Customer Reviews

The Original I Ching Oracle: The Pure and Complete Texts with Concordance

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To provide context, I bought this as part of a course on I Ching meditation. It was my first exposure to the I Ching, and it was recommended to try to read it three times before the course. The introduction was well written and informative. On the other hand, I found the book itself extremely frustrating to read - the first time. I never made it to the second.

The "easiest" part of translation is going from a word in one language to a word in another. The great problem with translation is, not only that there may not be an exact word in another language, but that a word may carry connotations and allusions which frequently differ from one language to the other. Further, those connotations or allusions can vary depending on the context. So the great challenge of translation is to choose the word which best describes not only the primary meaning but the "cloud" of secondary connotations and allusions that accompany it in that particular context. Words can also change their meaning with time: for example, several hundred years ago the word awful meant to fill someone with awe, whereas nowadays it means something terrible.

Then, after choosing the best words, the next great problem is stringing them together in a way that maintains the sense of the original while reading well in the second language. This may require rearranging the order to maintain the sense. Thus, one can easily imagine that translating an ancient text such as the I Ching, with the continuous succeeding millennia of Chinese literature and commentary adding so much accretion of meaning to the original texts, from the archaic Chinese to modern English, would be a formidable problem.

The Eranos "solution" to this problem is to provide a translation of the primary meaning of each character in the I Ching, along with "fields of meaning" which contain the possible secondary connotations of the primary word, without choosing among them or explaining the context. They also provide the minimal amount of connecting words between the characters. This is similar to taking a Chinese to English dictionary, translating character by character and printing the result. Often the consequence is incomprehensible pidgin English - for example, "to obstruction belongs in-no-way people." Or this, "Beings not permitted to use completing exceeding." Huh? Yes, every single word is English. If you whack at it hard enough you might be able to bludgeon some sense out of it - but does it mean what the original Chinese meant? No idea.

They also choose obscure English words such as "feudatories." Anybody who knows what that means raise their hands. I thought so. Hint: it means vassals - can anyone think of a good reason not to use the more common word?. Would any native English speaker choose that word? It seems to be the result of the translators going from a second language - Chinese - to their third language, English.

The introduction claims this is the result of a lifetime of study, but to what end? To put it bluntly, the hard work of actually translating has largely not been done. This is not so much a translation as a do-it-yourself translation kit. This is an English translation that needs an English translation. It is probably best used as a secondary source to compare with whatever your primary reading version of the I Ching is - but not to try to read, unless your mind works differently from most.

This book is very useful but should be used only by people who are really acquainted with the subtleties of the Book of Changes. Beginners beware !

I recieved this volume as a gift celebrating my graduation from the university, from my father-in-law, who taught me the basics of eastern thought, but is too impatient to understand the depth of the archetypal language found in this volume. However, It would be safe to say that anyone reading and writing at a master's degree level should be comfortable with the subjective associations required by the text. As an architecture student, much of my education was relatively subjective, so the underlying catalysts in the text were simple to activate. However, I would not suggest the book to those looking for a more rigid system of divination such as the tarot, or for those who do not have suffcient experience in archetypal langauge and cultures.

There's a sucker born every minute and five to take him ! Here's a conglomeration - a convoluted, weighty, TOME - "produced under the auspices of The Eranos Foundation ( a Swiss "THINK TANK" ) and of course, I'm supposed to believe that what it contains is of course, "authentic", unadulterated, completely true to its originating culture and that culture's prevailing mindset! No thanks. I purchased this absurdity ( over 800 pages of drivel ) and laughed as I read through it. Too bad more Chinese don't comment on it; especially Chinese who have spent their lives studying and using the Yi. This junk-in-print was supposed to have taken "OVER 60 YEARS" to compile....yep.......a "Think Tank" under a "Foundation" spending OVER 60 YEARS putting together a single book. I mean, you really have to see this thing's content to grasp where I'm going with this review. I wonder how many Chinese this "Think Tank" consulted while producing this appalling heap of words they call a "Translation"?
Keep in mind that oracles are supposed to trigger your psychological mechanisms into play which ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION in order for your to consciously "get it". "The Plum Flower Mind" system IS A MEANS OF WORKING THE ORACLE FOR MUCH MORE PRECISE ANSWERS THAN YOU CAN GET FROM COINS OR STALKS ! AND THIS "THINK TANK" COMPLETELY MISSED IT AND FAILED TO INCLUDE IT IN THIS 800+ PAGE ABSURDITY!!! HOW'S THAT FOR "AUTHENTIC" AND "OVER 60 YEARS WORTH OF RESEARCH"??!!!. Keep in mind that even the ultra-precise and exceedingly accurate "PLUM FLOWER MIND" system of working the Yi Ching ( which employs date and time rather than yarrow stalks or coins or dice ) STILL produces a breakdown of the hexagrams and specific scrutiny of the trigrams in a way that the user's deeper consciousness must be triggered. But take this 60+ Years worth of "research" MESS in contrast! By the time you weed through its INSANE method of correspondences and its storm of terms and words, you'll be further away from any meaningful response to your question than ever. There is nothing simple about the way this book's content is supposed to be employed or function, and unfortunately its simplicity that triggers deeper conscious realizations. The only thing this text is good for is to act as a door stop. A far, far, FAR BETTER AND ACCURATE "Translation" for "AUTHENTIC" content is "THE ESSENTIALS OF THE YI JING" by Chung Wu Ph.D. Get it if you want "The REAL THING" and forget about this 800+ Page nonsensical foolishness. Essentials of Yi Jing