The I Ching: A Biography

by Richard J. Smith

The I Ching originated in China as a divination manual more than three thousand years ago. In 136 BCE the emperor declared it a Confucian classic, and in the centuries that followed, this work had a profound influence on the philosophy, religion, art, literature, politics, science, technology, and medicine of various cultures throughout East Asia. Jesuit missionaries brought knowledge of the I Ching to Europe in the seventeenth century, and the American counterculture embraced it in the 1960s. Here Richard Smith tells the extraordinary story of how this cryptic and once obscure book became one of the most widely read and extensively analyzed texts in all of world literature.

In this concise history, Smith traces the evolution of the I Ching in China and throughout the world, explaining its complex structure, its manifold uses in different cultures, and its enduring appeal. He shows how the indigenous beliefs and customs of Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Tibet “domesticated” the text, and he reflects on whether this Chinese classic can be compared to religious books such as the Bible or the Qur’an. Smith also looks at how the I Ching came to be published in dozens of languages, providing insight and inspiration to millions worldwide—including ardent admirers in the West such as Leibniz, Carl Jung, Philip K. Dick, Allen Ginsberg, Hermann Hesse, Bob Dylan, Jorge Luis Borges, and I. M. Pei. Smith offers an unparalleled biography of the most revered book in China’s entire cultural tradition, and he shows us how this enigmatic ancient classic has become a truly global phenomenon.

Genres: China, History, Religion, Philosophy, Books About Books, Nonfiction, Taoism

288 pages, Unknown Binding

First published March 5, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Richard J. Smith is Professor of History and Director of Asian Studies at Rice University, Houston, Texas.

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of an ongoing series by Princeton University Press, "The Lives of Great Religious Books", this volume on the Yijing (Classic or Book of Changes) by Richard J. Smith accomplishes just that - telling the story of a central Chinese text through beginning, middle and end like a biography. Richard J. Smith's writing is to-the-point, occasionally funny, and most importantly for my read at least, manages to take the Metaphysics and Ontology of the Yijing seriously rather than choosing to foreground its poetic, didactic or divinatory qualities - though those are all addressed as well.

Smith contextualizes and dispels a number of errors regarding the history of the text from classical Chinese scholarship as well as contemporary Western scholarship, including but not limited to
1) he disputes that the Yijing evolved from simple symbols to complex symbols (archaeological evidence in the form of oracle bones suggests that the Hexagrams actually predate the Trigrams, not the other way around, as apparently many Chinese scholars believed thousands of years ago and certain modern occultists/Qigong practitioners seem to believe today)
2) he sets the record straight (for me anyway) that this text should fundamentally be understood as a Confucian text (which later indelibly stamped Daoist and Buddhist practice and theory) - something I never really understood in the 15 or so years I've been reading the Yijing (I always viewed the Yijing as Daoist because of the later alchemical texts which use it so closely, and the family resemblance to the Dao de Jing), but would probably be manifestly obvious to any Chinese reader.
3) this book spends a good deal of time opening up the entire commentary tradition, which seems to vacillate between two poles -- a) virtue ethics and practical wisdom and b) numerology and metaphysics -- with subsections of more analytical readings vs more imagistic readings. a fascinating dynamic that mirrors in many ways the play of ideas in Greek philosophy after Plato and Aristotle, and creates endless possibilities for computing and interpreting divinatory readings. Notably, there exists a Christian commentarial tradition (by Chinese converts and missionaries alike) stretching back 400+ years, which attempts a grand synthesis of the Yijing itself with the Hebrew Bible and Christian scripture, which was in part a great influence upon the binary metaphysics of Gottfried Leibniz and a contributor to the birth of modern computer science. I find myself wondering if there exist Chinese Manichean commentaries on the Yijing: if so they may tread similar ground.
4) provides a summary of the reception and adaptation of the Yijing in Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Tibet
5) provides a nice overview of Western reception of the text (from Jesuits to Leibniz to theosophy to Crowley to Jung etc)

Overall, this made me VERY interested in Smith's much deeper dive into Yijing metaphysics entitled "Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China." which is probably my next stop when it comes to Yijing studies.

[Grady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of a series of biographies of famous texts, this book offers a rich entry-point into study of the history of the I Ching, the Book of Changes. However, it includes so many names - of versions of the the text, of other books, of commentators across two millennia - that I found it impossible as a lay reader to retain much. Perhaps someone with a deeper background in Chinese philosophy or intellectual history would find this a helpful summary. For a reader like me, it will function as a gateway text leading to other more focused studies, and I'll probably need to reread portions of the book to absorb the major (sequential) schools of interpretation of the I Ching. This is the kind of book one reads out of interest in the subject, not because the book itself is compelling, although the writing is thoughtful and clear.

One strong takeaway is that the text of the I Ching has been radically reinterpreted over the centuries, with original and perhaps fairly concrete meanings being replaced with increasingly abstruse or metaphorical interpretations. That's certainly a pattern one can see in the history of core texts from a number of cultures, including (for the West) the Bible - not just that writers or thinkers change how they interpret the original text, but that they assert - objectively incorrectly - that the original text has always meant to readers what the current commenter believes it means now.

[John Eliade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Smith is wildly intelligent. This book is the simplified version of his "Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the Universe," representing the 5,000 year history of the Yijing. In this book, like in his longer version, Smith gives short biographies, summarizes whole schools of thought, covers, briefly, the political developments and intellectual culture of China, all in a brief and understandable way.

