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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<ul>
<li><a href="index.html" class="menu">home</a></li>
<li><a href="about_edit.html" class="menu" style="color:red">about</a></li>
<li><a href="Resources_edit.html" class="menu">resources</a></li>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="about.css">
<title>About</title>
<body>
<p class="top" style="font-size: 1.3vw;" align="center">The <i>I Ching</i>, or <i>Book of Changes</i>, is one of the five Confucian classics composed in
ancient China. While it was originally used for fortune-telling, many have written philosophical interpretations of the text over the course of its long
history. Because of this, the <i>Changes</i> is today regarded primarily as a book of wisdom. It is comprised of multiple layers
of text compiled over many centuries, but here we have included only the very oldest parts. These obscure verses, collectively called the <i>Zhouyi</i>,
are what the later prose-based layers elaborate on. On this site we have provided three of the most influential translations of the <i>Zhouyi</i>:
James Legge's 1882 translation; the 1950 English rendering by Cary F. Baynes of Richard Wilhelm's German translation; and the 2000 translation by
Alfred Huang (see "In Western Culture" for more on these selections). Because of the vast differences between the English and Chinese languages,
each translation is necessarily limited in its ability to convey the original text's meaning. For each of the 64 hexagrams, we have juxtaposed each author's intepretation in the hope
that this will illuminate the meaning of the original Chinese better than any single translation can.<p class="second" style="font-size: 1.3vw;" align="center";>Below we have given a brief overview of the text's history, to better orient the reader.</p>
<center style="font-size:3vw;font-weight:bolder;color:rgb(255,40,40);margin-top:35px;">Origins and Structure</center>
<p style="font-size: 1.3vw;" align="center;">
The <i>I Ching</i> is comprised of the <i>Zhouyi</i> and a series of commentaries on the text, the Ten Wings. The <i>Zhouyi</i> was written during
the Western Zhou period (c. 1045/6-771 BCE). While it is unknown who authored it, tradition attributes the different layers of the <i>Zhouyi</i> to
a succession of legendary figures. Fu Xi, the mythological creator of man, is said to have derived the trigrams—eight figures comprised of split and solid lines—
from observation of the world. These trigrams were then paired in all possible permutations to create the 64 six-line hexagrams. This was done by King Wen, the
legendary founder of the Zhou Dynasty, who is also credited with writing the judgement statements explaining each hexagram. It is debated in the tradition whether
Wen or his son, the Duke of Zhou, wrote the stanzas explaining each of the hexagram's lines. The Ten Wings were purportedly written by Confucius (551-479 BCE).</p>
<center style="font-size:3vw;font-weight:bolder;color:rgb(255,40,40);margin-top:35px;">Methods of Consultation</center>
<p class ="prettyprint" style="font-size: 1.3vw;" align="center">
The methods of consultation have varied over the course of the <i>Changes</i>' history. Initially, stalks from the yarrow plant were used to derive a hexagram.
The original process is unknown, but a method developed by scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200 BCE) has been favored right up to the present. After a series of preliminary rituals,
the stalks would be handled by a priest, who would burn incense, pass a bundle of 50 stalks over the smoke, and in a fomally-worded question would inquire about the
situation of the person who has come to the priest for guidance. The priest would then divide up the stalks according to the process, yielding a hexagram that he would then interpret.
<p class="second" style="font-size: 1.3vw;" align="center";>During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), a simpler method developed. This entailed throwing three coins six times, to derive
each line of the hexagram—bottom to top—based on whether the majority landed heads or tails. When two of the three coins land tails up,
this yields a 7, a solid line. Two coins heads up yield an 8, a split line. Three heads up yield a 9, which also makes a solid. Unlike with 7, however,
a solid line from 9 changes into a split line. Likewise with three tails up, yielding a 6, a split line that changes into a solid one. When the coin tosses yield 6 or 9 for any lines, there
are then two hexagrams: that formed by the original lines, and that hexagram after the 6's and 9's have changed. The reading consists of the judgement and image stanzas for the original hexagram,
the stanzas corresponding to the changing lines, and the judgement and image stanzas for the changed hexagram.</p>
<center style="font-size:3vw;font-weight:bolder;color:rgb(255,40,40);margin-top:35px;">In Western Culture</center>
<p class ="prettyprint" style="font-size: 1.3vw;" align="center">
The first translators of the <i>I Ching</i> into Western languages were a group of Jesuit scholars working in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. These men, the Figurists, believed
the text had originally been brought to China by Shem, the son of Noah, after the great flood described in Genesis. The Figurists were eventually followed by Protestant missionaries who
came to China in the late 19th century. Like the Jesuits before them, most of the missionary translators skewed the meaning of the <i>Changes</i> in their search for Christian themes in the text. Scotsman James Legge was the
exception; his 1882 translation was the first to convey the text's meaning in the context of its own culture.<p class="second" style="font-size: 1.3vw;" align="center";>Many translations of merit
have since been written. Perhaps the most influential is that written by German missionary Richard Wilhelm. Unlike previous translators who addressed an academic audience, Wilhelm designed his book for layreaders, making the text accessible to Westerners in a way that it never had been. Published in 1923, the translation was rendered into English by Cary F. Baynes, a student of famed Swiss psyhcoanalyst
Carl-Gustav Jung, in 1950. Jung, a close friend of Wilhelm, wrote a foreword to the English edition that explained the <i>Changes</i> in terms of his "acausal connecting principle," synchronicity. This foreword
and Wilhelm's reader-friendly style helped the translation gain a wide readership among the spiritual seekers of the 1960s counterculture of the United States and United Kingdom. Among the new users of the <i>Changes</i> were some very
iconic figures, including composer John Cage, sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, and songwriter Bob Dylan.<p class="second" style="font-size: 1.3vw;" align="center";> The most recent translation included on the site
is that completed by Taoist Master Alfred Huang in 2000. Born in China in 1921, Huang is the only translator we have included who is a native Chinese speaker. He studied the <i>I Ching</i> before being imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution. Huang claims that during his 22-year confinement,
the wisdom of the <i>Changes</i> gave him the strength to endure.
</p>
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