ( , ancient the ancient form ( ) of
貞
zhēn ( ) "to divine"
form ) was also used for the verb "divine" in the oracle bones of the late
Shang dynasty, which preceded the Zhou. It also carried meanings of being or
making upright or correct, and was defined by the Eastern Han scholar Zheng
Xuan as "to enquire into the correctness" of a proposed activity.[16]

The names of the hexagrams are usually words that appear in their respective line statements, but in five cases
(2, 9, 26, 61, and 63) an unrelated character of unclear purpose appears. The hexagram names could have
been chosen arbitrarily from the line statements,[17] but it is also possible that the line statements were derived
from the hexagram names.[18] The line statements, which make up most of the book, are exceedingly cryptic.
Each line begins with a word indicating the line number, "base, 2, 3, 4, 5, top", and either the number 6 for a
broken line, or the number 9 for a whole line. Hexagrams 1 and 2 have an extra line statement, named
yong.[19] Following the line number, the line statements may make oracular or prognostic statements.[20] Some
line statements also contain poetry or references to historical events.[21]

Usage

Archaeological evidence shows that Zhou dynasty divination was grounded in cleromancy, the production of
seemingly random numbers to determine divine intent.[22] The Zhou yi provided a guide to cleromancy that
used the stalks of the yarrow plant, but it is not known how the yarrow stalks became numbers, or how
specific lines were chosen from the line readings.[23] In the hexagrams, broken lines were used as shorthand
七
for the numbers 6 ( ) and 8 ( ), and solid lines were shorthand for values of 7 ( ) and 9 ( ). The Great
Commentary contains a late classic description of a process where various numerological operations are
performed on a bundle of 50 stalks, leaving remainders of 6 to 9.[24] Like the Zhou yi itself, yarrow stalk
divination dates to the Western Zhou period, although its modern form is a reconstruction.[25]
 The ancient narratives Zuo zhuan and Guoyu contain the oldest
descriptions of divination using the Zhou yi. The two histories
describe more than twenty successful divinations conducted by
professional soothsayers for royal families between 671 BC and 487
BC. The method of divination is not explained, and none of the
stories employ predetermined commentaries, patterns, or
interpretations. Only the hexagrams and line statements are used.[26]
By the 4th century BC, the authority of the Zhou yi was also cited for
rhetorical purposes, without relation to any stated divination.[27] The
Zuo zhuan does not contain records of private individuals, but Qin
dynasty records found at Shuihudi show that the hexagrams were
privately consulted to answer questions such as business, health,
children, and determining lucky days.[28]

The most common form of divination with the I Ching in use today is
a reconstruction of the method described in these histories, in the 300
Fifty yarrow (Achillea millefolium) BC Great Commentary, and later in the Huainanzi and the Lunheng.
stalks, used for I Ching divination. From the Great Commentary's description, the Neo-Confucian Zhu
Xi reconstructed a method of yarrow stalk divination that is still used
throughout the Far East. In the modern period, Gao Heng attempted
his own reconstruction, which varies from Zhu Xi in places.[29] Another divination method, employing coins,
became widely used in the Tang dynasty and is still used today. In the modern period; alternative methods such
as specialized dice and cartomancy have also appeared.[30]

In the Zuo zhuan stories, individual lines of hexagrams are denoted by using the genitive particle zhi, followed
by the name of another hexagram where that specific line had another form. In later attempts to reconstruct
ancient divination methods, the word zhi was interpreted as a verb meaning "moving to", an apparent
indication that hexagrams could be transformed into other hexagrams. However, there are no instances of
"changeable lines" in the Zuo zhuan. In all 12 out of 12 line statements quoted, the original hexagrams are
used to produce the oracle.[31]

The classic: I Ching

In 136 BC, Emperor Wu of Han named the Zhou yi "the first among the classics", dubbing it the Classic of
Changes or I Ching. Emperor Wu's placement of the I Ching among the Five Classics was informed by a
broad span of cultural influences that included Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, yin-yang cosmology, and Wu
Xing physical theory.[32] While the Zhou yi does not contain any cosmological analogies, the I Ching was read
as a microcosm of the universe that offered complex, symbolic correspondences.[33] The official edition of the
text was literally set in stone, as one of the Xiping Stone Classics.[34] The canonized I Ching became the
standard text for over two thousand years, until alternate versions of the Zhou yi and related texts were
discovered in the 20th century.[35]

