4/4/2023 0 Comments Wilhelm baynes i ching![]() ![]() As a result, the translation is often unconventional, but always based on insight into the words themselves, and liberally footnoted. Regarding the use of the former, his explanation nails it: the “omen texts” are often metaphoric treat them as pictures, not logic, and “associate the metaphors freely with the persons and events in your life.” It’s an oracle, not an instruction manual for gentlemanly behavior. He treats the judgment and line texts as the original Zhou dynasty oracle, conceptually separate from the much later moral precepts of the Ten Wings. Chan Chiu Ming (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) has set out to translate the I Ching based on modern research into the original meaning of the ancient Chinese, rather than following the traditional, mostly Confucian, interpretations alone. I am very glad to have recently discovered this book. Maintains that “if the text could be understood 3,000 years ago it can be understood today,” while acknowledging that it is a collection of difficult fragments that at least sometimes contain an inherent ambiguity.īook of Changes: an Interpretation for the Modern Ageīy Chan Chiu Ming. (Conspicuous by his absence is Richard Gotshalk, who kept coming to mind as I read the text.) A frequent theme is rejection of “the tendency inspired by the Doubting Antiquity movement to substitute far-fetched meanings for received ones that are quite clear,” such as the supposed dodder plant in hexagram 4 which is commonly thought of as “folly,” and which Redmond translates as “neophytes.” Lots of attention to philology, the structure of the Chinese language, and alternate characters in ancient manuscripts. Redmond holds modern scholars such as Kunst, Shaughnessy, and especially Richard Rutt in high esteem while at the same time freely disagreeing with them. A “critical translation” that embraces modern research while taking traditional interpretations into account. ![]() In this way, we can come to “know Heaven.The I Ching (Book of Changes): A Critical Translation of the Ancient Textīy Geoffrey Redmond. Therefore, if we approach the I Ching with sincere respect, it can advise us on the right stance to take at this time, on this concern. In the view of the I Ching, there is always a stance preferred by Heaven that is more in alignment with the prevailing forces, and the “superior man” (i.e., a wise person that is frequently mentioned in the I Ching) adopts such a stance. So, to be in relationship with Heaven means to be able to apprehend the seeds of the future, the nature of the next movement that’s “on deck,” and to respond appropriately, that is, in a way that will lend as much harmony and virtue as possible to the situation. The seeds of all events reside in Heaven. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Therefore by means of it we can penetrate the tao of day and night, and so understand it… In it all things everywhere are completed, so that nothing is missing. ![]() In are included the forms and the scope of everything in the heavens and on earth, so that nothing escapes it. The Ten Wings commentaries describe how the I Ching operates within and between these realms. It is thus considered a working model of reality that can illustrate the workings of Heaven and show their relationship to events in our visible world. The I Ching, the Chinese believe, faithfully represents in microcosmic form the organization and functioning of their three-part cosmos of Heaven, Earth, and Man. It also had practical value, for those who comprehend the laws of Heaven can understand life on Earth because this life unfolds according to those laws. To “know Heaven” was considered the highest wisdom. While the Chinese did not populate this realm with gods and goddesses as extensively as most of the world’s other spiritual traditions have done, they believed that people, with proper study, could understand and align themselves with certain characteristics of Heaven. Most branches of Chinese philosophy begin with the assumption of an invisible, spiritual realm (“Heaven”) from which Earth and Man originated, and where the yin and yang forces are eternally at play. The Chinese, however, have given this considerable thought. Jung wrote, “The less one thinks about the theory of the I Ching, the more soundly one sleeps.”* Nevertheless, in the same essay, he did state that its operation was based on “the synchronistic connective principle,” his principle that the coincidence of meaningfully but not causally related inner and outer events (which, in the case of I Ching consultation, would be the question and the response) meant “something more than mere chance.” In his famous foreword to the Wilhelm/Baynes translation of the I Ching, one of the first authoritative translations to appear in the English language, noted Swiss clinical psychiatrist and theorist C. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |