Companion to Yi jing Numerology and Cosmology

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 656 pages
• Published by: RoutledgeCurzon
• Edition: 1st Edition December 30, 2002
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0700716084
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0700716081
• Book Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 1.6 pounds

Product Review
'A great deal of conscientous work has gone into the creation of the volume.' - Bulletin of the SOAS

A great deal of conscientous work has gone into the creation of the volume. - Bulletin of the SOAS

Product Description
Translations of the Yi jing into western languages have been biased towards the yili ('meaning and pattern') tradition, whereas studies of the xiangshu ('image and number') tradition - which takes as its point of departure the imagery and numerology associated with divination and its hexagrams, trigrams, lines, and related charts and diagrams - has remained relatively unexplored. This major new reference work is organised as a Chinese-English encyclopedia, arranged alphabetically according to the pinyin romanisation, with Chinese characters appended. A character index as well as an English index is included. The entries are of two kinds: technical terms and various other concepts related to the 'image and number' tradition, and bio-bibliographical information on Chinese Yi jing scholars. Each entry in the former category has a brief explanation that includes references to the origins of the term, cross-references, and a reference to an entry giving a more comprehensive treatment of the subject.

Reader Reviews
This is one of the 'books I would take to the moon with me'. Unprecedented in the West, this book is an encyclopedia of research on the Book of Changes (the Yi Jing, in old romanization I Ching). For the student working on the Yi in the original Chinese this book is an invaluable asset. It cites books and authors, always giving the original Chinese characters, and explains all the key concepts of Yi Xue over the centuries. The only fault I find is in the quality of the editing and printing. The book is poorly bound for the price (a glued binding for $75). More importantly, there are no page headings describing individual page content as one would expect in a reference book. It looks to me like the publisher saved money by producing a no-frills edition of a book with a small market. I think that if the work had been titled properly, as "An Encyclopedia of I Ching Studies", it would sell better and justify a better edition. Speaking of encyclopedias, there is a wonderful three volume work out now in China, the Zhou Yi Quan Shu (ISBN 7801302354). How wonderful if this publisher, which has already produced such key works on Yi Xue as Richard Rutt's splendid translation of the Yi and the current work, were to sponsor a translation of this major encyclopedia of the Yi Jing and Jiao Shi Yi Lin.