Ten Wings

Part of the canonization of the Zhou yi bound it to a set of ten commentaries called the Ten Wings. The Ten
Wings are of a much later provenance than the Zhou yi, and are the production of a different society. The Zhou
yi was written in Early Old Chinese, while the Ten Wings were written in a predecessor to Middle Chinese.[36]
The specific origins of the Ten Wings are still a complete mystery to academics.[37] Regardless of their
historical relation to the text, the philosophical depth of the Ten Wings made the I Ching a perfect fit to Han
period Confucian scholarship.[38] The inclusion of the Ten Wings reflects a widespread recognition in ancient
China, found in the Zuo zhuan and other pre-Han texts, that the I Ching was a rich moral and symbolic
document useful for more than professional divination.[39]

Arguably the most important of the Ten Wings is the Great Commentary (Dazhuan) or Xi ci, which dates to
roughly 300 BC.[note 4] The Great Commentary describes the I Ching as a microcosm of the universe and a
symbolic description of the processes of change. By partaking in the spiritual experience of the I Ching, the
Great Commentary states, the individual can understand the deeper patterns of the universe.[24] Among other
subjects, it explains how the eight trigrams proceeded from the eternal oneness of the universe through three
bifurcations.[40] The other Wings provide different perspectives on essentially the same viewpoint, giving
ancient, cosmic authority to the I Ching.[41] For example, the Wenyan provides a moral interpretation that
parallels the first two hexagrams, 乾 (qián) and 坤 (kūn), with Heaven and Earth,[42] and the Shuogua
attributes to the symbolic function of the hexagrams the ability to understand self, world, and destiny.[43]
Throughout the Ten Wings, there are passages that seem to purposefully increase the ambiguity of the base
text, pointing to a recognition of multiple layers of symbolism.[44]

The Great Commentary associates knowledge of the I Ching with the ability to "delight in Heaven and
understand fate;" the sage who reads it will see cosmological patterns and not despair in mere material
difficulties.[45] The Japanese word for "metaphysics", keijijōgaku ( 形⽽上 ; pinyin: xíng ér shàng xué) is
derived from a statement found in the Great Commentary that "what is above form [xíng ér shàng] is called
Dao; what is under form is called a tool".[46] The word has also been borrowed into Korean and re-borrowed
back into Chinese.

The Ten Wings were traditionally attributed to Confucius, possibly based on a misreading of the Records of the
Grand Historian.[47] Although it rested on historically shaky grounds, the association of the I Ching with
Confucius gave weight to the text and was taken as an article of faith throughout the Han and Tang
dynasties.[48] The I Ching was not included in the burning of the Confucian classics, and textual evidence
strongly suggests that Confucius did not consider the Zhou yi a "classic". An ancient commentary on the Zhou
yi found at Mawangdui portrays Confucius as endorsing it as a source of wisdom first and an imperfect
divination text second.[49] However, since the Ten Wings became canonized by Emperor Wu of Han together
with the original I Ching as the Zhou Yi, it can be attributed to the positions of influence from the Confucians
in the government.[50] Furthermore, the Ten Wings tends to use diction and phrases such as "the master said",
which was previously commonly seen in the Analects, thereby implying the heavy involvement of Confucians
in its creation as well as institutionalization.[50]

Hexagrams
In the canonical I Ching, the hexagrams are arranged in an order dubbed the King Wen sequence after King
Wen of Zhou, who founded the Zhou dynasty and supposedly reformed the method of interpretation. The
sequence generally pairs hexagrams with their upside-down equivalents, although in eight cases hexagrams are
paired with their inversion.[51] Another order, found at Mawangdui in 1973, arranges the hexagrams into eight
groups sharing the same upper trigram. But the oldest known manuscript, found in 1987 and now held by the
Shanghai Library, was almost certainly arranged in the King Wen sequence, and it has even been proposed
that a pottery paddle from the Western Zhou period contains four hexagrams in the King Wen sequence.[52]
Whichever of these arrangements is older, it is not evident that the order of the hexagrams was of interest to the
original authors of the Zhou yi. The assignment of numbers, binary or decimal, to specific hexagrams, is a
modern invention.[53]

