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yates9's review against another edition
5.0
Everyone must at least understand the mechanics of this text and try them. This is technology of knowledge in the making. The writing is fascinating though as it actually on occasion goes out of its way to predict something specific, taking risks to be wrong.
An amazing book, idea and tool from thousands of years back.
An amazing book, idea and tool from thousands of years back.
benrogerswpg's review against another edition
2.0
It was a good read.
Interesting about the history of the histograms and how this worked.
I didn't enjoy it as much, though, as it wasn't exactly a philosophy book as I had hoped - it was more of a spiritual book.
2.6/5
Interesting about the history of the histograms and how this worked.
I didn't enjoy it as much, though, as it wasn't exactly a philosophy book as I had hoped - it was more of a spiritual book.
2.6/5
sakusha's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Minford’s book is large, with two parts: one called the book of wisdom, and one called the oracle. They say pretty much the same things, but the book of wisdom part is longer because it includes extensive interpretations of each hexagram.
The divination instructions were confusing to me. I thought I had it figured out, but after I got my coin tosses and wrote down my hexagram, I tried doing the same coin tosses on a website and it gave me a different hexagram. For a shorter and easier to understand version of the I Ching, check out David Hinton’s translation, although that version seems to prioritize political correctness over accuracy.
I went into the divination with a hopeful open mind, only to conclude that if there was any validity to this, you should get the same answer when asking the same question. But that doesn’t happen (I tried both online and in real life). It is totally based on chance.
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
1.0
This review is of the translation by James Legge.
James Legge's translation of the 易經 [yì jīng], first published in 1882, was the second ever English-language translation of the text. Although his work with the Yi Jing has long been considered the "standard" English-language version, and is still taught to students today, Legge's role in the history of translation is a complicated one. As a whole his translations were mostly terribly, yet massively influential; due in no small part to the fact that many of his translations included parallel Chinese and English text, a highly unusual format at the time, his work has continued to be studied even centuries after it should be viewed as outdated. Legge, like the majority of Western translators of the Victorian era, was a Christian missionary, and thus his translation work was filtered through a Western Christian religious context, which posed understandable problems when the text in question regarded ancient Chinese spiritual beliefs. Much scholarship has been written on the Victorian-era "invention" of a fictionalised "Oriental belief system"—everyone from Edward Said to Norman J. Girardot—and Legge is by no means blameless. Although his opinions on Eastern, and particularly Chinese, culture and literature did take a turn for the positive throughout his life, the majority of Legge's translation work is so irrevocably tinged with this 19th century-typical mentality, to say nothing of his religious evangelism, so as to be functionally useless—assuming the intent is to read something which closely resembles the original text. If you want to read what some Victorian guy thought ancient Chinese mysticism was all about, then by all means, read Legge. But otherwise, it can safely be skipped.
James Legge's translation of the 易經 [yì jīng], first published in 1882, was the second ever English-language translation of the text. Although his work with the Yi Jing has long been considered the "standard" English-language version, and is still taught to students today, Legge's role in the history of translation is a complicated one. As a whole his translations were mostly terribly, yet massively influential; due in no small part to the fact that many of his translations included parallel Chinese and English text, a highly unusual format at the time, his work has continued to be studied even centuries after it should be viewed as outdated. Legge, like the majority of Western translators of the Victorian era, was a Christian missionary, and thus his translation work was filtered through a Western Christian religious context, which posed understandable problems when the text in question regarded ancient Chinese spiritual beliefs. Much scholarship has been written on the Victorian-era "invention" of a fictionalised "Oriental belief system"—everyone from Edward Said to Norman J. Girardot—and Legge is by no means blameless. Although his opinions on Eastern, and particularly Chinese, culture and literature did take a turn for the positive throughout his life, the majority of Legge's translation work is so irrevocably tinged with this 19th century-typical mentality, to say nothing of his religious evangelism, so as to be functionally useless—assuming the intent is to read something which closely resembles the original text. If you want to read what some Victorian guy thought ancient Chinese mysticism was all about, then by all means, read Legge. But otherwise, it can safely be skipped.
missflamingo's review against another edition
4.0
Still reading. It's a lifelong read. Don't think you can ever "finish" this.
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