Customer Reviews

Zhouyi: A New Translation with Commentary of the Book of Changes (Durham East Asia Series)

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I have read many books on I Ching but this is the best byfar. It is the only one which made its history as a text clear tome. The so called Zhouyi is the portion set in writing during the Zhou(later Chinese bronze age). Most of what we consider I Ching is actually commentary from the Han, half a milennium later. Rutt restores the early primitive text which was used for such things as deciding the auspicious occasion for (human?) sacrifices. Rutt sees the Zhou Yi as neither moral or spiritual. We can then see how the Confucian tradition made something quite different of the text with the addition of the Ten Wings. Rutt translates the original Zhou text which consists of what are the hexagram statements and line texts in later forms.He also translates the Ten Wings separately, rather than mixed with the Zhou text as Wilhelm and later Chinese editions do. Rutt's book is the best on the actual, as opposed to mythical text of the Changes. Yet he includes its history in the west and a section entitled, the Fascination of Zhouyi. If you have a serious interest in I Ching, you MUST read this book. It does not supercede the classic Wilhelm/Baynes translation but does far better in letting us see it also as an ancient Chinese text.

There is everything here about the history of the I Ching. Richard Rutt has used among others the studies by Kunst on the oldest meaning of the book (that was lost to the later Confucian commentators of the Ten Wings) to attempt a translation that comes as close as possible to the original meaning. . This brings Bronze Age China back to life, a civilization that even performed human sacrifices. A must for all serious I Ching lovers.

I have investigated a large number of English translations of the I Ching and this is the only one I know of that provides serious historical background, including the latest archaeological data and the Mawangdui bamboo strip texts, and a critical approach. In addition to the history of the book there are histories and descriptions of various forms of divination that are presented in a scientific/anthropological fashion, as well as a history of the reception of the book in the West. I was a little alarmed by the rhyming translations of the actual text at first (they can sound rather trite in comparison with Wilhelm/Baynes), but good justifications are given to show that this is the form the original took and that it is similar to the style of the Book of Odes.
For readers with critical intelligence and a sense of history, this is the only English edition of the I Ching that can be taken seriously.