King Wen Sequence Decoded by Richard Cook?

[peter]

Hello all,

I tried to find information about Richard Cook's book on these forums, but failed, to my astonishment. Did you see it?

Here are some links: http://www.lulu.com/content/515663 (where to buy it for $100),

http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~rscook/images/CCCprev/CCCprev.html - some preview of the book.

It's hard to verify the content by this preview, and I hesitate to pay such sum for "a cat in a bag". The author states that he has found the key to the sequence basing on the Fibonacci series and the Golden Section. Does this book really worth its money? Does everybody interested in I Ching have to read it?

UPD.: aha, I've found a mention in the blog - almost a year ago: http://onlineclarity.co.uk/answers/2006/10/27/new-king-wen-sequence-book/ . So I assume that somebody already read it, didn't he?

[fkegan]

I am still in the process of digesting the previews of Cook's book, but it is a very complex work assuming that Western science and computers applied in the most sophisticated way to the Chinese text will deliver a special answer. However, that is not the way of the Yi. It seeks to describe natural process simply and concretely without all the mystery of complicated assumptions.
The notion that the Yi sequence involves Pythagorean elements, I heartily agree with, but it is the simplicity of Pythagorean eidos that marks the true genius of them.
The King Wen sequence is described by Legge as being occult, which for him was a sufficient answer to dismiss further inquiry. The earlier sequence is simple, using the hexagrams as a binary counter from 0-63 with only a twist in the middle to suggest a sine wave association.
The King Wen is a different system, using the structure or meaning of the hexagrams in terms of their component trigrams to determine their place in the sequence. The Yi is described in traditional commentary as being divided into half at hexagram 30, and then organized in sets of 10 (with the final 4 of the 64 being their own set). Sets of 10 brings up the notion of the Pythagorean tetratkis (most simply that 1+2+3+4= 10) or a complete explanation requires the monad, dyad, triad and tetrad perspectives.
Applied to the first ten hexagrams of the Yi, the trigram combinations clearly and completely describe in detail the water cycle which is expressed as a wholistic monad in the ideogram Ch'ien as described in Wieger, S.J. Chinese Characters. Personally, I find it difficult to accept 600+ pages of computer complexity to decode a sequence that is given simply in trigram pairs that make up the hexagrams.
But then, I don't use the translations of the Chinese names any more, finding the simple sequence of lines, yang or yin describes the meaning of the hexagrams directly. Thus solving the other mystery of the Yi, why is this pattern or that given the meaning it is, and other than being each even numbered hexagram the tumbled order (or inverse if symmetrical turned on its head). The detail that those pairs have nothing to do with the King Wen sequence is a demonstration of the elegant majesty of the work. It accepts a highly structured format and still manages to express itself without constraint.
I would suggest anyone who finds a $100 price steep, hold off buying Cook's book until the question of the code of the King Wen sequence can be answered more clearly. It is coming along--actually, the comments in this post are all the background it took for me to see the sequence in general.

[peter]

Thank you very much for such a detailed review. I myself look suspiciously on these complex things too. Can you write here, what are those complex rules that Cook has found in the King Wen sequence?

[peter]

Well, I divinated (using my yarrow-stalks) on the question: "What is the Richard Cook's book about King Wen sequence?" (Day signs are "ding-si", month signs - "xin-you" - today). The answer was 43 static. But through "Wen Wang Ba Gua" method we can see that 4th line moves. Anyway, with or without moving line, it is not a good answer on my question, as I assume. Maybe his prerequisites are not close to me. On the other hand, it is a solid book nevertheless, and won't I be biting my elbows later, when all books will be bought?

[fkegan]

I have only the snippets released of the Cook text and its diagrams of hexagrams in DNA-like helix pattern and giant arrow pattern all overwritten in red with copyright notices.
More importantly, I would prefer to share with you the simple rules of the King Wen Sequence: The firs set of 10, from 1-Creative/Sunshine to 10- the deep water lake (or sea) under the sunshine that would next evaporate water to complete the water cycle.
Hex 1 is quite literally the water cycle--sunshine burns off mist to make clouds ( Ch'ien). Hexagram 2 is the depths of the Earth, the other part of the water cycle to the sunshine and rain from heaven.
Hex 3 water over thunder, the rain activated by the spring thunderstorms.
Hex 4 water under mountain, the motive power of spring water or the potential energy of rain upon high ground.
Hex 5--water over Sunshine, the clouds or water vapor in the heavens energized by sunshine causing weather systems.
Hex 6 the rain (water) falling from heaven.
Hex 7 water under the Earth or the water that falls on the Earth and is absorbed.
Hex 8 Water over Earth flowing downward as the topography of the land lets some rain stay upon the fields, other rain water flows into creeks to streams to mighty rivers en route to the sea.
Hex 9 Wind over sunshine, the weather fronts that control where there is rain and how much.
Hex 10 we finish with the deep lake of water under the sunshine where evaporation starts all over all.

