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The Pocket I Ching by Melyan and Chu

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Freedda

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I have never read it, but I did find this brief review on Joel Biroco's site - https://www.biroco.com/yijing/survey.htm

Little use; the lines are not included. Instead it covers each hexagram through twenty categories of concern, such as family and marriage; you can even get a weather forecast.​

I suspect that if the lines are missing, it means the bulk of the Yi and it's imagery is missing, which doesn't leave us with much except someone else's opinions (like mine, here). But then again, maybe someone who has read it can chime in.

PS - ricardo, if you get a chance see my question to you in the nuclear trigrams thread.
 
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ricardoribeiro

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I have the book and find it useful as an adjunct to the other translations as it has a number of standard questions relating to love, finances, lawsuits, etc and you can get answers to whether the outcome is fortunate or not.
 
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Freedda

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I ... find it useful as an adjunct to the other translations as it has a number of standard questions relating to love, finances, lawsuits, etc and you can get answers to whether the outcome is fortunate or not.

Thanks Ricardo. I'm wondering, if I were to get line 15.4 in a reading (oh, say about cleaning my house - my perpetual endevour and quest!) how does this book interpret this line? What does it say about it? (If it's long, just a sample will do.)


Regards, David.
 

ricardoribeiro

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Thanks Ricardo. I'm wondering, if I were to get line 15.4 in a reading (oh, say about cleaning my house - my perpetual endevour and quest!) how does this book interpret this line? What does it say about it? (If it's long, just a sample will do.) Regards, David.
Each hexagram has the primary an nuclear trigrams mentioned and a short description of the Hexagram. Below that is "the fortune" and 19 other categories of questions.As your query seems to only fit "the fortune", here is the response for hexagram 15: "safe and sound, everything will go as hoped". Under "wish" we get: "Selfish, narrow -minded, and ungenereous conduct will bring failure. Treat others with sincerity when performing an action and accomplishment will be yours".It doesn't talk about changing lines. So one sees the initial and final hexagrams and if needed one looks at the hexagram formed from the nuclear trigrams (lines 2,34 and 3,4,5) of the initial hexagram.The result is Hexagram 62. I'll attach pictures as i don't have time to type everything.
 

ricardoribeiro

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Hexagram 15. Pics attached.
 

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ricardoribeiro

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Hexagram 62 pics.
 

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Freedda

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Each hexagram has the primary an nuclear trigrams mentioned and a short description of the Hexagram. Below that is "the fortune" and 19 other categories of questions
Ricardoribeiro, thanks for sharing this. After looking at the pages you sent photos of, I find myself wanting to offer a bit of caution about this version of the I Ching.

What you have here is a version of the I Ching that's missing 7/8s (or more) of the I Ching. In other words, you have the hexagrams (and trigrams) but none of the oracle or line text - which make up the bulk of the Yi. Instead, these have been replaced with what someone else thinks they mean, which might be far different than what you think they are about - or what we might think the Yi's authors intended since we have none of their text or imagery.

Also, this version has reduced your possible 'answers' to only 64 possibilities, where the Yi offers us 4,096 possibilities. And while simplicity might be beneficial in some systems, it is not at all desirable in nature, nor in divination. If you want simplicity, you should just rely on the the Magic 8 Ball and be done with it! :mischief:

So, if you were to do a reading based on this version, it would read like this: "I have no idea what the oracle or changing lines say, but I'll tell you what I think the hexagram means, which is based on what the authors of this book think this hexagram means ...."

It brings to mind these words from the The Great Treatise (the Dazhuan, the 5th and 6th Wings of the Yijing):

The Changes is a book
From which one may not hold aloof.
Its tao is forever changing—
Alteration, movement without rest,
Flowing through the six empty places;

In the case of this book, however, you are holding the I Ching 'afoot' (at a distance), because you're getting the information second or even third hand: someone translates the text, then someone interprets it, then you read their interpretation. And you're missing the forever changing Tao that is 'flowing through the six empty places' (the lines) because there are no lines!

Best, David.
 

ricardoribeiro

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Thanks David. I use the Richard Wilhelm translation and The Complete I- Ching to understand the hexagrams and i occasionally use the Pocket I-Ching in addition to the two.
 
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Freedda

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Thanks David. I use the Richard Wilhelm translation and The Complete I- Ching to understand the hexagrams and i occasionally use the Pocket I-Ching in addition to the two.
Yes, sometimes these 'commentary-based' books are a good adjunct to help us wrap our heads around the text and imagery- as long as we don't rely on them too heavily. And this is especially true for a book that doesn't give us the text at all, like this one! You don't want to let this book's version of what the Yi means replace your own understanding. So, proceed with caution. (Some would frown on using them at all, but I'm not that strict with myself.)

David.
 
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