Hilary Barrett, I Ching

Archive for the 'Reviews' Category

Book review: Jessica Morrell, Writer’s I Ching

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

Jessica Morrell is the author of several books on writing, and here she’s branched out to create an I Ching for writers, specifically applying its imagery to their concerns.
The book’s first few short chapters are introductory material. In a nutshell, this contains much insight into divination, interspersed with the occasional factual muddle (like the [...]

EclecticEnergies YiJing

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

Ewald Berkers’ YiJing translation is available for download in pdf format. It’s worth having. I’d recommend you buy your own copy.
~~~
Now that’s a review in Ewald-style: succinct, straightforward, conveying the main point with enviable clarity. But since I’m naturally a wordier animal than he is, I’ll write a little more…
The book begins with a [...]

The Chameleon Book

Thursday, May 10th, 2007

When did you last encounter a Yijing translation where the introduction engendered such curiosity that you were itching to read it through?
Quite. I’m sure this isn’t supposed to happen, but with the Chameleon Book, Freeman Crouch’s translation, I find it does. He reads the Yijing as a historical document, but goes beyond the relatively-familiar [...]

Stephen Karcher: Shuogua

Wednesday, March 14th, 2007

The Shuogua, ‘explanation of the gua’, is the Yijing’s 8th Wing. It’s in three parts: the first is an origin story of how the sages made the Yi from first principles; the remaining two describe the characteristics of the individual trigrams. You’ll occasionally find references to these characteristics in Wilhelm’s Book III interpretations - [...]

Thoughts on Wilhelm/Baynes

Sunday, June 25th, 2006

Someone wrote to ask what I think of the Wilhelm/Baynes translation.
I have mixed feelings about it. For a lot of people, I know, asking ‘what do you think of Wilhelm/Baynes?’ is much the same as asking, ‘What do you think of the Bible?’ This is the edition the great majority of Yi-users grew up [...]

I Ching ebook and audio

Saturday, June 10th, 2006

I reviewed Ron Masa’s I Ching introduction at length here (part 1) and here (part 2). It’s a warm, genuine, clear and straightforward introduction; if you don’t need it yourself, you might consider buying it for a friend.
At the time of the review, this was only available as an audio; now, you can also [...]

Recommended I Ching audio

Friday, January 20th, 2006

Back before my computer tried to turn into a doorstop, I wrote:
“I’ve just recently learned of another provider of really good beginner-level I Ching information online. I’ll be writing a review of his current offering soon and posting it here.”
So let me end the suspense: I’m talking about Dr Ron Masa of ‘University of [...]