That is the 'code' that explains the King Wen Sequence--simple application of the philosophical ideas to the Pythagorean categories based upon concrete observation of reality.
What need is there for complex computer math sequences? :)

[peter]

Okay, thanks. But - why the book has 660 pages, if you described one principle with such few words? And why are these principles worth $100?

[mick]

Frank,

I've always liked your ideas from the days of Hex-8.

I would like to learn more about the way that you see King Wen's sequence as 6 groups of ten Hexagrams with 4 over.

I've only ever seen you give the example of the first ten Hexagrams as the water cycle.

Would you be willing to continue through the next ten Hexagrams? How do you see the entry of the Fire Trigram?

Thanks and best wishes,

Mick

[fkegan]

Ah, yes, Peter that is the question, why does Cook require 600+ pages at a cost of $100 to describe what is so simple? I guess you would need to ask Cook to explain that. In general I find that the "modern" way to try to find complex details to be elucidated by computer analysis in laboratory isolation. It is an unfortunate bloom of excess that comes along with the development of fossil fuel engines and mechanical clocks that burst upon the Planet in the last 2 centuries, but can not survive much longer.

Mick, thank you for your interest over these years. As for the fire trigram, that is not so special, there are 8 trigrams and all are used in the Yi. The first 10 are the water cycle which involves no fire, just sunshine. It is only modern folks who use fire instead of sunshine to power our civilization.

In the second set of 10, fire is introduced as the human reflection of sunshine. Hexagram 13, the first to use the fire trigram is fire under heaven or the expression of human energy under the backdrop of the far more impressive and important reality of the sunshine that motivates all life on Earth.

The sets of 10 can not be understood in isolation. The first set is so concrete and so simple that it makes a good introduction to the concepts. But it also leaves the essential background unstated, which is why most folks read those hexagrams and never noticed they were organized as a set and expressing in total detail the water cycle which supports and organizes life on Earth. Especially in the modern perspective where the natural is merely raw material for industrial production and fossil fuel energy.

As to the higher octaves of the King Wen sequence, the first step is to realize the Pythagorean principles that clarify it all. There is a line often in Pythagorean Sourcebook that goes how wonderful was Pythagoras' discovery of the Tetraktys: that 1+2+3+4= 10" which tends to not convey much. However, it is more understandable when recast as anything can be completely described in 10 stages made up of the perspectives of the monad (all contained in a single image or inscribed in one circle), the dyad or polar opposites (the drawing given in the Sourcebook of two smaller circles inscribed in one circle is exactly a diagram of the T'ai Chi in terms of the geometrical construction. To turn it into the traditional Yang/Yin symbol requires only that the two colors be added to divide all the space within the larger circle in exactly half (with the two eyes of contrasting colors at the centers of the smaller circles).

Applying the philosophy of the Tetraktys to the hexagrams of the Yi makes the set of hexagrams ending in 1 (11,21,31,41,51 and 61) the monads of each set. Those ending in 2+3 become the poles of the Dyad perspective, those ending in 4,5,6 the beginning, middle end of the process perspective of the triad. And finally, the 7,8,9 and 0 ending hexagrams the double dichotomy perspective of the tetrad, or analysis in terms of the x-axis and y-axis so popular in modern reductions of geometry to algebra.

There is a traditional commentary mentioning how hexagrams 11 and 12 are similar to hexagrams 1 and 2 with only trigrams Heaven and Earth, only with one of each in the hexagrams rather than two hexagrams all the same. This is true, but hides the important structural details. Hexagram 11 is the monad of that second set, describing it all. Hexagram 12, its tumbled opposite is not at all connected to hex 11, but to hex 13 where they are polar opposites. So, hexagram 11 being the beginning of the second set is about people (traditionally the 3 levels are the Earth, Man and Heaven or in the specific context of the Yi, it is the Water Cycle, human relationship dynamics and the abstract principle and Ideal of justice or karma or cause and effect).

