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| The I Ching, or Book of Changes
| | Fu Xi
| The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the first efforts of the human mind to place itself within the universe. It has exerted a living influence in China for three thousand years, and interest in it has been spreading in the West. First set down in the dawn of history as a book of oracles, the Book of Changes deepened in meaning when ethical values were attached to the oracular pronouncements; it became a book of wisdom, eventually one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, and provided the the common source for both Confucianist and Taoist philosophy.
Richard Wilhelm's rendering of the I Ching into German, published in 1924, presented it for the first time in a form intelligible to the general reader. Joseph Needham, author of Science and Civilisation in China, has called it probably the best translation available. Wilhelm, who translated many other ancient Chinese works and wrote several books on Chinese philosophy and civilization, long resided in China, and his close association with its cultural leaders gave him a unique understanding of the text of the I Ching. In the English translation, every effort has been made to preserve Wilhelm's pioneering insight into the spirit of the Original.
This third edition, completely reset in a convenient new format, contains a new forward by Hellmut Wilhelm, the son of Richard Wilhelm and one of the most eminent American scholars of Chinese culture. He discusses his father's textual methods and summarizes recent studies of the I Ching both in the West and in present-day China. The new edition contains minor textual corrections, bibliographical revisions, and for the first time an index.
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