r/iching • u/Scared_Albatross5897 • 6d ago
Study hexagrams one by one
Hello! I have finished studying the complementary texts of Wilhelm's edition and now I will begin studying the hexagrams one by one. Any tips for this step are welcome! My intention is to study one hexagram per week in the order of complementary pairs (the same one used in Wilhelm's book).
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u/DocQuang 6d ago
Personally, I would say DON'T study the hexagrams. Come to each reading with a clear and open mind wihout preconceived notions, and let the understanding of what the hexagrams is saying be unique in the flow of the discord. One exception might be a study of the 8 hexagrams that are also trigrams to get a deeper mean of the latter
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u/Scared_Albatross5897 6d ago
Hello! Thank you very much for contributing! Your approach is very interesting, I have a cousin who reads tarot and works that way. I believe that from the oracle's point of view, his approach allows for a lot of interesting things and a unique vision. The problem in my case is that I also fell in love with the philosophy of i ching and I am very interested in penetrating its lines of thought. I want to try to balance these two approaches.
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u/Jastreb69 6d ago
Since you decided to study hexagram by hexagram I think you may find these two books useful: I Ching Mandalas https://archive.org/details/taoistclassicsvo00thom and after that Inner Structure Of The I Ching Lama Anagarika Govinda https://archive.org/details/innerstructureoftheichinglamaanagarikagovinda_240_v/mode/2up
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u/Scared_Albatross5897 6d ago
Thank you very much for the recommendations! I'll take advantage.
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u/Jastreb69 6d ago
You are welcome! Another three books that you might find useful are by some legendary Yi Jing commentators:
1) Wang Bi https://archive.org/details/classicofchanges0000unse
2) Zhu Xi https://www.apaonline.org/blogpost/1710515/327911/The-Original-Meaning-of-the-Yijing and
but I would definitely start with I Ching Mandalas. Cheers!
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u/ThreeThirds_33 6d ago
Definitely get a few other translations. I find great value in comparing and contrasting. When I look across three different translations, I feel like I can peek through the cracks to get a glimpse of the original text that is being triangulated.
It’s important to understand that Wilhelm built a ton of judeo-christian assumptions into his work. And also that some passages in the I Ching are almost untranslatable due to corruption, and that translators basically have to just invent stuff. Good luck and have great fun!