I really enjoyed this book because it's intensely understandable, and not overly dense. I've met too many people who think the Yijing is literally magic without understanding where it came from or how it got here other than the vague notion of, "China, some time ago."

As a developing philologist, I really enjoy this series because it acknowledges that what makes these books special is the spiritual power that people imbue them with, while then telling a true historical story about how we ended up with the books we know and love (or hate) today. Smith, a long-time Sinologist, presents a compelling, interesting, and true history of one of the worlds oldest and mysterious pieces of literature that is accessible and should be read by anyone who approaches the Yijing casually.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good overview of the origins of the I Ching (Yi Jing). I feel like I learned a lot about why this divination method has stayed around, and why it's not only seen as a divinatory tool. Still not 100% sure how you read/ cast Yi Jing, but I know where it came from and how it got popularized so that's something. Very well written and enjoyable read. If you're interested in the history of the Yi Jing, I highly recommend this book.

[Nico Cornejo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short introduction to the Zhouyi covers the essential details of what is a +2000 years history in a remarkably short book, without losing any explanatory power.
Although the author threatens at the start to write a book for non-specialists, I believe that even people familiar with the text and its history will learn something from Smith's work, because his "global history" approach, with a focus on East Asia, uncovers many hidden gems.

[Patty Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another clear book about the I Ching (or yijing) I’m
Really liking this guy for writing informative, clear texts in this area. Goes into how it has been adapted/interpreted in other countries as well.

[Mark Fingerhut · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[Ada · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book, which gave me a deep understanding of traditional culture

[Kerfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is part of a series exploring the origins, influences, and changing interpretations of Great Religious Books. The I Ching is, as the author states, more philosophical than strictly religious; yet, its spiritual influences are vast and continuous, on a parallel with works such as the Bible and the Koran.

About half of the text is pretty scholarly. I skimmed those parts, but managed to learn a lot about not only Chinese history, but the hold its classical Confucian thought and culture has had on not only neighboring Asian countries, but, increasingly, the world.

The I Ching is mercurial and flexible and has been interpreted and applied in a large variety of ways. One approach has stresed numerical calculations; others have been concerned with correct behavior, or one's place in society. And divination has always been a primary use. Emperors, generals, artists, priests, and musicians have all been inspired by its images and words.

The author sees three main reasons for its "remarkable longevity": its intellectual challenge, its psychological insight (Jung was a fan), and the powerful symbolism and magical language that provides creative inspiration.

I haven't looked at my Wilhelm translation (the one that popularized the I Ching in the United States in the 60's) in years. But I'm inspired to find it and give it another, more informed, look.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite its title and place in a series of short books introducing religious classics, this book is best suited for readers already familiar with the I Ching, or as he transcribes it in the text but not title Yijing. Smith provides lucid overviews of the difference between the most influential Chinese schools of interpretation (focusing on "images and numbers" on the one hand, "principles and meanings" on the other) and traces the book's spread from China through East Asia (Japan, Vietnam, Korea and to a lesser extent Tibet) and on to the West, mostly in forms which reflect the ulterior motives of missionaries and scholars. There's a brief overview of the best known English language translations, but there are much more thorough versions easily available (and noted in Smith's bibliography, which is a gem).
Some cool illustrations spice up the serviceable but never exciting prose.

I found the illustrations of how the I Ching has been used a bit opaque. While my familiarity with consultation methods allowed me to follow them, I think they'd be murky to newcomers. This reflects my own bias, but I would have liked a much more detailed consideration of the Jungian/existential resonances of the Yijing for readers who first encountered it as part of a counterculture mix but have dug deeper over the years.

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard J. Smith offers a solid biography of Zhou Yiching and its commentary texts, but unless one has a pretty good grasp of the very periods of classical Chinese history, it can seem like a sea of names. Smith does document how much the Confucian--and later Daoist, Buddhist, and Western--commentary has altered a divination text that was focused on practicality and even sacrifice decorum into a text of moral guidance and a Confucian classic. He demonstrates how much of an effect the book has had on East Asian culture--surprisingly to me, including Tibetan--and on the counter-cultural movements that adopted in the middle of the 20th century in the West. Smith also demonstrates how odd the Yi-ching is for a classic religious text: it has a rich commentary history that is almost Talmudic, but it doesn't concern itself with a lot of the functions of religion even from an East Asian perspective. The primary problem with this book is that the length makes its more breadth at the expense of depth.

[Edward III · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this "biography" of the I Ching, Smith traces out the book's history and influence, while providing an overview of its content and issues of interpretation, as well as of its many English translations. This book includes a large number of footnotes and annotations, and an extensive bibliography. The author clearly knows a great deal about his subject, and is not afraid to criticize the Wilhelm translation--one which your garden-variety I Ching expositor tends to praise uncritically. That said, despite the book's copious footnotes Smith seems to have relied particularly heavily on one source: Shaughnessey's "The Composition of the Zhouyi." Overall a good resource on a fascinating and difficult work.

[!Tæmbuŝu]

KOBOBOOKS

Reviewed by The Guardian (9 Mar 2012)

[Nicholas Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three stars are due not to his writing or scholarship, which is excellent, but simply because while the book is a wonderful introduction to the Yijing and the various uses and interpretations it has had and still does have, it is nonetheless still an introduction.