Recommended I Ching books
On this shelf:
- Two to get you started: I Ching Plain and Simple, Everyday I Ching
- Two to take you further: Total I Ching, The Laws of Change
- Two exceptional free translations
I Ching Plain and SimpleStephen Karcher |
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Note: this is a re-publication of How to Use the I Ching - new publisher, new title, same contents. Grab a copy of whichever version you find.
For me at least, Stephen Karcher is one of the most interesting I Ching translators working today. He combines serious scholarship with a profound enjoyment of myth and symbol, and the convictions of a working diviner. This is the most approachable of his works that are currently available: it's inspiring and user-friendly in equal measure. It has an excellent introduction, with easily the best explanation I've seen of the methods of consultation and how to generate the various hexagrams.
Karcher's view of the I Ching is fresh and unconventional: he is strongly averse to the more rigid Confucian interpretations, and in this edition omits the commentaries on the Judgements and lines that embody them. His own commentaries are thoughtful, original and full of useful insights. The result is a very easy to use, helpful and liberating translation.
The Everyday I ChingSarah Dening |
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This is a commentary, not a translation - I would definitely not recommend it as your only I Ching book. But used alongside a good translation, it will add a great deal to your experience of the I Ching. It is based on Sarah Dening's use of the I Ching in her work as a psychotherapist, and so her ideas are supported by a wealth of valuable experience. The result is very good indeed and extremely useful, particularly if you are just starting to use the I Ching. Dening's language is clear and straightforward, and her interpretations are full of insight.
Total I Ching: Myths for ChangeStephen Karcher |
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My full review of this one is on the translations page. In sum: this is Stephen Karcher's most recent translation in print (though the text used in the Total Yijing software is actually a revised, enlarged version). It is poetic, suggestive, soul-stirring, rich in imagery and story, always drawing you deeper into the world of your reading. There's a breadth and depth of meaning here you won't find in anyone else's work: Karcher always aims to draw out all the possibilities, to cast light on all the Yijing's many facets, never to narrow things down to the 'correct' version.
If you're buying this one, you don't really need I Ching Plain and Simple, as Total I Ching is the more recent work, and contains all the 'meat' of the earlier one.
The Laws of ChangeJack Balkin |
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Again, my full review of this one is on the I Ching translations page. I include it here because it's an excellent work in its own right - one of my favourites to quote from - and a perfect counterbalance to Total I Ching. Where Karcher is poetic, Balkin is logical; where Karcher is open and imaginative, Balkin gives specific interpretation and advice. Bringing these two books together - and they sit next to one another on my desk - is a constant reminder that the I Ching is greater than the sum of its translations.
Recommended free I Ching translations online
There are two truly outstanding I Ching translations currently being given away by their authors. Both are works of imagination, originality and scholarship in a way that a great many published I Ching books aren't. They're LiSe Heyboer's YiJing, Book of Sun and Moon and Bradford Hatcher's Book of Changes.
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