Customer Reviews

I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change : The First Complete Translation With Concordance

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3 1/2 Stars for this translation.
This translation of the I-Ching (Yi Jing), a 3000+ year old Chinese divination system, offers more than the ever-so-common literal translation of the famous Chinese text that many of the modern translations boil down to, which is good, and bad.

Karcher has relied upon his knowledge of Jung's psychoanalytical methods, and understanding of how the human mind functions, to reveal the I-Ching as a solid and effective psychological tool to unlocking one's own insights. This translation was written to help the individual to connect with his or her inner-self, unlock the creative and reasoning abilities of the mind, and find answers locked deep within. I'll get to my issue with this in a minute.

The material covered in the Chapters includes:

PART I
Introduction to the I-Ching
- What is the I-Ching
- The Name of the Book
- What is Divination
- Origin, History and Development of the Classic of I,
Using the I-Ching
- This Translation
- Questioning the Oracle
- Getting Answers
- Reading the Response
- Keywords: Traps for Tao
- Encounters with the Oracle
The Global System
- Divination and Traditional Science
- The Time Cycle
- Yin & Yang: Struction and Action
- Yin & Yang: Choice and Change
- The Five Transformative Moments
- The Trigram Cycle

PART II:
A Quick Guide to the Oracle
- Hexagram Texts and their Functions
- Orthography and Punctuation
A List of the Hexagrams
- The Section of the Hexagrams
The Hexagrams 1 to 64

PART III
Concordance
Further Reading
A Key to the Hexagrams

Karcher's approach to the I-Ching has its advantages in that it explains the I-Ching with an understanding of how the mind, itself, works, which may be very helpful for the analytical-minded.

My issue with this translation is that it is handled from a Western psychological approach, which, in my honest opinion, takes away from the Chinese *philosophy* behind it, and reduces the open-ended, free-flowing nature of the work that allows for multiple-interpretations. So, this is a reasonably good translation, but not a great one.

If you are looking for a *logical* approach to understanding the I-Ching, this text certainly wouldn't hurt! It may do well for you. BUT, I would recommend using this text along with another that provides a solid understanding of the Chinese philosophy and thought behind the I-Ching (something sadly lacking in many Western Translations).

"The Complete I Ching: The Definitive Translation" by the Taoist Master Alfred Huang is probably the best English translation of the I-Ching available, as it was written by someone who not only truly understands the culture and philosophy of the Chinese Taoists (he's a Taoist from China himself), but has gone to the effort to kept the open-ended feeling and multiple-interpretation nature of the work in tact.

Best of luck to you.

This version of the Yi-Ching evidently suits some people. But I have a number of reservations about it. It's strong point is that it consciously taps into a 'Jungian' agenda. Jung's ideas are certainly complementary to aspects of the Yi-Ching. But this 'Jungian' perspective is exaggerated, affecting the way the material is approached. My chief reservation here, is the way the translation was kept semantically vague, in the hope that it would somehow reflect something of the open-ended quality of the Chinese text. In this respect, the authors try - perhaps too hard, to do their readers work for them, unpacking bits of line symbolism piecemeal, without making their intrin- sic connection clear. I suppose this was meant to widen the psychological parameters - presenting a kind of larger 'Rorcharch' ink-blot to look out, as it were. It was an interesting experiment - which has its applicability, but at times, the readings seem needlessly obscure. For example, in
# 7 Shih: The Army - why be so literal, putting 'Left' - when it is clear that 'Left' means to be in 'retreat' - and 'right,' to advance. Again, it seems arbitrary to translate 'chang-tzu' as 'Longer-lived brother' - when it clearly means 'elder-brother' - in contrast to the Ti-tzu, or younger brother. Why this excessive thirst for unpacking detail? - when the primary symbols - from the Chinese point of view, are the 'kua' (i.e. trigram relationships). Although the authors noted the 'inner' and 'outer' trigrams etc., their relevance is almost displaced, by the focus on breaking down line texts. When it comes to a 'Jungian' type approach to the Yi-Ching, I don't think anyone has bettered Carol Anthony's books -summing up the archetypal situations reflected in the kua/hexagrams, without all this semantic obfuscation.
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The I Ching is a tool, or a formalized framework, for accessing your own intuition. Most versions of it have commentaries that lead you through the meaning of your answer in a very friendly and accessible way. This book takes a different approach: It leaves the original text in a verse form adhering as closely as possible to the Chinese original, word-for-word. Then it gives a range of possible meanings for each word from the verse. The result is something less verbose, and more directly reaching my feelings and intuitions -- which has allowed me, over the years, to get far more out of the I Ching, as a bold and clear window into life, than I might have otherwise had.