Yin and yang are represented by broken and solid lines: yin is broken (⚋) and yang is solid (⚊). Different
constructions of three yin and yang lines lead to eight trigrams (⼋卦 乾 兌
) namely, Qian ( , ☰), Dui ( , ☱), Li
離 震 巽 坎 ⾉
( , ☲), Zhen ( , ☳), Xun ( , ☴), Kan ( , ☵), Gen ( , ☶), and Kun ( , ☷). 坤
The different combinations of the two trigrams lead to 64 hexagrams.

The following table numbers the hexagrams in King Wen order.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

(qián) 坤 (kūn) (zhūn) (méng) 需 (xū) (sòng) 師 (shī) (bǐ)

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

⼩ (xiǎo 履 (lǚ) (tài) 否 (pǐ) 同 (tóng ⼤有 (dà (qiān) (yù)

xù) rén) yǒu)
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

(suí) 蠱 (gŭ) (lín) (guān) 噬 (shì (bì) (bō) 復 (fù)

kè)
25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

(wú ⼤ (dà (yí) ⼤ (dà (kǎn) (lí) 咸 (xián) 恆 (héng)

wàng) xù) guò)
33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

(dùn) ⼤ (dà (jìn) (míng (jiā (kuí) (jiǎn) (xiè)

zhuàng) yí) rén)
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48

損 (sǔn) (yì) 夬 (guài) (gòu) (cuì) 升 (shēng) (kùn) 井 (jǐng)

49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56

⾰ (gé) (tǐng) (zhèn) (gèn) (jiàn) (guī 豐 (fēng) (lǚ)

mèi)
57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64

(xùn) (duì) (huàn) (jié) 中 ⼩ (xiǎo (jì jì) 未 (wèi jì)

(zhōng fú) guò)

Interpretation and influence

The sinologist Michael Nylan describes the I Ching as the best-known Chinese book in the world.[54] In East
Asia, it is a foundational text for the Confucian and Daoist philosophical traditions, while in the West, it
attracted the attention of Enlightenment intellectuals and prominent literary and cultural figures.
Eastern Han and Six Dynasties

During the Eastern Han, I Ching interpretation divided into two schools, originating in a dispute over minor
differences between different editions of the received text.[55] The first school, known as New Text criticism,
was more egalitarian and eclectic, and sought to find symbolic and numerological parallels between the natural
world and the hexagrams. Their commentaries provided the basis of the School of Images and Numbers. The
other school, Old Text criticism, was more scholarly and hierarchical, and focused on the moral content of the
text, providing the basis for the School of Meanings and Principles.[56] The New Text scholars distributed
alternate versions of the text and freely integrated non-canonical commentaries into their work, as well as
propagating alternate systems of divination such as the Taixuanjing.[57] Most of this early commentary, such as
the image and number work of Jing Fang, Yu Fan and Xun Shuang, is no longer extant.[58] Only short
fragments survive, from a Tang dynasty text called Zhou yi jijie.[59]

With the fall of the Han, I Ching scholarship was no longer organized into systematic schools. The most
influential writer of this period was Wang Bi, who discarded the numerology of Han commentators and
integrated the philosophy of the Ten Wings directly into the central text of the I Ching, creating such a
persuasive narrative that Han commentators were no longer considered significant. A century later Han
Kangbo added commentaries on the Ten Wings to Wang Bi's book, creating a text called the Zhouyi zhu. The
principal rival interpretation was a practical text on divination by the soothsayer Guan Lu.[60]

Tang and Song dynasties

At the beginning of the Tang dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Tang ordered Kong Yingda to create a canonical
edition of the I Ching. Choosing Wang Bi's 3rd-century "Annotated Zhou-dynasty (Book of) Changes"
(Zhōuyì Zhù; 周易 ) as the official commentary, he added to it further commentary drawing out the subtler
details of Wang Bi's explanations. The resulting work, the "Right Meaning of the Zhou-dynasty (Book of)
Changes" (Zhōuyì Zhèngyì;
[61]
周易正義 ), became the standard edition of the I Ching through the Song
dynasty.