Hexagram 11 is the heavenly principle or Sunshine under the Planet Earth reality thus giving light to matter (or fertile seed in the fields) but here as the requirement for social harmony and peace. The sophisticated put themselves in a position to support and enlighten those who are stuck with their eyes to the ground tilling the soil. That is a complete reality or monad.
Hexagram 12 is the negative pole of the set hex 12, 13 when sunshine is above the Earth there is no interaction, everyone sticks to their own perspective and situation and the erudite in the cities have no contact with those who work in the fields. The positive pole is hexagram 13, Love Song where the beauty of poetry is offered as entertainment to all. The work chanty lifts the spirit as it makes co-operation on the work project go more easily.

And so forth. I have in the past only spoke of the first set of 10 since they are the most concrete, completely explained by their trigrams and unmistakeable in their concrete expression. The others are a lot of work and generally I only get into them in bits and pieces as opportunity or necessity arises.
As I am now preparing to launch my web site venture, bring back my earlier books now thoroughly out of print, and make new texts I am back working with this all. However, the Flux Tome which would contain the whole exposition of the King Wen sequence is a ways down the pike.

Introducing the Gia-Fu Feng Taoist translation of the Yi is my first step. Gia-Fu and I wrote that in the summer of '74 with he being the Yang of the manuscript, reaching back into his traditional Chinese Taoist instruction as a small child. I was the Yin providing background with my knowledge of the hexagrams and drawing forth from him the expression of his translation and typing up the actual text. That manuscript sat in Kinko's paper bag all these years as the result was rejected for publication by his publishier Random House since it didn't seem to them to be attractive to a general American audience.

Gia-Fu managed to recreate the staccato rhythms of the original which meant it didn't have the processed sentences of the Wilhelm/Baynes, but the actual text was not that much different since it translated the same Chinese. Only it had a Taoist orientation. The four slogan ideograms of the judgment for hex 1 which Wilhelm rendered by "Supreme (sublime) success. Furthering through perseverence". A totally German Protestant, Confucian rendering; Gia-Fu and I translated as "Primal Bliss. Fruitful to have zest." A far more Taoist version of the same fundamental principles. Success is an objective thing. Bliss is a personal and subjective experience. Perseverance is an expression of properly ordered will, as furthers is again taking one step after the other along the proper path. Zest is quite different in tone, an expression of personal reality and having it fruitful means you reap what you sow in your own way, not as a dutiful worker toiling in the established rut.

My what a long post, but totally new perspectives are difficult to convey in a few words.

[sparhawk]

Hi Frank, I thought it was you. Welcome back to the forums. I also remember your contributions in Hex-8.

That manuscript sat in Kinko's paper bag all these years as the result was rejected for publication by his publishier Random House since it didn't seem to them to be attractive to a general American audience.

Perhaps you should contact Lorraine Patsco. She may have some ideas about your manuscript. I can say much without her permission though.

As for Cook's book, I have it. It does take the whole of 600 pages to explain the mathematical minutia of the sequence as explained (the book looks like a phone book, actually). Of course, one needs an engineering degree to understand the whole of it... :D

[sparhawk]

Ha! I just went to see the Cook's website and he changed the cover of his book... The original one, the one I possess, had the diagram of the sequence. The one diagram he uses 660 pages to explain...

Click image below.

http://www.yitoons.com/kingwensequence-RSCook-thumb.jpg (http://www.yitoons.com/kingwensequence-RSCook.jpg)

A note to Richard S. Cook: If you chance onto this thread and have any problem with me publishing this image, please advise and I will duly take the image down.

[fkegan]

Hi Sparhawk-- Luis,

My apologies for not catching the errors in that part of my reply that you quoted. The manuscript not being published by Random House in '74 was no big deal. Nor its sitting pristine for a few decades since. I was sad to learn when I emailed Jane English about the whereabouts of Gia-Fu that he had passed on.
I had typed our text into my computer at some point to publish in my Flux Tome since it is close enough to the Wilhelm translation which is copyrighted. In '98 my older brother, who now runs the family law firm was kind enough to get my copyright to the Taoist translation registered at the copyright office.

