The Original I Ching

Often referred to as the Eranos edition, this revised and updated translation offers the most substantial advance in I Ching since Richard Wilhelm introduced the oracle to the West in the 1920s.

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Containing a fully updated Introduction, this is the latest “state of the art” version of what is commonly referred to as the Eranos I Ching or Eranos Yijing (the phonetic transcription of the Mandarin Chinese). Based on over 60 years of research, it represents the most substantial advance in I Ching scholarship since Richard Wilhelm introduced the oracle to the West in the 1920s.

The Eranos I Ching takes a unique approach to the oracle, considering it an exploration of potential synchronicities, rather than assuming that it can foretell the future. Thus, consulting the I Ching is like evoking a dream about a specific situation, and responsibility for the interpretation rests firmly with the consultant.

The Eranos I Ching adopts an innovative translation technique, based on “core-words” and “fields of meaning”, that allows a Western reader to access the multi-faceted nature of the original Chinese text, rather than being bound to the interpretation of a given translator.

Consulting the oracle involves:

• Asking a question that is emotionally significant for you – the more specific the better.

• Casting a hexagram by dividing and counting a bunch of yarrow stalks or tossing three coins six times.

• Reading your hexagram and “rolling the words in your heart”, as the Chinese would say.