The I Ching, or, Book of Changes

The Richard Wilhelm translation from Chinese
into German
Rendered into English by Cary F. Baynes
With a Foreword by C. G. Jung
and a Foreword to the new edition by Hellmut Wilhelm
The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the first efforts
of the human mind to place itself within the universe. It
has exerted a living influence in China for three thousand
years, and interest in it has been spreading in the West.
First set down in the dawn of history as a book of oracles,
the Book of Changes deepened in meaning when ethical
values were attached to the oracular pronouncements;
it became a book of wisdom, eventually one of the Five
Classics of Confucianism, and provided the common
source for both Confucianist and Taoist philosophy.
Richard Wilhelm's rendering of the I Ching into Ger-
man, published in 1924, presented it for the first time in a
form intelligible to the general reader. Joseph Needham,
author of Science and Civilization in China, has called it
probably the best translation available. Wilhelm, who
translated many other ancient Chinese works and wrote
several books on Chinese philosophy and civilization,
long resided in China, and his close association with its
cultural leaders gave him a unique understanding of the
text of the I Ching. In the English translation, every effort
has been made to preserve Wilhelm's pioneering insight
into the spirit of the original.
This third edition, completely reset in a convenient
new format, contains a new foreword by Hellmut Wil-
helm, the son of Richard Wilhelm and one of the most
eminent American scholars of Chinese culture. He dis-
cusses his father's textual methods and summarizes
recent studies of the I Ching both in the. West and in
present-day China. The new edition contains minor
textual corrections, bibliographical revisions, and for the
first time an index.