The I Ching Introduction

The I Ching is an ancient and profound system of divination comparable to the Tarot or the Runes; and like these, it is much more than the simple fortune-telling device that most use it for today. Its success is indicated by the fact that it is one of the most ancient sacred texts to continue in uninterrupted use to this day; it is at least 3000 years old.

It is, in its essence, a system of classification, of self-analysis, that allows its student to obtain a greater understanding of the nature of external reality and his interior self. When adequately studied, the I Ching allows one to engage in deep contemplation and to receive practical advice to the challenges of the moment.

In spite of this, there are certain challenges faced by the student of the I Ching, particularly the western student; whether he is a beginner, someone versed in western mysticism, or someone who has attempted to study eastern mysticism. Issues of time, distance, and translation have all acted as barriers to many would-be students of this worthwhile system.

The first challenge with the I Ching is a straightforward issue of translations. There are a great many translations of the I Ching, some better than others, and many are truly good. Of particular note are the translations by Legge (published 1882, which was deeply flawed due to issues with correct translations of the time) which was one of the earliest; Wilhelm (published in 1923, translated to English in 1951, which suffered from being a translation of a translation and being excessively academic), Aleister Crowley (not published in his lifetime, suffering from translation issues due to the limitations of his time, and remade in a poetic format not original to the I Ching), Blofeld (1965, perhaps the best mystical translation though still loaded down with commentary); as well less regular interpretations like Ma Deva Padma’s beautiful I Ching deck, the “Tao Oracle” (2002).

In general, these and other translations tend to have one of two problems: either they have a serious academic focus, leading to translations that put more emphasis on literal translation and on providing the full Confucian commentaries (which can be very rewarding to read but can also be intimidating to the beginner and is not designed to be practical for actual use), or they tend to be watered-down or diluted versions of the I Ching, perhaps “made simple”, but not made more useful for it.

On the subject of Confucian Commentaries: the regular text of the I Ching is actually rather small, but over the centuries it has had commentary after commentary heaped on top of it. The most significant of these are allegedly Confucius’ own commentaries. These can at times be deeply illuminating, but they are still ultimately Confucius’ own statements about the text, based on the philosophy he sought to promote. But subsequent commentaries have at times become part of the “official” text (that is, the book that is usually translated into English), and of course on top of this most translators feel the need to add their own particular commentaries in the forms of additional explanation or extensive footnotes.

While this can be very good for the sake of in-depth academic study, they can at times be confusing for the purpose of practice; more importantly, they will tend to corral the mind into one particular direction of understanding the written verses, sometimes causing the would-be I Ching user to avoid opening up his awareness to receive a more intuitive application of his reading to his own use. If you are spoon-fed the meaning of a line of the I Ching, it reduces the likelihood that you will be open to understanding the possible implications in a way more open to your own situation in the context of the moment you make the reading.

The opposite problem from spoon-feeding is the fact that many lines in the I Ching are unintentionally rendered more obscure or incomprehensible than they should be, due to a sometimes too-literal translation of the text. While there are several truly good literal and technical translations of the I Ching, there are few if any that do a good job of what could be called the “Symbolic Translation”.

The symbolism of the I Ching is a language that is sometimes foreign to the western experience. While Symbols are universal, the way different cultures express and order these symbols are variable, and this can create difficulties in understanding. On the most superficial level of this phenomenon, there are a number of verses in the literal translation of the I Ching that are in fact figures of speech, common and understandable to someone familiar with Chinese culture, but that would not automatically be understandable to someone who is not.

But at a more fundamental level, the usual translations of the most basic elemental symbolism of the I Ching is framed in the historical “ordering” of the elements in eastern mysticism; which are not quite the same as those of western mysticism. This is not to say that both cultures use different symbols, it is that the way they express this symbolism is different, and if you translate these expressions literally, you end up confusing the true symbolic intention or ordering of the elements.

To give one particularly egregious example to explain this, the trigrams Chien () and Kun (), which are the basic positive/negative trigrams, are usually translated as “Heaven” and “Earth” respectively. Now, “heaven” is not a poor choice of word for the Chien trigram (you could use “celestial”, or “sky”, or even “phallus” in its function as the symbolic masculine). The use of “Earth” for Kun, on the other hand, creates a number of problems; thinking about it makes it clear that the “Earth” referred to is “the world” (juxtaposed with Chien’s “heaven”), but using the word “earth” confuses this trigram with the concept of the “Earth Element”, one of the four basic elements. Complicating matters further, the four elements are a part of the trigrams as well, and the trigram that would represent the “Earth Element”, Ken () is usually translated as “Mountain”. A student of western mysticism who is familiar with western alchemy, astrology, the tarot, the kabbalah or other western systems of metaphysics might not realize that the trigram for “Mountain” is supposed to represent the same symbolic concept as the “Earth element” found in alchemical earth, the Taurus sign, the suit of coins, etc.

This version of the I Ching is not meant to be a new literal translation; rather, it is a re-writing of the I Ching, based on the goal of creating a version of that sacred book that focuses only on the fundamental core of the I Ching text, avoiding including all of the commentaries. Likewise, it will remain true to the essential spirit of the system for organizing reality that the I Ching expresses, but will present the text and components of the I Ching in a way that is more directly relatable to the language in which western mysticism expresses these symbols. A sincere effort has been made to keep only the most essential expression of each line of the text, never adding any material that isn’t absolutely necessary, and when necessary rephrasing verses that make reference to “figures of speech” into plain English. In this way, it is my hope that this version of the I Ching will be ideal for use to the actual practitioner; to the individual who actually wants to use the I Ching for contemplation and self-inquiry as well as divination practice.

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