Things are afoot this season. In some ways the Cook manuscript is an example. I am sure it is the culmination of his decades of research withing the confines of accepted academic I Ching convention. Unfortunately, that era has passed along with it the notion that the secrets of the I Ching are to be found with a computer and an in-depth study of Chinese philology. I can remember back to when I was just making my discoveries in the depths of the Yi. It is strange and heady stuff when you turn a corner and find Eureka! Now Cook's book serves as the examplar of what no longer works in an Age of Global Warming when the resources consumed (and spewed into the air, water and landfill) make his complication diagrams are an embarrassment.


This summer, I met Dr. Jay Dunbar of Magic Tortoise taijiquang school of Chapel Hill, NC who inspired me to bring my manuscript back to the world. Its time is right and it took only a few hours work to format it in MS Excel so it prints out as a book of some 54 pages. The business venture I shared an oracle about is setting up the website to eventually publish that ebook on the Web. In the process of setting that up, I ran into a note about Google books and checking that new resource out I found my old and out of print book listed there Stars and Dice: If You can Count the Spots on Dice You Can Learn Astrology.. I had published it originally just to document my discovery of the Pythagorean roots to the dice, which also turned out to be the structural roots of astrology and, as I eventually realized, the I Ching. So, at least I know my topic for my website.

In the set of coincidences abounding these days, I also ran across Lorraine's current email address--so your suggested pathway is known to me. I was shocked when I looked at her I Ching Bookmarks to see how her guestbook had become like hex 48 line 2 with spam of pornsites and pharmaceutical ads crowding out the comments on many great links still there. Perhaps it is time for a number of us from the old days to return to active service. When my website is up I will email her my URL.
The issues of the world today involve one and only one mathematical detail. Everythng that involves populations of people runs on an exponential curve since each person can do stuff. When each member of a population can do stuff, result is no longer linear but exponential, a curve that can be approximated by three straight lines. One is virtually flat, the next which resembles a standard linear graph and then there is a take-off point and the third line looks like it is shooting straight up, At a larger scale, the first two lines look virtually flat, the take-off point is the transition to the linear-like segment at that scale. By the time folks are obliged to notice things are not flat they are about to take-off and time is then of the essence.
Cook's book illustrates the tangent of the old ways. What he has labored so long to bring forth, falls neatly into the traditional detail that systems based upon the concrete observation of natural process are timing analogs. They reproduce the innate workings of the natural world. Whether it is the narrative of a teaching story, the symbol system of the I Ching, the Plains native people's medicine wheel, or the astrological wheel of the horoscope--they mimic our Planet Earth and its cycles. Looked at long enough and hard enough by objective detail engines, such as computers and computer folks a complicated variant mirrored in their own expectations will surely arise. Like any mirror image--it shows a lot more about the person involved than the subject he is objectively focused upon.
Another long post to say a small point.

[mick]

Frank,

Can I just go through my understanding of your ideas with you? Thanks.

You group King Wen’s sequence into six sets of ten Hx with four Hx at the end.

Each set of ten runs from Hx[10n + 1] to Hx[10n + 10] where n = 0 to 5.

I’ll use the notation Hx[+1] to represent Hx 1, 11, 21 etc. Hx[+2] to represent Hx 2,12, 22 etc. and so on.

Each set of ten has this construction:

Hx[+1] sets the tone for the whole set of ten. It’s self-contained.

Hx[+2] and Hx[+3] are a pair of polar opposites.

Hx[+4], Hx[+5] and Hx[+6] are like in the story of Goldilocks. One is hot, one is cold, but one is just right. Is Hx[+5] the one that’s just right? That might fit with Hx 25 and Hx 55?

Finally, Hx[+7], Hx[+8], Hx[+9] and Hx[+10] are a four-stage group like the phases of the Moon. New, Waxing, Full and Waning. Are they in that order?

Please let me know about all my misunderstandings and misconceptions.

Thanks and best wishes,

Mick

[fkegan]

Hi Mick,
The translation of metaphors is intriguing. Pythagoras gives his great insight of the Tetratkys as the monad, plus the dyad, plus the Triad and the Tetrad. Your algebra formula works out, though I would modify your descriptions of the four components.