By the 11th century, the I Ching was being read as a work of intricate philosophy, as a jumping-off point for
examining great metaphysical questions and ethical issues.[62] Cheng Yi, patriarch of the Neo-Confucian
Cheng–Zhu school, read the I Ching as a guide to moral perfection. He described the text as a way to for
ministers to form honest political factions, root out corruption, and solve problems in government.[63]

The contemporary scholar Shao Yong rearranged the hexagrams in a format that resembles modern binary
numbers, although he did not intend his arrangement to be used mathematically.[64] This arrangement,
sometimes called the binary sequence, later inspired Leibniz.

Neo-Confucian

The 12th century Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi, cofounder of the Cheng–Zhu school, criticized both of the Han
dynasty lines of commentary on the I Ching, saying that they were one-sided. He developed a synthesis of the
two, arguing that the text was primarily a work of divination that could be used in the process of moral self-
cultivation, or what the ancients called "rectification of the mind" in the Great Learning. Zhu Xi's
reconstruction of I Ching yarrow stalk divination, based in part on the Great Commentary account, became the
standard form and is still in use today.[65]

As China entered the early modern period, the I Ching took on renewed relevance in both Confucian and
Daoist studies. The Kangxi Emperor was especially fond of the I Ching and ordered new interpretations of
it.[66] Qing dynasty scholars focused more intently on understanding pre-classical grammar, assisting the
development of new philological approaches in the modern period.[67]

Korean and Japanese

Like the other Chinese classics, the I Ching was an influential text across the East Asian "Sinosphere". In
1557, the Korean Neo-Confucian Yi Hwang produced one of the most influential I Ching studies of the early
modern era, claiming that the spirit was a principle (li) and not a material force (qi). Hwang accused the Neo-
Confucian school of having misread Zhu Xi. His critique proved influential not only in Korea but also in
Japan.[68] Other than this contribution, the I Ching—known in Korean as the Yeok-gyeong 역경 —was not
central to the development of Korean Confucianism, and by the 19th century, I Ching studies were integrated
into the silhak reform movement.[69]

In medieval Japan, secret teachings on the I Ching—known in Japanese as the Ekikyō

[70]
易経 —were publicized
by Rinzai Zen master Kokan Shiren and the Shintoist Yoshida Kanetomo. I Ching studies in Japan took on
new importance in the Edo period, during which over 1,000 books were published on the subject by over 400
authors. The majority of these books were serious works of philology, reconstructing ancient usages and
commentaries for practical purposes. A sizable minority focused on numerology, symbolism, and
divination.[71] During this time, over 150 editions of earlier Chinese commentaries were reprinted in Japan,
including several texts that had become lost in China.[72] In the early Edo period, writers such as Itō Jinsai,
Kumazawa Banzan, and Nakae Toju ranked the I Ching the greatest of the Confucian classics.[73] Many
writers attempted to use the I Ching to explain Western science in a Japanese framework. One writer, Shizuki
Tadao, even attempted to employ Newtonian mechanics and the Copernican principle within an I Ching
cosmology.[74] This line of argument was later taken up in China by the Qing scholar and official Zhang
Zhidong.[75]

Early European

Leibniz, who was corresponding with Jesuits in China, wrote the first
European commentary on the I Ching in 1703. He argued that it
proved the universality of binary numbers and theism, since the
broken lines, the "0" or "nothingness", cannot become solid lines, the
"1" or "oneness", without the intervention of God.[76] This was
criticized by Hegel, who proclaimed that binary system and Chinese
characters were "empty forms" that could not articulate spoken words
with the clarity of the Western alphabet.[77] In their commentary, I
Ching hexagrams and Chinese characters were conflated into a single
foreign idea, sparking a dialogue on Western philosophical questions
such as universality and the nature of communication. The usage of
binary in relation to the I Ching was central to Leibniz's A diagram of I Ching hexagrams sent
characteristica universalis, or universal language, which in turn to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz from
inspired the standards of Boolean logic and for Gottlob Frege to Joachim Bouvet. The Arabic
develop predicate logic in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, numerals were added by Leibniz.
Jacques Derrida identified Hegel's argument as logocentric, but
accepted without question Hegel's premise that the Chinese language
cannot express philosophical ideas.[78]

