Do you think of the I Ching (Book of Changes) mainly as....?

Question

Do you view it mainly as

1-A historical treatise
2-A work of literature or poetry
3-A book of wisdom or philosophy
4-A quasi-mathematical work or early form of sacred geometry
5-A linguistic phenomenon
6-A discourse on politics (like Machievelli's The Prince)
7-Proto-science related in some hidden manner to quantum
mechanics
8-A tool of divination
9-Other
10-All of the above

Xamanator: Get real. How can it be "Hippie stuff" when it is over 2000 years old and occupies a revered position in traditional Chinese culture corresponding to the Bible in Western civilization?

Answer 1

I Ching is clearly all things to all people.

It is "hippie stuff" to some; "yawn" to others; "wisdom and philosophy" to many.

To answer your question briefly, it is probably #10, "All of the above," at least to some people at some time or another.

I am a poet, so to me it is primarily poetry. But some days it is (I can't resist) a tool of divination. Always it is an historical treatise, even before those manuscripts were found in the Han dynasty tombs in the 1970s, giving it another historical context. If I could read it in the original, it would almost certainly be a linguistic phenomenon. Even in translation, it retains that fascination. Yep, all of the above.

But, if I were to choose one term for its genre (recognizing its uniqueness, its anti-generic nature), I would call it "scriptures." Like the writings collected in the Talmud, it exists in its Commentaries as much as in its Text.

If I were a cynic, I would call it a Rorschach test, each trigram or hexagram serving as an inkblot, making its meaning only in the eye of the beholder.

But "scriptures" are words that attest to the Word, images that embody the Vision; "scriptures" are the stories, songs, and sayings of Solomon that reflect the wisdom and wonder of Sophia. What the I Ching says is what the spirit hears.

On one level, and in one sense, that is true of all language. What we hear is never what was said; what we read is never what was written. For mind cannot be translated into mind, nor tongue into tongue. So "scriptures" simply and simultaneously free us and force us to "hear" and "read" the way we always hear and read but do not/cannot admit to ourselves. We always make up our own meanings; we never convey our own meanings.

But as inept as we are with language, as inaccurate as we are in interpretations, from the meanings that we derive, we always intuit, expect, infer Meaning.

If we are strict constructionists, the insist that our Meaning is the Truth, and we are content. If we are personal relativists, we suggest that our Meaning is a truth, and we are content. I Ching submits that one is the shadow of the other, meaning and Meaning, but does not reveal which is which, the yin or the yang, which changes and which is changeless.

So, finally, I must conclude that, to our minds, I Ching is #10 "All of the above," but, to our spirits, #9 "Other," wholly Other. After all, that's what "Scriptures" always are—Holy Other.

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A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER

Or to put it another way, quoting an Answerer whose responses I am coming to admire, “Aren't all ‘meanings’ man-made? And aren't they just signposts pointing to some underlying reality? Some of which realities we can never reach? But feel the need, nevertheless, to strive toward? In some ways are we not forever lost in Plato's cave, enthralled and captivated by the shadows flickering on the wall? Victims of our own addiction to significance? So is it just shadow play that gives ‘meaning’ to our lives? Or is there that something more, just out of reach, yet unreachable, unknowable? Likely we are driven by both origin and destination, biological inheritance and teleology or goal. The great tragedy of so many lives though is mistaking the signpost for the reality, the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself.”

I Ching, like other “scriptures,” epitomizes and perpetuates this process, strivings of this preternaturally human “addiction to signficance.”

Answer 2

SF author Philip K. Dick wrote a whole novel based on I Ching, I think the title is "The Man in the High Castle".
.
My choice is for book of wisdom or philosophy.

Answer 3

It's all of the above and what's best if you know how to use it as a tool of divination, then it could change your life.
It is definitely not for the superficial but it's well worth the trouble to learn how to use it. I know the name of a good teacher in case any of you want to know.

Answer 4

I found the book to be pretty much worthless. I am not sure if I gave it away or threw it away. Probably gave it away.

Answer 5

Hippie stuff

Answer 6

Three, book of wisdom and philosphy.

Answer 7

+ 3
A book of wisdom or philosophy

Answer 8

all of the above

Answer 9

*yawn*