The Hx(1) are monads, they express the entire set as a whole. Hexagram one is the granddaddy of them all. The Chinese ideogram for its name, Ch'ien is described in Weiger, S.J. (not his initials, he was a Jesuit) as being a drawing of a ray of sunshine penetrating a maismal swamp, burning off the mist to purify that swamp and forming water vapor that becomes clouds that flow across the sky to rain upon the fields (and then flow into creeks and streams and rivers to the Sea)--that is--a complete description of the Water Cycle in a single character.

The Hex(2) and Hex (3) form polar opposites, so near and dear to the Westerner's heart. The point here is that although H(1) and H(2) are the same line pattern only inversed one way or another, their place in the sequence is totally different, the pair to H(2) is not at all H(1) but H(3).

Hex (2) is the Earth itself as a low point, all 6 yin lines showing the depths downward the Earth can go. Hex (3) is the energy highpoint, the thunderstorms of springtime that coalesce water vapor in dark clouds overhead into torrential downpours that flow over the topography of the Earth to create the activity of the water cycle. Together this pair describes the water cycle, the interaction of water falling from the sky upon the varying depths of the Earth underneath.


Hex (4,5,6) is not at all like goldilocks or even the 3 monkeys Hear-No-Evil, etc. It is the beginning, middle, and end of process perspective. Again using the first set for example. Hex (4) is water percolated down through the mountain which has now gurgled forth as a spring. That is, the gravitational energy of the height of the mountain added to the rain water is the beginning or impetus for the productive part of the rain cycle, fluid water upon the surface of the Earth that flows down the gradient of the topography to the lowest overall point, the sea. This is how it all begins, the interaction of rain water with different heights of the Earth.

Hex 5 is water over heaven with imagery of clouds overhead that may later bring much needed rain. This is the middle of the process, water that is evaporated from the surface of the Earth and later will fall as rain upon the surface of the Earth. Not a lack of heat like the too cold porridge differentiated from the too hot porridge, but the real middle phase of the process after beginning H(4) in the differing heights above sea level of the Earth topography. Beginning not in mere timeline, that would be water evaporating into the atmosphere. But rather the first principle that in order to have water flow over the Earth there must be diferences in topography that would turn uniform rainfall into fields, streams and Great Rivers.

Hex 6 (the final phase of the process) is rain falling from heaven, an image of abundance of rain drops which then gives rise to the idea of a large crowd which is then assumed to be arguing, since when folks get together they talk and when there are a lot of them they don't understand each other and blame the other for the miscommunication and argue. Once rain falls, the clouds no longer holding the water vapor in suspension in the atmosphere, the topography already prepared and offering the different heights above sea level, then the process is complete.


The H(7,8) are the first pair of the double dichotomy that makes up the box of the 4-dot dice face. They are like the x-axis of Cartesian co-ordinates, e.g., hex 7 the water within the Earth which is stored up and not going anywhere until later brought forth one way or another. Hex 8 the water upon the Earth that is flowing away to the sea. This is the pair that describe what water can do upon Planet Earth water can either puddle where it is soaked into the ground or flow on towards the sea, all at ground level.

Hex(9,10) are the y-axis dichotomy what happens vertically. Thus, hex 9 is the wind over the sunshine or the weather systems that control where the clouds go and where they stay aloft or condense into showers. Hex 10 is the other end of the vertical story, the water that has reached its quiescent resting point in the deep lake at the lowest point in the regions topography (that's why it is quiet, no where to flow to). The Lake under the sunshine which also happens to be where the water cycle starts again with the broad expanse of open water evaporating in the sunshine.
That is the system overall.

[mick]

Frank,

Thanks very much for the reply.

You said, "Hex (4,5,6) is not at all like goldilocks or even the 3 monkeys Hear-No-Evil, etc. It is the beginning, middle, and end of process perspective."

How about if I were to think of them like the Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable modes?

Hx[+4] represent the start-up energy of the Cardinal mode. The first-line dominated Hx24 and Hx 44 seem to fit well with this.

Hx[+5] have the consolidating strength and staying power of the Fixed mode. Maybe Hx 25 and Hx 55 fit with this?

Hx[+6] can adapt to circumstances like the Mutable mode and finish off the process. There's certainly plenty of movement in Hx 46 and Hx 56 isn't there?

