Heaven, Earth, And Man In The Book Of Changes [Paperback]

Hellmut Wilhelm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 14, 2011

The I Ching, or Book of Changes, was the first of the Five Confucianist Classics and served as the well-spring of both Confucianist and Taoist thought. Following in the tradition of his father, Richard Wilhelm who made the best known and most respected translation of the I Ching, Hellmut Wilhelm here carries forward his inquiry into the significance of the I Ching, both as a manual of divination and as a work of philosophy.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Hellmut Wilhelm, son of the great I Ching translator Richard, inherited a love and fascination for this Chinese text. In Heaven, Earth, and Man in the Book of Changes, Wilhelm the younger brings together seven lectures targeted to nonspecialist audiences. Each lecture centers on the I Ching, developing a theme, and then marching off into philosophy, poetry, and history. A particularly satisfying example is lecture five, "The Interaction of Heaven, Earth, and Man." In this piece, Wilhelm examines the work of an intellectual named Yang Hsiung, who in his early years was a poet but later abandoned poetry for philosophy. Yang's major work is an imitation of the I Ching, in which he uses graphs of four lines instead of six, each of which can be divided twice, for a total of 81 possible arrangements. The work is an expression of great humanism, which Wilhelm outlines in order to segue into the humanism of the I Ching. A rather demanding study of the I Ching, Heaven, Earth, and Man in the Book of Changes is rewarding for its forays into areas rarely traversed with such range and intellectual acumen. --Brian Bruya

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: University of Washington Press (November 14, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295956925
• ISBN-13: 978-0295956923
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,342,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars General as well as in-depth material available, December 23, 2011

By 

Han Jie (Wroclaw) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heaven, Earth, And Man In The Book Of Changes (Paperback)

"Heaven, Earth, and Man in the Book of Changes" is a collection of papers delivered by Hellmut Willhelm at the Eranos meetings held in the 1950s. Picking up where his father Richard, the renowned scholar, left off, the book touches upon a variety of subjects directly and indirectly related to "Yi Jing", or, the first book in the Chinese canon, "The Book of Changes".

The book is divided into seven papers. The first two, "The Concept of Time" and "The Creative Principle", provide an overview of the history and philosophical underpinnings of "Yi Jing". The two concepts innate to Chinese culture, these papers offer a good starting point for those unfamiliar with the origins of the book, particularly its relationship to Daoism and Chinese mythology, and the fundamental principles underlying its intent. The third paper, "Human Events and Their Meaning" moves to the abstract, particularly the transcendence of the moment - fate or destiny, as it were. The book is approached from a practical stance, however, rather than one involving the supernatural or the divinitive. The fourth and fifth papers, "The `Own City' as the Stage of Formation" and "The Interaction of Heaven, Earth, and Man" attempt to locate physical representations of "Yi Jing" throughout history and humankind. The arguments weak but unprovable, Wilhelm cites the abandonment and traditional layout of cities as the result of "Yi Jing" in the former, and the uniqueness of humanity as being the result of its position between the heaven and the earth in the latter. This essay the most specious, Wilhelm attempts to use a more modern Chinese philosopher's matrix for change as proof against the original, all too poor effect. The last two papers, however, "Wanderings of the Spirit" and "The Interplay of Image and Concept" deal more with the concrete aspects of "Yi Jing" and are therefore sustained by less fallible research.

Throughout these seven papers Wilhelm makes ample use of the 64 hexagrams as examples supporting his claims. The numerological aspect of "Yi Jing" glossed only briefly, readers looking for knowledge on the more mystical or spiritual side of "The Book of Changes" should look elsewhere. More in the vein of Levi-Strausse, Eliade, Frye, Campbell, or Jung, Wilhelm instead approaches "Yi Jing" as his father: a scholar. As a result, the readings, though often debatable, are in the vein of 20th century Western critique. Symbolism and allegory in full bloom, analogies are drawn not only amongst the hexagrams, but amongst world philosophy, mythology, and conceptual allusion, as well. A smattering of Chinese poetry, history, and philosophy round out the work. Aside from dialectic matters, the main complaint would be that the book contains no graphs or pictures. Though constantly referencing the variety of castings possible, no map or plan of the hexagrams exists, though it often would have gone far toward providing pictorial support for Wilhelm's lines of reasoning.

In the end, this book will undoubtedly prove interesting for people with general interest in "Yi Jing" or more seasoned experts. Whether they agree with Wilhelm's interpretations or not, the content is there for critique and sourced properly. All others deciding whether or not to purchase this book should cast yarrow stalks.