Customer Reviews

I Ching (Elements of)

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I am hesitant to criticize Prof. Karcher, because he has done such splendid work in introducing people to the I Ching. His best work still, to my mind, was the translation and study of the I Ching that he did with Prof. Ritsema, and I highly recommend that book. But Karcher's later work was rather more superficial, with a kind of forced mysticism and new age display: many of his interpretations read more like the horoscope from the daily newspaper than a true study of the inner teachings of the I Ching. For those who really aren't interested in making the I Ching a part of their inner lives and fully benefiting from its immensely practical wisdom and insight into the relation and interconnection between inner life and outer action, then I suppose Karcher's later work (such as this one) is fine. For those who truly wish to explore the I Ching without the dress of a mildly pompous mysticism, I would recommend Lynn's presentation of the Wang Bi ms., the justly admired Wilhelm translation, Greg Whincup's wonderful distilling of the original text, and any of Carol Anthony's outstanding commentaries to the I Ching.

While many folks are familiar with the excellent Baynes/Wilhelm edition of the I Ching, Dr. Stephen Karcher's superb "Elements of the I Ching" wins my vote for the best "everyday" version of this classic Chinese oracle. As co-director of the Eranos Foundation's massive I Ching project that produced a definitive 800+ page version of the work, Dr. Karcher is one of the great modern authorities on this sometimes elusive book of ancient divinatory wisdom. What makes "The Elements of the I Ching" so special is that, for the first time, we have a concise adaptation of the work that is both an accurate interpretation of the ancient original texts and remarkably easy to understand. Another benefit to this edition is Dr. Karcher's introduction of a new way to consult the I Ching that is not only as easy as the common "three coins" method, but also retains the mathematical model underlying the traditional(and laborious) "yarrow stalk" method. I own seven different versions of the I Ching, and this is my favorite.