Modern
After the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, the I Ching was no longer part of mainstream Chinese political
philosophy, but it maintained cultural influence as China's most ancient text. Borrowing back from Leibniz,
Chinese writers offered parallels between the I Ching and subjects such as linear algebra and logic in computer
science, aiming to demonstrate that ancient Chinese cosmology had anticipated Western discoveries.[79] The
Sinologist Joseph Needham took the opposite opinion, arguing that the I Ching had actually impeded scientific
development by incorporating all physical knowledge into its metaphysics. However with the advent of
Quantum Mechanics, physicist Niels Bohr credited inspiration from the Yin and Yang symbolisms in using
intuition to interpret the new field, which disproved principles from older Western classical mechanics. The
Principle of Complementarity heavily used concepts from the I Ching as mentioned in his writings.[80] The
psychologist Carl Jung took interest in the possible universal nature of the imagery of the I Ching, and he
introduced an influential German translation by Richard Wilhelm by discussing his theories of archetypes and
synchronicity.[81] Jung wrote, "Even to the most biased eye, it is obvious that this book represents one long
admonition to careful scrutiny of one's own character, attitude, and motives."[82] The book had a notable
impact on the 1960s counterculture and on 20th century cultural figures such as Philip K. Dick, John Cage,
Jorge Luis Borges, Terence McKenna and Hermann Hesse.[83]

The modern period also brought a new level of skepticism and rigor to I Ching scholarship. Li Jingchi spent
several decades producing a new interpretation of the text, which was published posthumously in 1978.
Modern data scientists including Alex Liu proposed to represent and develop I Ching methods with data
science 4E framework and latent variable approaches for a more rigorous representation and interpretation of I
Ching. [84]Gao Heng, an expert in pre-Qin China, reinvestigated its use as a Zhou dynasty oracle. Edward
Shaughnessy proposed a new dating for the various strata of the text.[85] New archaeological discoveries have
enabled a deeper level of insight into how the text was used in the centuries before the Qin dynasty.
Proponents of newly reconstructed Western Zhou readings, which often differ greatly from traditional readings
of the text, are sometimes called the "modernist school."[86]

Translations
The I Ching has been translated into Western languages dozens of times. The earliest complete published I
Ching translation in a Western language was a Latin translation done in the 1730s by the French Jesuit
missionary Jean-Baptiste Régis that was published in Germany in the 1830s.[87] The most influential I Ching
translation was the 1923 German translation of Richard Wilhelm, which was translated into English in 1950 by
Cary Baynes.[88] Although Thomas McClatchie and James Legge had both translated the text in the 19th
century, the text gained significant traction during the counterculture of the 1960s, with the translations of
Wilhelm and John Blofeld attracting particular interest.[89] Richard Rutt's 1996 translation incorporated much
of the new archaeological and philological discoveries of the 20th century. Gregory Whincup's 1986
translation also attempts to reconstruct Zhou period readings.[90]

An overview of the Taoist, Buddhist, and several other treatments of the I Ching (https://www.shambhala.com/
i-ching-translations-thomas-cleary/) by Thomas Cleary is available from Shambhala Publications.

The most commonly used English translations of the I Ching are:[87]

Legge, James (1882). The Yî King. In Sacred Books of the East, vol. XVI. 2nd edition (1899),
Oxford: Clarendon Press; reprinted numerous times.
Wilhelm, Richard (1950). The I Ching or Book of Changes. Cary Baynes, trans. Bollingen
Series 19. Introduction by Carl G. Jung. New York: Pantheon Books. 3rd edition (1967),
Princeton: Princeton University Press; reprinted numerous times.

