Post
by fireraven » Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:06 am
Just to re-iterate what some of you have already said....
The best place to start is with a fairly straight translation of the Yi Jing (sorry, I prefer using pinyin to wade-giles - its just how i learned chinese).
The Richard Wilhelm translation is what I started with, and it is a relatively authoritative and good translation. But remember that for English-speakers, you are reading an English translation of a German translation of a modern Chinese translation of ancient Chinese texts....
Having said that, Wilhelm's translation of the Chinese is somewhat dated now, and his own biases come through when you are familiar with the pitfalls of translating Chinese concepts into Western words.
Thomas Cleary has done some very good work in translating ancient Chinese spiritual/philosophical texts - most of his stuff is published by Shambhala Publications. He's released a translation of the Book of Changes called "The Taoist I Ching" (note wade-giles translation), and it is a complete translation of a 18/19th-Century translation/commentaries of Daoist adept Liu I-Ming.
The best thing about this book is the Daoist nature of the Hexagrams, thus more personal and mystical - whereas Wilhelm's are inherently Confucian in nature and the advice is more general, and was used to assist in the governance of the State. This is the fundamental difference between Confucianism and Daoism - the former placed emphasis on the individual's relationship to the community, whereas the latter's emphasis was on the individual's relationship to the Divine.
The Yi Jing is a powerful tool for those of us interested in all things 'mystical' and a good way to learn to live "with the Dao"....
P