The Original I Ching Oracle: The Pure and Complete Texts with Concordance

Dilettantes who are seeking a brief, basic introduction to the I Ching, the classic text of Chinese divination, will want to look elsewhere. At more than 850 pages, with numerous annotations and highly technical explanations about textual divergences and linguistic issues, this is not for the beginner. Novices will be lost in the precise and specialized discussions of hexagrams, outer and inner trigrams, and transforming lines. However, readers who have already dipped their toes into the I Ching (which is usually translated as the Classic of Change) will relish this sophisticated and detailed full translation, produced under the auspices of the Eranos Foundation, a Swiss think tank. It offers what may be the first-ever complete concordance of the text, an index of sorts to every appearance of every character-or ""core word""-used in the entire document. This will prove useful to serious students of Chinese spirituality, and to those who want to not only read the I Ching but to use it as a textbook for the practice of divination. To this end, the editors include advice on ""interrogating the oracle,"" or using the text to obtain answers to specific questions or guidance on a decision. The book's design is also a plus, with bold reds punctuating a layout that is rich in tables and illustrations.