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I Ching: The Book of Changes
FLAME TREE's Great Works That Shape Our World is a new series of definitive books drawing on ancient, medieval and modern writing. Offering a fund of essential knowledge, and spell-binding stories it satisfies every facet of human scientific, philosophical, sociological, romantic, dramatic and mysterious.
Also known as Yî Ching or The Book of Changes , I Ching is an ancient Chinese text of vast historical and cultural influence. Spanning the fields of divination, cosmology, morality and philosophy, with strong links to Confucianism, it has been interpreted in many different ways over the centuries and ultimately demonstrates an early attempt to understand the world and the human place within it. Reviving James Legge’s classic nineteenth century translation, this latest title in a series of Great Works includes an illuminating new introduction that casts fresh light on this fascinating text.
Each book in this series features a new, accessible introduction , specially written for these editions, placing the book in context both as part of the new series, and highlighting its special contribution to the advancement of human understanding; they examine the significance of each work, their impact at time of publication, and their influence today.
Also known as Yî Ching or The Book of Changes , I Ching is an ancient Chinese text of vast historical and cultural influence. Spanning the fields of divination, cosmology, morality and philosophy, with strong links to Confucianism, it has been interpreted in many different ways over the centuries and ultimately demonstrates an early attempt to understand the world and the human place within it. Reviving James Legge’s classic nineteenth century translation, this latest title in a series of Great Works includes an illuminating new introduction that casts fresh light on this fascinating text.
Each book in this series features a new, accessible introduction , specially written for these editions, placing the book in context both as part of the new series, and highlighting its special contribution to the advancement of human understanding; they examine the significance of each work, their impact at time of publication, and their influence today.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published March 15, 2020
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September 9, 2023
Reviewing the I Ching generally is a futile endeavour. How can one hope to review a book that is almost as old as human history? What could I possibly add to the seemingly infinite commentaries by and discussions between scholars much more knowledgable and insightful than me? I’ve decided that I can add pretty much nothing on that score.
I can, however, review this particular edition. The Flame Tree edition takes the James Legge translation of the I Ching complete with his footnotes and introduction and adds a new introduction by Dennis Schilling. Schilling’s introduction is the first source of disappointment. I expected this introduction would help a new reader better understand the text, its appendixes and the content in which it was written. Although it does explain the context fairly well, its explanation of how to read the text and appendixes is sorely lacking. Similarly, it gave no indication of how to navigate Legge’s particular translation and notes.
The second disappointment was the editing. Now- it’s not clear if these editing mistakes were carried over from an older edition, whether deliberately or accidentally, but it looks like someone has scanned an older version of the text, stray printing marks or food stains included, which have then been rendered into new text. Aside from the plethora of redundant punctuation marks, there are peculiar mistakes such as “doer ,” that is clearly supposed to be “does” when read in context. All this made a challenging book all the more so.
I can, however, review this particular edition. The Flame Tree edition takes the James Legge translation of the I Ching complete with his footnotes and introduction and adds a new introduction by Dennis Schilling. Schilling’s introduction is the first source of disappointment. I expected this introduction would help a new reader better understand the text, its appendixes and the content in which it was written. Although it does explain the context fairly well, its explanation of how to read the text and appendixes is sorely lacking. Similarly, it gave no indication of how to navigate Legge’s particular translation and notes.
The second disappointment was the editing. Now- it’s not clear if these editing mistakes were carried over from an older edition, whether deliberately or accidentally, but it looks like someone has scanned an older version of the text, stray printing marks or food stains included, which have then been rendered into new text. Aside from the plethora of redundant punctuation marks, there are peculiar mistakes such as “doer ,” that is clearly supposed to be “does” when read in context. All this made a challenging book all the more so.
Displaying 1 of 1 review