I Ching (Classics of Ancient China)

I Ching (Classics of Ancient China) by Shaughnessy, Edward. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780345421128.

The I Ching (The Classic of Changes) is one of the seminal texts of Chinese culture, comparable to the Bible or the Upanishads, and readers everywhere have turned to the hexagrams, line statements, and commentaries for guidance on every imaginable life situation. Thus it was a momentous event when a significantly different I Ching text was unearthed in Mawangdui, China, in 1973--a manuscript buried for more than two thousand years. Now translated into English for the first time by one of the Wests leading scholars of the I Ching, the Mawangdui Texts bring welcome clarity, accessibility, and novelty to this beloved classic. In addition, the Mawangdui version contains five new commentaries that had been lost for more than two thousand years, including the surprising discovery of a commentary that quotes Confucius extensively on how he had come to change his earlier, negative, views about the importance of the I Ching. The lucid purity of this translation make this volume a work of timeless artistry, one that is surprising, illuminating, and welcome to even the most educated I Ching reader.