Customer Reviews

The I Ching or Book of Changes

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The pages written by Dr. Jung alone are worth reading. I've gotten very amazing answers using the oracle. The answers that were incomprehensible may have had something to do with my less than perfect "Ling". Also, the Instructions for consulting the oracle are in the back of the book. (Look in the table of contents)

Have you ever wondered how the duality of exhistance ought to be? Why society seems so profoundly different from the oddness of our predetermined day? Indulge in this great read. There is no other - that can compete with well over six thousand years of tried and true universal truths. You know, the unspoken beauty that eminates from our event horizon. Not quite following me? Get the book, read it, love it and just be. Raise your conscience to a more universal level.

This book is my first exposure to I Ching divination. Mr. Wilhelm went through a lot of detail except he forgot to mention just how does one use it... but no matter. The information like "9th line in the second place... can be found on the internet). This book is so detailed that it's not something I'd recommend sitting down and reading, you'd get lost (or bored). It's more like an unfinished sculpture that you keep chipping at mentally. Armed with the basics, 3 pennies, and the book, you can start divining immediately. I must say that the book's answers are uncanny. You can ask questions on the past, present and future (even other people...:-)) And somehow the hexagrams line up exactly to answer your question. The language is a bit old-fashioned and it takes some intuition to figure out what the I Ching is telling you based on Wilhem's explanation alone. This translation should be on your shelf as a reference, even you eventually get a simpler breakdown of the I Ching. I recommend it.

Like C.G. Jung, I consider my I Ching, along with the Bible
and the Koran, one of the most important books I own. It is
a holy book, and the Wilhelm/Baynes translation is the best.
I recommend it unreservedly to anyone seriously interested
in the ancient yet timeless Chinese view of the cosmos.

The i ching has fascinated me for some years now, yet, i had been unable to find a good edition of it. Most of them were incomplet, most clouded on wastern thought after the translation, or simply non fullfiling. THis one edition, though, is good enough for me.

The I Ching is arguably the most important of the ancient Chinese classics--certainly it has become that for us Americans. The Wilhelm/Baynes translation is almost universally accepted to be the most important of the many translations into English. It requires patience and many uses before it begins to move slowly from humorous diversion to friend to spiritual counselor to guru. As noted psychiatrist Carl Jung (an I Ching user) said, it's best not to try to understand how it works--an action that goes nowhere and only causes lost sleep. 'Better just to use it. It has a special benefit for perfectionists--a gospel without the taint of organized religion, the I Ching and everything about it is always pure. There are no scandals, no crusades, no inquisitions. Try to misuse it and you'll get goblydygook instead of a meaningful answer, so it remains pure under any circumstances. This fact can be of great comfort to the spiritual seeker put off by the the problems of organized religion. This has been the most important book in my life for 37 years.

There are a considerable number of translations of the Yi Jing on the market. For my money, this is still the benchmark. It is true that it is old, and it was a translation of a German version, but such things are not all that unusual in the world of translating; to date, the best all-around Arabic-English Dictionary - the Wehr-Cowan - is a German translation.

People use this version for divination, but I feel that Wilhelm's translation is primarily a text for studying and meditation, and I find the depth of his version still surpasses any other that I have seen. If you consider the Yi Jing to be a serious book, you should obtain this translation, if only to supplement your understanding of the matter.

I have been using this now-classic translation of the Book of Changes as a divinatory tool since 1968. Profoundly, elegantly transmitted from the literary Chinese, through Helmut Wilhelm's Goethe-quoting German, and finally into spiritually delicious English prose by the gifted Carey Baynes. A great pleasure of this volume is that you can sense all three aesthetic layers very clearly. This is the most-used book in my library. I'll admit, it gets a too deep sometimes. I've seen people burn their I Ching's when the truth got a little too intense for them. But if you want a sophisticated, accurate, and reliable divinatory tool that repays infinite sincere study, this is the best book in English. If I had only one book to bring to a desert island, this would be the one.

I have read many translations..worked with some of them. But the Richard Wilhelm edition has the must knowledge and the deepest meanings inside. The book will grow on you working with it.

Richard Wilhelm worked closely with chinese scholars for this translation. In other reviews is talked about the fact that Richard Wilhelm was biased as a Christian...don't let them fool you. Richard Wilhelm was deeply aware of the Chinese thoughts and makes this the best and profoundest translation there is.

At first, I found this version to be nearly incomprehensible after having used Walker's translation. I now think that Wilhem's translation is indispensible because of the commentaries but that it needs an additional volume such as Walker's to make it more accessible. My own copy of Wilhelm now has handwritten notes from Walker to make some of the more dense passages easier to understand. Does the I Ching really work? My own experience is that it does about 90% of the time when I spend time in quiet meditation before consulting it. How it does is a mystery. I prefer to think in terms of it mirroring the unconscious at the moment that the coins are cast rather than assume a more supernatural explanation.