The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the "I Ching" as Interpreted by Wang Bi

by Wang Bi, Richard John Lynn (Translator)

Used in China as a book of divination and source of wisdom for more than three thousand years, the I Ching has been taken up by millions of English-language speakers in the nineteenth century. The first translation ever to appear in English that includes one of the major Chinese philosophical commentaries, the Columbia I Ching presents the classic book of changes for the world today.

Richard Lynn's introduction to this new translation explains the organization of The Classic of Changes through the history of its various parts, and describes how the text was and still is used as a manual of divination with both the stalk and coin methods. For the fortune-telling novice, he provides a chart of trigrams and hexagrams; an index of terms, names, and concepts; and a glossary and bibliography.

Lynn presents for the first time in English the fascinating commentary on the I Ching written by Wang Bi (226-249), who was the main interpreter of the work for some seven hundred years. Wang Bi interpreted the I Ching as a book of moral and political wisdom, arguing that the text should not be read literally, but rather as an expression of abstract ideas. Lynn places Wang Bi's commentary in historical context.

Genres: Philosophy, China, Nonfiction, Taoism, Reference, Divination

602 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 1994

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Classic of Changes: A new translation of the I Ching as interpreted by Wang Bi
Richard John Lynn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994, hardback, xii + 602 pages

This is an incredible work. It is the long-awaited English translation of Wang Bi's commentary on the I Ching, including both hexagram texts and the Great Treatise, plus Wang Bi's own essay on the I Ching, the Zhouyi lueli. The text of the I Ching as Wang Bi knew it is reproduced in a serif typeface, whilst his own comments are contained in bracketed Gill Sans, which sets the two layers of the text apart perfectly yet still preserves it as an integrated whole.

Richard Lynn chooses the more modern pinyin transliteration system, as opposed to Wade-Giles, so the person formerly known as Wang Pi becomes Wang Bi.

Those I Ching aficionados who have heard of Wang Bi most probably first came across him in Hellmut Wilhelm's book 'Change' (pp 86–88), where in just a short extract from his 'General Remarks' he comes across as a formidable philosophical thinker, deeply in touch with the Tao. It was Wang Bi's efforts that first wrested control of the I Ching out of the hands of the diviners to show it in its full glory as a Book of Wisdom. So it is timely that this work should appear on bookshop shelves at the same moment as the Ritsema-Karcher translation, which espouses a powerful argument for a return to the original divinatory function of the I Ching.

Before reading Lynn's translation I have had a tendency to regard the Wilhelm-Baynes text as definitive, which would not be bettered. This was, after all, Wilhelm's intention. Now, however, I have no hesitation in saying that Lynn and Wilhelm go together like yin and yang.

Wang Bi, who died at the age of 23 in AD 249, is an interpreter of the I Ching of equivalent calibre to Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, who were responsible some eight hundred years later for the commentarial tradition from which Wilhelm eventually derived. So this is the first translation to seriously compare ideas, not just paraphrase words.

This is particularly interesting where Wang Bi departs from the accepted nuances of meaning extant in Wilhelm, yet quite clearly is still coming from the same place. Whilst Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi had the advantage of having Wang Bi's commentary to hand, and obviously studied it, they were not afraid to iron out what they may have seen as the earlier master's youthful exuberance. For though his insights flowed directly from the ideas, in one's early twenties it is still possible to get carried away.

The thing that strikes me most profoundly about Wang Bi is that his words are so utterly consistent, there is not a shred of make-believe or self-deception in his outlook. That having been said, comparing his commentary with that of Cheng Yi/Zhu Xi, one gets a sense of the danger the two later and older men detected – staunchness has no give, it can become harsh. As it says in the Tao Te Ching: 'Soften the glare.' This appears to be what Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi did.

Richard Lynn has made this interconnection between the earlier and later commentaries especially easy to study by extensive footnoting of divergences and agreements. Wang Bi's two most important successors, Kong Yingda and Han Kangbo, are cited, as are Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, all from primary sources. Reading the latter two it is fascinating to observe just how faithfully the Wilhelm-Baynes translation transmits the subtle shading of what they had to say, particularly at those places where Wang Bi prefers a stronger colouration.

Lynn is an inspired translator, his care in documenting his source material goes way beyond the call of duty. All in all, the kind of book we have been waiting for after a decade of insipid I Ching pot boilers
.
Joel Biroco

[Both reviews first published under the main title of 'Two contrasting recent translations of the I Ching' in 'The Oracle: Journal of the I Ching Society' Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring 1995), pp 15–18.]

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best to have the Chinese next to the English, to check on details, but the commentary of Wang Bi is highly useful, as I found when I read Wang's commentary on the Dao De Jing. It's probably the closest we'll ever get to this very ancient work. The first 126 pages really help to understand the philosophical side of the Yi Jing, and not only as a divination manual. The most scholarly book in English that I know. The glossary very useful.

[James Berghout · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very sincere translation based on a very old and reliable source.

[Wendy Day]

This is an eternal reference, nearly always within reach. If ever I am unable to move, I want this book nearby.