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Thomas mcClatchie’s “A Translation of the Confucian I Ching or Classic of Changes”

charly

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Already available from long time in the Honkong University, by maybe interesting for somebody: three REV. T. MCCLATCHIE's articles published by the old China Review:

The Symbols of the Yih-king
The China Review,or notes & queries on the Far East. Vol. 1 No. 3 (1872 ), 13 pages
http://hkjo.lib.hku.hk/archive/files/cb1d0e47457df572e777a22ead0d9570.pdf

Phallic Worship
The China Review,or notes & queries on the Far East. Vol. 4 No. 4 (1876 ), 5 pages
http://hkjo.lib.hku.hk/archive/files/b6845612739672ab7e3ab2c651c49f9a.pdf

Confucian Cosmogony
The China Review,or notes & queries on the Far East. Vol. 4 No. 2 (1875 ), 12 pages
http://hkjo.lib.hku.hk/archive/files/9d833e89577d2ea2404a8ddc2bed4eaa.pdf

For searching another articles available in the Hong Kong Journals Online use:

http://hkjo.lib.hku.hk/exhibits/show/hkjo/home
Chine Review is the 8th in order in the list of Journals.

Ch.
 

charly

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John Minford on McClatchie:

One of the first translators to draw attention to this extraordinary passage, and to the sexual dynamic at the very heart of Change, the interplay of Yin and Yang, was the much-reviled (and now largely forgotten) Irish clergyman Thomas McClatchie.

McClatchie arrived in the newly established treaty port of Shanghai as a missionary in 1844, and went on to become canon of Shanghai Cathedral. He published his interesting version of the I Ching in 1876, much influenced by the new ideas on comparative mythology and religion (Edward B. Tylor’s Primitive Culture first appeared in 1871).

“From the statements of the I Ching, and of Confucius in his Commentary, Qian-Kun or Shangdi [elsewhere McClatchie calls this the Chinese “hermaphroditic deity,” and identifies it with Baal of the Chaldeans] is evidently the phallic God of Heathendom represented unmistakably by the usual symbols. Qian or his Male portion is the membrum virile, and Kun or his Female portion is the pudendum muliebre; and these two are enclosed in the circle or ring, or phallos, the Great Extreme [Taiji, the Supreme Ultimate] or Globe of Air [qi, Energy], from and by which, as the Great Monad [Taiyi], all things are generated. In these two powers of nature we have evidently the Linga and the Yoni of the Hindus.”

Predictably, McClatchie’s contemporary, the prudish Presbyterian James Legge, took great offense at this mention of “sundry things which are not pleasant to look at or dwell upon. Why did he [McClatchie] not dismiss the idea of such conjugal intercourse from his mind altogether? Why make the I Ching appear to be gross, when there is not the shadow of grossness in it? It is hardly possible, on reading such a version, to suppress the exclamation proh pudor! [For shame!] Can a single passage be adduced in support of it from among all the Chinese critics in the line of centuries? I believe not. The ideas which it expresses are gratuitously and wantonly thrust into this text of the I Ching.”

Canon McClatchie, in his understanding of these Chinese terms (yangwu and yinwu-literally, Yang Thing and Yin Thing) was well ahead of his time. His rather precise translation is supported by the views of several twentieth-century Chinese intellectuals (e.g., Guo Moruo and Qian Xuantong), and has been vindicated more recently by Edward Shaughnessy in his version of the Mawangdui silk manuscript I Ching.

It also reflects a pervasive current in early Chinese thought. Douglas Wile writes, “Early texts are marked by the existential loneliness of Yin and Yang for each other, and their union consummates a cosmic synergy.”

Joseph Needham puts it in his own characteristic fashion: “One notes the solidity of Qian as opposed to the cavity in Kun, and one can hardly overlook a phallic significance in this, Qian as the lance and Kun as the grail.”

Qian and Kun are two peaks facing each other. From them proceeds the Tao of Change. They are the two leaves of a single entrance, or door, constantly opening onto the Transformation of Things.

David Hall and Roger Ames draw attention to the pervasive use of this image in Taoism, the opening and closing of the Heavenly Gate, moving the leaves of the door back and forth, navigating between Yin and Yang.

Source:
I Ching, The Essential Translation of the Ancient Chinese Oracle and Book of Wisdom,
by John Minford. New York: Viking, 2014,
Chapter on Kun hexagram.

Ch.
 
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waveCT

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charly,
Many thanks for the links.
Minford doesn't give a source for his quote, and there's none in his online noytes, and so far there's been no reply to a request for provenance...
🙄
Cheers!
 

waveCT

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Having wended way through McClatchie, found relevant bits:
p.326, "Writing cannot fully express ...
p.346, "Membrun virile...
p.362, "Calculating the past is compliance...

Cheers
 

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