Other notable English translations include:

 McClatchie, Thomas (1876). A Translation of the Confucian Yi-king. Shanghai: American
Presbyterian Mission Press.
Blofeld, John (1965). The Book of Changes: A New Translation of the Ancient Chinese I Ching.
New York: E. P. Dutton.
Lynn, Richard John (1994). The Classic of Changes. New York, NY: Columbia University
Press. ISBN 0-231-08294-0.
Rutt, Richard (1996). The Book of Changes (Zhouyi): A Bronze Age Document. Richmond:
Curzon. ISBN 0-7007-0467-1.
Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1996). I Ching: the Classic of Changes. New York: Ballantine Books.
ISBN 0-345-36243-8.
Huang, Alfred (1998). The Complete I Ching. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions Press. ISBN 0-
89281-656-2.
Hinton, David (2015). I Ching: The Book of Change. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
ISBN 978-0-374-22090-7.

See also
Lingqijing
Lo Shu Square
Qi Men Dun Jia

Notes
1. The *k-lˤeng (jing , "classic") appellation would not have been used until after the Han
dynasty, after the core Old Chinese period.
2. The word tuan ( ) refers to a four-legged animal similar to a pig. This is believed to be a gloss
for "decision," duan ( ). The modern word for a hexagram statement is guàcí ( ).
Knechtges (2014), pp. 1881
3. Referred to as yao ( ) in the Zuo zhuan. Nielsen (2003), pp. 24, 290
4. The received text was rearranged by Zhu Xi. (Nielsen 2003, p. 258)

