Reading the I Ching (Book of Changes) : Themes, Imagery, Expressions, and Rhetoric / Geoffrey Redmond.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Redmond, Geoffrey, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Yi jing.

Divination--China.

Divination.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 2024.

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.

System Details:

text file HTML

Summary:

"Reading the I Ching (Book of Changes) includes an interlinear Chinese text, a glossary of important words in English, Chinese, and pinyin, and an appendix. These features make it essential reading for students taking courses in Chinese philosophy, Chinese religion, and early Chinese history, as well as readers looking for a clear and accessible gloss of this text"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Halftitle page

Series page

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Contents

Illustrations

Preface Exploring Ancient China with the Book of Changes

Note to the Reader What This Book is Not About

Acknowledgments

Part One Background

Introduction Starting to Read a 3,000-Year-Old Book

A different kind of scriptural text

Can the ancient Zhouyi be understood in translation?

Why Chinese characters with the English translations?

The genre of the Zhouyi: Divination manual and more

Word magic

Psychology and the Book of Changes

Origins

The place of the Book of Changes in Chinese culture

Selection of texts for divination

Spirituality and philosophy in the Book of Changes

Practitioners and scholars

1 Engaging with the Archaic Text

Organization

Exegesis: The methods of analogy and anomaly

Modern theories

Context-dependent versus argumentative texts

Coherence

The Zhouyi, the Yijing, and the axial age

Divination and society

2 Divination Managing Uncertainty

A balanced view of divination

Divination, prophecy, and science

Divination and economics

Learning from contemporary divination

Experiencing divination

3 Is the Book of Changes Esoteric?

Both exoteric and esoteric

The revival of esotericism

The two schools: Xiangshu and Yili

Western esoteric readings of Chinese texts

Part Two Grammar and Structure

4 Divinatory Prognostic Terms

Favorable prognoses

Unfavorable and negated prognoses

Why "no blame"?

Blame: Natural and supernatural

The shame/blame controversy

Divination as word magic

Determination of prognosis using line positions

5 The Grammar of the Zhouyi

Parataxis

Parataxis in Modernism

Punctuating archaic texts

Punctuating without rewriting

Parsing the Zhouyi texts

Parsing by function.

The judgment (hexagram) texts

The line texts and images

The value of images for divination

Prognostication and prognosis

Do the prognoses imply fixed fate?

Addendum

Richard Rutt

Myth-based parsing of the Zhouyi

6 Rhetoric and Forms of Expression

Confucian simplicity and the Zhouyi

Zhouyi rhetoric is unaffected and pragmatic

Characteristics of early literacy in the Zhouyi texts

Convincing the inquirer

Who used the Book of Changes?

Part Three Imagery

7 The Nature of Omens

Recycled divinations

8 Divining About Numbers and Durations

Time and work

Three and seven as duration

Number three in other contexts

Other numbers

9 Joys and Hazards of Daily Life

Well-being

Home

Health

Accidents

Food and drink

The importance of the well

Weather

10 Women's Lives

Marriage and choice of wives

Women's activities and the household

Fertility

Children

11 Emotions and the Body

Expression of emotion

Mourning

Other images of emotional distress

Images of desolation and sterility

Positive emotions and happiness

Vocalizations

Abnormal and involuntary bodily movements

Disfigurement and mutilation

Bodily sensations

12 Hierarchy Kings, Nobles, Commoners

High-born women

Nobility

13 Travel and Its Hazards

14 Human Sacrifice Ritual Cruelty

Human sacrifice in the Zhouyitexts

Ritual aspects

Selection of victims

Procedures for sacrifice

The distress of the victims

Mercy toward captives

Tanning leather or revolution?

Other violence

Attempts to rationalize human sacrifice

15 Animals in Early China

Appreciation of animals

Birds as omens

Hunting

Wild animals

Domestic animals

Horses

Gelding a stallion

Cows, sheep, and oxen

Other domestic animals

Butchering

Fish.

Animals dangerous to humans

Animal magic

The mystique of the tortoise

16 Warfare

17 Optical Imagery The Diagrams

Part Four

Final Reflections

Appendix

Glossary of Names and Specialized Terms

Zhouyi Hexagram Chart In Received Order

Hexagram Finder

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781350078208

1350078204

9781350078192

1350078190

9781350078185

1350078182

OCLC:

1427067983