Authentic I-ching Paperback – January 1, 1995

Book was old and did not meet my expectation

This is an excellent translation and despite the lack of bibliography, a very scholarly work. The endnotes are sufficient to trace his sources and serve well for useful further reading.The genesis and meaning of the trigrams is made very clear with eight useful diagrams. The mystique of the the hexagrams is explained with a well illustrated discussion on the binary code. Despite the I Ching's obvious connection to the binary principle (through its derivation from the idea of the opposing and complementary forces of Yin-Yang) it is often bipassed in I Ching scholarship or only given sparse attention.Short chapters on the birth of the text and Confucius and the Ten Wings give a simple overview of the lives of the King Wen, the Duke of Chou and Confucius and their contribution to the genesis of the I Ching as we know it today.He is the only I Ching scholar that, I know of, to honour the place Chinese Medicine and five element theory have in relationship to I Ching cosmology. This makes it accessible to Westerners who may approach the I Ching from studying Chinese medicine.The text for each hexagram is very well laid out, separating what in Wilhelm's and other translations is confusing - Confucius, King Wen and Duke of Chou's explanation of the lines. He has isolated King Wen's judgement from Confucius' explanation of King Wen's judgement (where he explains the structural meaning of the relationship of the inner and outer trigrams). The following sections on the `Symbolic Signifcance of the Hexagram by Confucius' builds up the logic of the hexagrams meaning nicely. The `Duke of Chou's Explanation of the Lines' and `Confucius Comment Thereon' give clear interpretation of each line of each of the sixty four hexagrams. This makes each hexagram and its interpretation and discussion authoritative, clear and satisfying .I was very grateful for Henry Wei's cultural familiarity with the text. His sociological knowledge illucidated hexagram comentaries and lines which remain obscure in other translations and the text is much enlivened by them. Besides his style is very comfortable to read.I would certainly like a copy in my library for its clarification on many obscurities of translation in most other editions. For instance he solves what are in most translations puzzling renderings of the top line of Hexagram 17 by stating both variations of meaning, rather than opting for one.He does indeed, as he intended, `contribute to a deeper and better understanding of the inherent virtue of the glorious I Ching'.