Reading the I Ching (Book of Changes)

The 3,000 year old I Ching is the most esteemed of the ancient Chinese classics, yet also the most enigmatic. Reading the Ancient I Ching (Book of Changes): Structure, Imagery, Rhetoric, Philosophy and Ethics is supplemented by recent advances in scholarship, particularly recently discovered excavated texts, and demonstrates how the Zhouyi (the ancient textual layer of the I Ching ) was compiled from mostly oral material and how it is organized as an easily consulted compendium of divination responses.This book, written by I Ching expert Geoffrey Redmond, clarifies the meanings of the ancient text by examining use of literary devices such as technical prognostic terms, imagery, rhetorical tropes, ambiguity, analogy, metaphor, and proverb-like phrases. This permits reconstruction of how the Zhouyi was composed and explains how it would have served for divination. It shows how the Zhouyi was adapted by the supposedly Confucian Dazhuan and Shuogua, to support an apocryphal sagely origin of a later metaphysics and cosmology. A novel approach is application to the Zhouyi of a variety of philological theories such as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, analogy and anomaly, argumentative versus context dependence, Jungian psychology, and critical theory. Reading the Ancient I Ching (Book of Changes) includes an interlinear Chinese text, a glossary of important words in English, Chinese, and pinyin, and an appendix. These features make it essential reading for students taking courses in Chinese philosophy, Chinese religion, and early Chinese history, as well as readers looking for a clear and accessible gloss of this text.>

Préface
An elucidation of this enigmatic 3,000 year old classic, combining close readings of its poetic imagery with theoretical approaches to reveal much about ancient Chinese life and thought.

Auteur
Geoffrey Redmond is an independent scholar, USA. He is the author of The I Ching (Book of Changes): A Critical Translation of the Ancient Text (Bloomsbury, 2017).

Texte du rabat

The 3,000 year old I Ching is the most esteemed of the ancient Chinese classics, yet also the most enigmatic. Reading the I Ching (Book of Changes): Themes, Imagery, Expressions, and Rhetoric is supplemented by recent advances in scholarship, particularly recently discovered excavated texts, and demonstrates how the Zhouyi (the ancient textual layer of the I Ching) was compiled from mostly oral material and how it is organized as an easily consulted compendium of divination responses. This book, written by I Ching expert Geoffrey Redmond, clarifies the meanings of the ancient text by examining use of literary devices such as technical prognostic terms, imagery, rhetorical tropes, ambiguity, analogy, metaphor, and proverb-like phrases. This permits reconstruction of how the Zhouyi was composed and explains how it would have served for divination. It shows how the Zhouyi was adapted by the supposedly Confucian Dazhuan and Shuogua, to support an apocryphal sagely origin of a later metaphysics and cosmology. A novel approach is application to the Zhouyi of a variety of philological theories such as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, analogy and anomaly, argumentative versus context dependence, Jungian psychology, and critical theory. Reading the I Ching (Book of Changes) includes an interlinear Chinese text, a glossary of important words in English, Chinese, and pinyin, and an appendix. These features make it essential reading for students taking courses in Chinese philosophy, Chinese religion, and early Chinese history, as well as readers looking for a clear and accessible gloss of this text.

Contenu
List of Figures and Table Preface Note to the Reader Acknowledgements Part I. Background Introduction: Starting to Read a 3,000 Year Old Book 1. Engaging With the Archaic Text 2. Divination: Managing Uncertainty 3. Is The Book of Changes Esoteric? Part II. Grammar and Structure 4. Divinatory Prognostic Terms in the Zhouyi 5. The Grammar of the Zhouyi 6. Rhetoric and Forms of Expression Part III. Imagery 7. The Nature of Omens 8. Divining about Numbers and Durations 9. Daily Life: Joys and Hazards 10. Women's Lives 11. Emotions and the Body 12. Hierarchy: Kings, Nobles, Commoners 13. Travel and Its Hazards 14. Ritual Cruelty: Human Sacrifice 15. Animals in Early China 16. Warfare 17. Optical Imagery: The Diagrams Part IV. 18. Final Reflections 19. Table of Prognostic Terms 20. Glossary of Names and Specialized Terms 21. Hexagram Chart 22. Hexagram Locator Notes Bibliography Index