It sounds like for the pair Hx[+7] and Hx[+8], I should look for a sort of horizontal-ness? Whereas for the pair Hx[+9] and Hx [+10], it's vertical-ness?

For example, the wind at the foot of the mountain in Hx 18 would move horizontally whereas the watch-tower in Hx 20 stands upright.

The well in Hx 48 has an underground vertical quality but I can see that it taps into sub-terranean water stored in horizontal strata. Hx 50 definitely stands upright.

Again, please correct all my misconceptions and misunderstandings.

Thanks and best wishes,

Mick

[fkegan]

Hi Mike,
Process symbolism is its own entire world which tends not to fit all that well into other metaphors. I would agree with you that beginning, middle and end is a bit too facile. An artesian spring which I am told can shoot water up out of the ground in a quite literal fountain is an impressive concrete image of the power that elevation imbues to water. Hex 4 is the water at the foot of the mountain or a spring, though not so developed as to gush as a fountain since the name of the hexagram refers to a pig in a pit being trained or the Pupil being educated hence the young fool imagery. This all refers to the initial conditions of the water cycle, the changes in elevation in the topography which give rise to everything that happens with rain water once it hits the ground.

Hex 5 are the clouds in the sky which everyone can see as either puffy white that just sit there or dark filled with water drops that will let loose major rain when the storm energy finishes its process.

Hex 6 is simple rain falling, that is the game is afoot, the die is cast, and the water cycle is on the move.

Rather than relate this to astrological groupings, which again are more cardinal as beginning (being defined by an equinox or solstice), fixed as middle or the signs which have no cardinal solstice at either end of the sign, and mutable where the sign ends with the next cardinal point----I would strongly suggest the Pythagorean metaphysics of it all. In simple, concrete terms: Look at the patterns on the dice cube the 4-dot stakes out the relevant territory and boundary conditions, the 5-dot that has everything neatly organized and displayed, and the 6-dot that manages even more dots than the 5-dot but also leaves a vast open space in the middle for other things to develop.

The Tetrad, hex(7-8 and 9-10) again looking at the 4-dot dice face to see the double dychotomy, is not restricted to horizontal and vertical. It is more the x-axis and y-axis of Cartesian co-ordinates where your basic parameter (time in most of physics) is on the x-axis and the measurement you are graphing on the y-axis (position in basic physics). In the first set of 10, the water cycle there are two fundamental considerations the elevations of the topography (the Earth or hex 2 or potential energy stuff) and the motion of the water or the kinetic energy in it all. Hex 7 is total potential energy, hex 8 is kinetic water flow. Hex 9 is kinetic flow in the weather systems and Hex 10 is quiescent. These are the 4 points of the 4-dot which together make up a single image of the process.

I guess that is a long-winded way of saying that the Yi process is its own primary reality and will not fully decompose into other metaphors like Goldilocks or cardinal. I have worked on the whole set of 7 sets of 10, coming up with explanations for them all which up to this point I have always misplaced or had disappear. At this point I accept that my complete exposition is still a work in progress and not ready to be cut and dried and hung up in the marketplace. One of the reasons I keep pointing to the first set of 10 since they are so delightfully concrete. Even with them, I learn more every time I work with the explanation. The depth of the analysis of the water cycle in the King Wen sequence impresses me.

The point of this entire thread from me is just to point that R. Cook most definitively did not decode the King Wen Sequence which is far simpler, more elegant, eloquent, and sophisticated than his primitive computer analysis can fathom. And as a side note, it is the Pythagorean computer (dice cubes) that works far better than the silicon chip ones so prized at the moment.

Mick, I look forward to discussing the details of the analysis of the King Wen Sequence with you, however, I doubt that there is much more for us to do taking up the space of the I Ching News board. The news is that R. Cook presented his view to the world and I critique its relevance to the Yi. Fibbanacci series reflect the real world, so with great effort they can be found in the minutia of a concrete timing analog in sophisticated multi-layered organization like the Yi. Knowing they are just an artifact of the analysis and not the secret solution to the fundamental mystery requires being able to transcend the academic Tao limited to the cloistered world of the University library.

[fyreflye]

http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~rscook/html/writing.html
Strangely, no mention of this particular book.

[sparhawk]

http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~rscook/html/writing.html
Strangely, no mention of this particular book.

Yes, it is there, under "? Classical Chinese Combinatorics"