I Ching (Paperback)

by Kerson Huang (Author), Rosemary Huang (Author) "Three thousand years ago in China, revolution brought down the house of Shang, and the mandate of Heaven passed to the Zhou..." (more)
Key Phrases: King Wen, Sign of the Sacrifice, Prince Hai (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A beautiful new translation of the Chinese classic, preserving the starkly poetic voice of the original version and presenting new findings previously available only in Chinese.

From the Back Cover
Three thousand years ago, the I Ching was created as a simple oracle, consulted by farmers and kings alike. Now, stripping away more than two millenia of interpretive distortion and dogma superimposed on the text by successive generations of scholars, world-renowned physicist Kerson Huang and his wife Rosemary have succeeded in restoring the book to its original form.

In this important new translation, the Huangs reveal the stark poetry of the authentic I Ching, reconstruct the numerous historical tales that were once an essential element of the text, and present the hexagrams and their judgements clearly and concisely. Most importantly, they allow the ancient classic to serve its intended purpose as a practical handbook for divination.

A professor of particle physics at MIT, Kerson Huang has been consulting the I Ching since his childhood in Canton. He brings to this work both a unique ability to bridge the cultures of East and West, and the fascinating perspective of the scientific mind confronting the great mysteries of the human soul.

"Rosemary and Kerson Huang, poet and physicist-poet, have made a superb translation and appreciation of the bone-old book." -Phillip Morrison, author of Powers of Ten

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Product Details

• Paperback: 207 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (January 10, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0894803190
• ISBN-13: 978-0894803192
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #823,192 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful introduction to the I Ching, April 25, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

I have had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of several other books on the I Ching of late and have found that this one is very user friendly. I rather liked the fact that the book goes to an older tradition than the Confucian version with its over burdened moralizing. This is nice and straight forward, unlike the Confucian version translated in to German by the Christian laden Wilhelm and then into English by Baynes.

This I Ching is a delight to use.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Version of the I-Ching, August 14, 2001

By	auati "auati" (USA) - See all my reviews

The Problem with the I Ching is that you can't tell which version to buy without reading the actual text from the book, which you can not do over the computer. You actually need to go to a physical store and compare the different translations of the I-Ching and see which version suits you best, BUT THIS VERSION IS THE BEST. Its the one I bought after going to the store and reading and comparing the other versions.

The text is so much more readable and understandable than the other versions of the I-Ching they sell. It at times seems like someone who knows what you are doing is talking to you when you ask a question and then read the text from this book. Its not a jumble of confusion like the other versions. That is what made me buy the book.

Other versions of the I- Ching have lines that can not be understood, and didn't seem to realate to the question i asked. Every line of text in this book is clear to read, understand and I could usually just read the sentences and know how they related to the question I asked. That is not always true with the I ching. When the sentences in the other I-ching books don't make sense you have to figure them out before you can even apply them to your question. That does not happen with this book. It reads like someone is "talking" to you. The sentences just make sense.

Also, there is a very easy to undersand chart in the back of the book on how to form a hexagram some books leave this out or the chart is difficult to understand. In summary this book makes the I- Ching understandable.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thumbs up - Way Up, April 27, 1997

By A Customer

If you have the patience for the historical data that fills up the front end of this nifty little volume, you'll find possibly the most clear, insightful guide to the I Ching on the market. This translation dumps a huge amount of dogmatic, confucianist baggage that has been tacked on and still clings to most translations and what remains is not only more true to the oracle's roots - it's much easier to understand. I've read many translations, and I've found that sixty percent of what you read in most translations is unnecessary and repetitive and redundant :). This clean, simple text reminds me very much of the work of Stephen Mitchell