James LeggeBesprekingen

One of the most important books in the history of Oriental culture is the I Ching, or as it is usually called in English, the Book of Changes. Its basic text seems to have been prepared before 1,000 B.C., in the last days of the Shang Dynasty and the first part of the Chou Dynasty. It was one of the Five Classics edited by Confucius, who is reported to have wished he had fifty more years of life to study it. Since the time of Confucius it has never lost its enormous significance; it has been used by Confucianists and Taoists alike, by learned literary scholars and street shamans, by the official state cult and by private individuals. Basically, the I Ching is a manual of divination, founded upon what modern scholars like Wolfgang Pauli, the Nobel Laureate physicist and C.G. Jung, the psychoanalyst, have called the synchronistic concept of the universe. This means that all things happening at a certain time have certain characteristics features which can be isolated, so that in addition to vertical causalty, one may also have horizontal linkages. According to tradition, King Wan and his son the Duke of Chou spent their lives analyzing the results of divination in terms of interacting polar forces and six-variables hexagrams, correlating an observed body of events with predictions. Whether this account is true or not, the I Ching still retains its pimacy in Chinese thought. Apart from its enormous value in Oriental studies, the I Ching is very important in the history of religions, history of philosophy, and even in certain aspects of modern Western thought. It is one of the very few divination manuals that have survived into modern times, and it is typologically interesting as perhaps the most developed, most elaborate system that is known in detail. In philosophy, it marks a stage in the development of human thought, while the I Ching has recently become a very important in the understanding of certain cultural developments in the Western world. This present work is the standart English translation by the great Sinologist James Legge, prepared for the Sacred Books of the East series. It contains the basic text attribued to King Wan and the Duke of Chou, the ten appendices usually attributed to Confucius, a profound introduction by Legge, and exhaustive footnotes explaining the text for a Western reader. Unabridged republication of the second, 1899, edition, originally published as Volume XVI of the Sacred Books of the East. Six plates. xxi 448 pp. 5 3/8 x 8 1/2. Contents Preface Chapter I The Yi King from the twelfth century B.C. to the commencement of the Christian Era There was a Yi in the time of Confucius. The Yi is now made up of the text which Confucius saw, and the Appendixes ascribed to him. The Yi escaped the fires of Xhin. The Yi before Confucious, and when it was made: mentioned in the Official Book of Kau; in the Xi Khwan; testimony of the Appendixes. Not the most ancient of the Chinese books. The text much older than the Appendixes. Labours of native scholars on the Yi imperfectly described. Erroneous account of the labours of sinologists. Chapter II The subject-matter of the Text. The lineal figures and the explanation of them The Yi consists of essays based on lineal figures. Origin of the lineal figures. Who first multiplied them to sixty-four? Why they were not continued after sixty-four. The form of the River Map. State of the cuntry in thetime of king Wan. Wan in prison occupied with the lineal figures. The seventh hexagram. Chapter III The Appendixes Subjects of the chapter. Number and nature of the Appendixes. Their authorship. No superscription of Confucius on any of them. The third and fourth evidentliy not from him. Bearing of this conclusion on the others. The first Appendix. Fu-hsi's trigrams. King Wan's. The name Kwei-shan. The second Appendix. The Great Sybolisim. The third Appendix. Harmony between the lines of the figures ever changing, and the changes in external phenomena. Divination; ancient, and its object. Formation of the lineal figures by the divining stalks. The names Yin and Yang. The name Kwei-shan. Shan alone. The fourth Appendix. The fifth. First paragaph. Myghology of the Yi. Operation of God in nature throughout the year. Concluding paragraphs. The sixth Appendix. The seventh. Plates I, II, III exhibiting the hexagrams and trigrams.

12/7/21

The Chinese concept of “wu-wei,” “effortless action,” brings to mind the words of Christ to the Pharisee Saul on the road to Damascus, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). Unlike Saul "kicking against the goads," "wu-wei" is more akin to the words in Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make plain your paths." Perhaps, if we are living like that, we will also be following the Tao, “the Way,” whom some believe to be Christ, Who calls Himself the Way.

good breakdown of the palimpsestual nature of the text, but he does little to historically situate the layers, and the book is rendered difficult to use by the haphazard and unnecessarily disjointed organization of the various texts, commentaries, footnotes, etc.

Beautiful illustrations and binding but print is small.½

Still difficult to grasp. Incomplete. Bad copy½

2.5 stars

Paths of Virtue (ISBN 9780810984097) is James Legge's translation of the Dao De Jng with pictures from The Cleveland Museum of Art. It's a good thing the pictures are good, because Legge's translation is terrible, drifting from bad 19th century verse to prose (with rhyme but without reason)

A translation of the famous Nestorian stele in Xi'an China. This printing also includes the Chinese text on facing pages. An excellent translation and good introduction to the history of Christianity in early China.

This translation is very early, which I assume to be the reason for the clumsiness of the translation. However, it is quite interesting to read a late 19th century Western mind's grappling with Eastern, non-linear philosophy... the Christian mental framwork whence he works makes for quite interesting commentary.

Older translation still widely used

Traditionally historical documents from the Shang/Chou transition and beyond. Later interpreted as embodying Confucian principles (rule by good example etc.), though Shaughnessy feels originally the transition was more violent than these texts indicate.

Very detailed Confucian ceremonial rules. About as exciting as Leviticus, but worth reading for their long-lasting influence
on Chinese religion as actually performed

2.5 stars