Just browsing through the most recently published I Ching books on Amazon. (After running a search, you can sort the results by ‘publication date, newest first’.) Clicked through to Chris Marshall’s I Ching Pack and looked at the excerpts.
Part 1. History of the I Ching
I quote:
“It was not until the 17th Century BC that these verses were written down, and then they were inscribed, or more correctly, burnt, onto bamboo strips which, by their very nature, could carry little more than a single line.
The next major advance in the evolution of the I Ching came in the 12th century BC, when King Wen wrote the first commentaries on the 64 hexagrams of which the I Ching consists. At the time Wen was imprisoned by a jealous emperor, Chou Hsin, but was soon released by the emperor’s son, the Duke of Chou, and restored to his throne. Wen continued writing commentaries on the hexagrams, finally handing the task to his son Tan, who completed the work which came to be known as the Ten Wings.”
Is there a single statement in there that’s actually true? Maybe one – but certainly not enough to spoil the effect.
Part of me wants to fall off my chair in helpless hysterics. Another part still can’t quite believe that this stuff is published. Chris Marshall doesn’t even need to buy a book about the I Ching to get it right; 10 minutes or so of moderately-intelligent web surfing would do it. But since he’s happy to put his name to this, at least we know exactly how much he cares.