Elements of I Ching

Many people feel that this book is difficult to wade through, there is much after the initial image that reads as though it is in another language, and frankly it is. This version of the I Ching is presented for those with a history of use of the text and a desire to go deeper into the hexagrams. I personally feel that this book represents the I Ching in a more accurate light than most other texts, it feels to me as a student of the ancient Chinese to be an exploration of how metaphor was a constant in the life of those who wrote and have used the system for millenia. Though the text is scholarly in presentation, one can use it with little understanding or need to go into the limitless depths of mathematics or mystical underpinnings. One can simply throw the coins (though to be sure, the yarrow stalks are the preferred method with an entirely different mathematical system) and read the first image to establish a relationship with oracle. The downside of the book is that it is time consuming to move into the language as Karcher attempts to write in English as one would write in pictographs, with words as metaphor. Though it can be trying, still there is much to be gleaned by this manner of exploration and i recommend this translation for the serious minded, but it is the system (Ba Gua) that students of the I Ching are studying, the words are but translations of the images whether in ancient Chinese or in modern English.

While many folks are familiar with the excellent Baynes/Wilhelm edition of the I Ching, Dr. Stephen Karcher's superb "Elements of the I Ching" wins my vote for the best "everyday" version of this classic Chinese oracle. As co-director of the Eranos Foundation's massive I Ching project that produced a definitive 800+ page version of the work, Dr. Karcher is one of the great modern authorities on this sometimes elusive book of ancient divinatory wisdom. What makes "The Elements of the I Ching" so special is that, for the first time, we have a concise adaptation of the work that is both an accurate interpretation of the ancient original texts and remarkably easy to understand. Another benefit to this edition is Dr. Karcher's introduction of a new way to consult the I Ching that is not only as easy as the common "three coins" method, but also retains the mathematical model underlying the traditional(and laborious) "yarrow stalk" method. I own seven different versions of the I Ching, and this is my favorite.

This book has many different aspects of the i ching. It shows the history, meanings of symbols, definitions of ones reading in great detail, and above all a simple version of how to use the i ching. Though many would argue that the i ching is an Asian version of the Ouji board game in the US., one can see by reading this book that the i ching is very different and respected. This book is a good resource for one wanting to know the history and how to use the i ching in a more simple text.