I have the hardbound edition, and have been using it since it came out -- about ten years ago I even had to have it rebound. It's fantastic, and an esthetically pleasing book as well. Its only shortcoming is that it doesn't use the newer pinyin system of transcribing Chinese words.

I have used together all of the listed books, Wilhelm, R.-K., and so on, in a personally directed self-development program for my current life-cylce, i.e., middle-aged and in Crisis, haha, {who among you has not hit the Turning Point and had to examine your life to date and what you wanted to do with what you have left?} and have found that by referrring back and forth to interpret the hexagrams I get, I have "grown up" quite a bit.

The most readable of the translations I've used. My friends ordered it after they saw my copy.

i have used the chou for years - but since 1995 - my students, co-users and other practical people concerned - we all share the sheer appreciation of those who can choose and understand. nevertheless, beginners must be led some way a-head.

I am very, very pleased with the condition of this book and it's timely arrival.

The book is in xint condition was well kept since 96' no marks, no bad pages or frayed page ends.

From cover to cover this owner cared for books..and I am pleased to shrae this one with them..The previous owner in, I belive England, had their name and date of purchase, city, on the cover page, very neatly, I simply wrote mine on the opposite to match name, date and city...I love it..It's like a connection.

Thanks Amazon....will be back very soon...Elaine Moore

Is the best translation i have worked with. As is very difficult would be better to accompany it with a more traditional translation. I would appreciate now a smaller version which puts all terms translated together (as a vocabolary) after the text to minimize redundancy

i love it, it is far superior to any other i ching i've ever looked at. my friends are constantly asking to borrow it because their i ching's suck. i use it all the time.

An exelent translation! It is the freedom of mind and choise encorporated here that is important: Keeping one's symbolic patterns autonomous in growth when useing the text is an oppurtunity of mind-enhansment in tactic/stategic action on one hand, while keeping a critical-historical bottumline on the other. even with scarce chinese (if at all) background but whit just some phylological trainning in the Classics and Hebrew and judeo-christian culture, and as an eager practical-western-modern "divinator" - I'VE FOUND THE USE OF THIS BOOK A GUIDE IN WIDDEING THE HORIZONS OF MY INSIGHTS EVEN AS A TEACHER AND CONSULTANT IN OTHER AREAS OF SYNCHRONISTIC PRACTICE (SUCH AS ASTROLOGY). IT SHOULD BE A MUST FOR ANYONE PLANNING A PROJECT OF TRANSLATION OR EXCHANGE OF CULTURAL CANONS ONTO A UNIVERSAL ARENA. Nevertheless, The most blessed of Barriers, the one of NON-DETERMINIZM present therein, ENTAILING A GREAT DEAL OF PRACTICE IN ANNIHILATING "DEAD-END UNDRSTANDING" OF THE TEXT.

Thus, it could take some time until this book is regarded as it should be: A UNIVERSAL SOLUTION FOR AN ALMOST "RELIGIOUS" CANON. READ AND USE GRADUALY; COMPARE IT WITH ANY OTHER TRANSLATION IN THE PROCESS. YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF TRANSFORMED!