References

Citations
1. Kern (2010), p. 17.
2. Smith 2012, p. 22; Nelson 2011, p. 377; Hon 2005, p. 2; Shaughnessy 1983, p. 105; Raphals
2013, p. 337; Nylan 2001, p. 220; Redmond & Hon 2014, p. 37; Rutt 1996, p. 26.
3. Nylan (2001), p. 218.
4. Shaughnessy 1983, p. 219; Rutt 1996, pp. 32–33; Smith 2012, p. 22; Knechtges 2014, p. 1885.
5. Shaughnessy 2014, p. 282; Smith 2012, p. 22.
6. Rutt 1996, p. 26-7; Redmond & Hon 2014, pp. 106–9; Shchutskii 1979, p. 98.
7. Knechtges (2014), p. 1877.
8. Shaughnessy 1983, p. 106; Schuessler 2007, p. 566; Nylan 2001, pp. 229–230.
9. Shaughnessy (1999), p. 295.
10. Redmond & Hon (2014), pp. 54–5.
11. Shaughnessy (2014), p. 144.
12. Nielsen (2003), p. 7.
13. Nielsen 2003, p. 249; Shchutskii 1979, p. 133.
14. Rutt (1996), pp. 122–5.
15. Rutt 1996, pp. 126, 187–8; Shchutskii 1979, pp. 65–6; Shaughnessy 2014, pp. 30–35;
Redmond & Hon 2014, p. 128.
16. Shaughnessy (2014), pp. 2–3.
17. Rutt 1996, p. 118; Shaughnessy 1983, p. 123.
18. Knechtges (2014), p. 1879.
19. Rutt (1996), pp. 129–30.
20. Rutt (1996), p. 131.
21. Knechtges (2014), pp. 1880–1.
22. Shaughnessy (2014), p. 14.
23. Smith (2012), p. 39.
24. Smith (2008), p. 27.
25. Raphals (2013), p. 129.
26. Rutt (1996), p. 173.
27. Smith 2012, p. 43; Raphals 2013, p. 336.
28. Raphals (2013), pp. 203–212.
29. Smith 2008, p. 27; Raphals 2013, p. 167.
30. Redmond & Hon (2014), pp. 257.
31. Shaughnessy 1983, p. 97; Rutt 1996, p. 154-5; Smith 2008, p. 26.
32. Smith (2008), p. 31-2.
33. Raphals (2013), p. 337.
34. Nielsen 2003, pp. 48–51; Knechtges 2014, p. 1889.
35. Shaughnessy 2014, passim; Smith 2008, pp. 48–50.
36. Rutt (1996), p. 39.
37. Shaughnessy 2014, p. 284; Smith 2008, pp. 31–48.
38. Smith (2012), p. 48.
39. Nylan (2001), p. 229.
40. Nielsen (2003), p. 260.
41. Smith (2008), p. 48.
42. Knechtges (2014), p. 1882.
43. Redmond & Hon (2014), pp. 151–2.
44. Nylan (2001), p. 221.
45. Nylan (2001), pp. 248–9.
46. Yuasa (2008), p. 51.
47. Peterson (1982), p. 73.
48. Smith 2008, p. 27; Nielsen 2003, pp. 138, 211.
49. Shchutskii 1979, p. 213; Smith 2012, p. 46.
50. Adler, Joseph A. (April 2017). "Zhu Xi's Commentary on the Xicizhuan 繫辭傳 (Treatise on the
Appended Remarks) Appendix of the Yijing 易經 (Scripture of Change)" (https://www2.kenyon.
edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Xici%20trans%20A.pdf) (PDF).
51. Smith (2008), p. 37.
52. Shaughnessy (2014), pp. 52–3, 16–7.
53. Rutt (1996), pp. 114–8.
54. Nylan (2001), pp. 204–6.
55. Smith 2008, p. 58; Nylan 2001, p. 45; Redmond & Hon 2014, p. 159.
56. Smith (2012), p. 76-8.
57. Smith 2008, pp. 76–9; Knechtges 2014, p. 1889.
58. Smith (2008), pp. 57, 67, 84–6.
59. Knechtges (2014), p. 1891.
60. Smith 2008, pp. 89–90, 98; Hon 2005, pp. 29–30; Knechtges 2014, p. 1890.
61. Hon 2005, pp. 29–33; Knechtges 2014, p. 1891.
62. Hon (2005), p. 144.
63. Smith 2008, p. 128; Redmond & Hon 2014, p. 177.
64. Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 227.
65. Adler 2002, pp. v–xi; Smith 2008, p. 229; Adler 2020, pp. 9–16.
66. Smith (2008), p. 177.
67. Nielsen (2003), p. xvi.
68. Ng (2000b), pp. 55–56.
69. Ng (2000b), p. 65.
70. Ng (2000a), p. 7, 15.
71. Ng (2000a), pp. 22–25.
72. Ng (2000a), pp. 28–29.
73. Ng (2000a), pp. 38–39.
74. Ng (2000a), pp. 143–45.
75. Smith (2008), p. 197.
76. Nelson 2011, p. 379; Smith 2008, p. 204.
77. Nelson (2011), p. 381.
78. Nelson (2011), p. 383.
79. Smith (2008), p. 205.
80. Redmond & Hon (2014), p. 231.
81. Smith 2008, p. 212; Redmond & Hon 2014, pp. 205–214.
82. Smith (2012), pp. 11, 198.
83. Smith (2012), pp. 11, 197–198.
84. "I Ching Methods Represented with Big Data Science" (http://www.researchmethods.org/ichin
g.html). Retrieved 20 May 2021.
85. Knechtges (2014), pp. 1884–5.
86. Redmond & Hon 2014, p. 122ff; Shaughnessy 2014, passim.
87. Shaughnessy (1993), p. 225.
88. Shaughnessy 2014, p. 1; Redmond & Hon 2014, p. 239.
89. Smith (2012), pp. 198–9.
90. Redmond & Hon (2014), pp. 241–3.

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meng). Provo, Utah: Global Scholarly Publications. ISBN 1-59267-334-1.
Adler, Joseph A., trans. (2020). The Original Meaning of the Yijing: Commentary on the
Scripture of Change. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-19124-1.
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Activism in the Northern Song Period, 960–1127. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.
ISBN 0-7914-6311-7.
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Stephen (ed.). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1: To 1375. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–115. ISBN 978-0-521-11677-0.
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Nielsen, Bent (2003). A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology : Chinese Studies
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RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-7007-1608-4.
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External links
The texts of Confucianism, Part II: The Yî king (https://archive.org/details/sacredbooksofchi16co
nf) (The Sacred books of China 16), translated by James Legge, 1882.
Yi Jing (http://ctext.org/book-of-changes/yi-jing) at the Chinese Text Project: original text and
Legge's translation

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