Hellmut Wilhelm > Quotes

“(T)his is precisely the importance of the world-view described in the Book of Changes: there is no situation without a way out. All situations are stages of change. Therefore, even when things are most difficult we can plant the seed for a new situation that will preserve within itself the present situation, though we must be capable of adapting and finding the proper attitude.”
― Richard and Hellmut Wilhelm

“Every position in life is balanced by creating a harmony between the inner self and the surrounding world.”
― Hellmut Wilhelm, Understanding the I Ching

“To become aware of what is constant in the flux of nature and life is the first step in abstract thinking. The recognition of regularity in the courses of the heavenly bodies and in the succession of seasons first provides a basis for a systematic ordering of events, and this knowledge makes possible a calendar. ... Simultaneously with this concept, a system of relationships comes into the idea of the world. Change is not something absolute, chaotic, and kaleidoscopic; its manifestation is a relative one, something connected with fixed points and a given order.”
― Hellmut and Richard Welhelm

“One turns back and submits to fate, changes one's attitude, and finds peace in perseverance.”
― Hellmut Wilhelm, The I Ching or Book of Changes

“The wise man gladly leaves fame to others. He does not seek to have credited to himself things that stand accomplished, but hopes to release active forces; that is, he completes his works in such a manner that they may bear fruit for the future.”
― Hellmut Wilhelm, The I Ching or Book of Changes

“The situations depicted in the Book of Changes are the primary data of life -- what happens to everybody, every day, and what is simple and easy to understand.”
― Hellmut Wilhelm Understanding the I Ching

“It may occasion surprise that the decree of a temporal power sufficed to give the classics a position that can be compared in other cultures to the place of sacred scriptures inspired by divine revelation.”
― Understanding the I Ching THe Wilhelm Lectures on the Book of Changes by Hellmut Wilhelm and Richard

“According to a Confucian view, there are four steps in social develpment, wrote Wilhem (Sr.). There are the individual, the family, the state, and mankind. The West had always emphasized the individual and the state. Individual development is extolled, and the single human being is regarded as central and as an atom of society. Over-emphasis on the function of the individual has led to deterioration of the family. Unlike Westerners, the Chinese have given greater weight to family and mankind. The consciousness of the individual is contained in the family, and since traditional China considered itself the world, Chinese considered themselves responsible for humankind rather than for the state.”
― Hellmut Wilhelm, Understanding the I Ching

“It is no accident that, of the early Jesuit scholars who were pioneers in making China's culture known in Europe, those who concerned themselves with the Book of Changes were all later declared to be insane or heretic. Indeed, to the Chinese themselves the study of the I Ching is not to be taken lightly. By an unwritten law, only those advanced in years regard themselves as ready to learn from it. Confucius is said to have been seventy years old when he first took up the Book of Changes.”
― Hellmut Wilhelm, Understanding the I Ching

“(T)he essential thing is to keep in mind all the strata that go to make up the book. Archaic wisdom from the dawn of time, detached and systematic reflections of the Confucian school in the Chou era, pithy sayings from the heart of the people, subtle thoughts of the leading minds: all these disparate elements have harmonized to create the structure of the book as we know it.”
― Hellmut and Richard Wilhelm Understanding the I Ching

“Clouds rise up to heaven:
The image of WAITING.
Thus the superior man eats and drinks,
is joyous and of good cheer.”
― Hellmut Wilhelm, The I Ching or Book of Changes

“Therefore, the eight trigrams are frequently coordinated with the day, and they can of course also be correlated with the course of the year. ... A cycle of twelve hexagrams from the Book of Changes, the so-called P'i Kua is often also correlated witht he course of the year. ... These eight trigrams, then are coordinated with the times of the day and the cardinal points, and have, in addition, very interesting psychological correlations.”
― Richard and Hellmut Wilhelm Understanding the I Ching

“We are no longer supported by the wise counsel and deep insight of the oracle; therefore we no longer find our way through the mazes of fate and the obscurities of our own natures.”
― Hellmut Wilhelm, The I Ching or Book of Changes

“The first, clearer, type suggests the musical pattern of theme and variations. The chosen theme persists through the six stages, in various aspects. The second type is more difficult to analyze. A recurrent leitmotiv is lacking here; instead six differerent stages whose connection is usually an inner one are joined together in mosaic fashion. But on both types, the so-called judgment is the tenor which is maintained through all the changes.”
― Hellmut and Richard Wilhelm Understanding the I Ching

“There are many indications that the hexagrams were the original images from which the trigrams were then later abstracted and that the configurations of double lines are derrived from a still later anaysis.”
― Hellmut and Richard Wilhelm Understanding the I Ching