The Living I Ching Using Ancient Chinese Wisdom to Shape Your Life

The Living I Ching Using Ancient Chinese Wisdom to Shape Your Life

From the author of 365 Tao and a leading authority on Taoist practice and philosophy comes a completely innovative translation of the classic text of Eastern wisdom, the I Ching.

The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is an ancient manual for divining the future. Its basic text is traditionally attributed to the Chinese King Wen, the Duke of Zhou, and the philosopher Confucius. By tossing coins, rolling dice, using a computer, or, more traditionally, counting yarrow stalks, one can create a seemingly random combination of heads or tails, odd or even, yin or yang, to construct six lines (for example, solid for odd numbers or broken for even numbers). These six lines make up a hexagram that provides advice, predictions, and answers to questions on topics from love and career to family and finance.

While known mostly as a tool of divination, the I Ching is also a repository of centuries of wisdom. Most of the existing translations offer either dense, scholarly commentary or little more than fortune-cookie platitudes, but in The Living I Ching Deng Ming-Dao takes a more holistic approach. His new translation recovers the true wisdom and philosophy of this ancient classic, so that the I Ching becomes more than just a book of fortune-telling — it becomes a manual for living.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Lyrical Wisdom
Ming-dao does a marvellous job of conveying the essential mystery and poeticism of the I-Ching, capturing its exotic flavor, while at the same time, in the second double-page, explaining the gist of the message for the western reader. Still, it is good to own several versions, because each author provides a valuable slant on the material. I rate this a bit higher than Wu wei’s, although his is more straightforward.

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