The Yijing, a book of Divination and Philosophy

By: Joseph Edkins. Distributor: Lulu. $24.99. 152 pages. Paperback CQ (7x10). 2016 (1883–1886).

Joseph Edkins was a British Protestant missionary who spent 57 years in China. He was a Sinologue, a linguist, a translator, and a philologist specialized in Chinese religions. His work suggests that the hexagrams are the vehicle for the expression of a philosophy, the characters became the basis of the national literature and the names repositories of ideas springing out of the dual philosophy of yin and yang. From there, the philosophy of two contrasted elements in a single antithesis expanded itself into the system of the five elements. A philosophy whose symbols were linear became a philosophy whose symbols were circular and linear. Mr. Edkins provides in these few essays a fascinating approach that reminds that of Iulian Shchutskii's Researches on the I Ching (1979) and benefits to be read along with the analysis of Terrien de la Couperie's The Yijing (1892). This reedition provides the update of 454 transliterated Chinese terms into modern pinyin and appendices, including a Biography and a list of references.

Table of Contents

• The Yìjīng of the Chinese, as a book of Divination and Philosophy
  • [Presentation]
  • The Seventh Guà, Shī, Army
  • The fifteenth Guà, Qiān, Humility
  • Thirtieth Guà, Lí
  • Thirty-first Guà, Xián
  • Twentieth Guà, Guān, Gazing
  • The Thirteenth Guà, Tóng Rén, Associated Friends
  • Conclusion
• The Yìjīng and its Appendices
  1. Periods of Seven Days
  2. The Teaching of the Shuōguà Zhuàn
  3. The Two Texts Characterized
  4. The First Two Appendices
  5. The Third Appendix
• The Yìjīng with Notes on the 64 Guà
  • [Introduction]
  • Notes on the 64 Guà
  • Appendix
  • Summary of the results of an inquiry into the Yìjīng
  • Note.—Ancient variations in names of Guà
• Annexes
  1. Hexagrams
  2. List of Works Cited
  3. List of Names Cited
  4. Transliteration of terms
  5. Biography