The Taoist Classics, Volume 4: The Taoist I Ching: I Ching Mandalas

The Taoist Classics: The Collected Translations of Thomas Cleary #4

by Thomas Cleary

This collection of Taoist texts The Taoist I The classic tool for understanding the heart of any situation—illuminated by the commentary of the nineteenth-century Taoist adept Liu I-ming I Ching A traditional program of study that enables students of the I Ching to achieve a deeper understanding of its philosophy

Genres: Taoism, Philosophy, Religion, Reference

656 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Dr. Thomas Francis Cleary, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University; J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley), was a prolific translator of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Muslim classics, with a particular emphasis on popular translations of Mahāyāna works relevant to the Chan, Zen, and Soen systems.

Reviews

[Gahlord Dewald · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are, of course, a zillion translations of this work. The work itself is a translation with additional layers of commentaries.

What I enjoy about Cleary's approach is that he starts with clear, well-written essays on the context of the work itself and the author he's translating. His translations are not overly flowery spacey '60s stuff. Nor are they hardened "let's do Chinese philosophy for tough American linebacker businessmen."

I particularly found useful the idea he presents of divination techniques being a cultural workaround for an absolute divine ruler to get feedback and information from trusted advisers without undermining his own authority.

The I Ching itself is a classic text that discusses change, states of conflict, includes suggestions on when and how to apply force or flexibility, and is enjoyable to read as literature or philosophy without the need to layer on mysticism.

[Harper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the Lines and Hexagram translation of the I Ching, but everything else in this volume was claustrophobic in it's minute analysis. After reading the first 3 volumes of Taoist Classics, this was by far the weakest. You had just finished learning that overthinking things wasn't helpful to Taoism and then you read 450pages of Liu I-Ming's painfully stodgy writing that confuses meaning more often than clarifying.