Roger Green’s The I Ching Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Learning the Wisdom of the Oracles is a great introductory book on the Yi Jing as well as a great resource for more advanced practitioners looking to understand what everything means from a theoretical perspective. This book helps you understand the framework behind the Yi Jing. If you’re interested in Daoism in general, understanding the Yi Jing is essential sooner than later. Daoism and Yi Jing historically tie in with one another (as well as with Confucianism too).
The workbook portion of this book is amazing, the interpretation is good for a quick reference, but this book was written to be used in conjunction with a more thorough translation. With that in mind, we will cover the contents of the book, what it’s good for, why it should be used in conjunction with something else, and any further considerations.
Contents
The first chapter gives a very in depth introduction to the concepts of the Yi Jing and its history. Later chapters build on this and flesh out the theory behind the Yi Jing and how it ties into Daoism. It imparts Daoist symbolism with some of the interpretations and ideas. It doesn’t ever directly reference Daoism though.
Concepts like Yin and Yang, which are fundamental to the Yi Jing are introduced and expounded on much more in depth than most Yi Jing books. It includes detailed instruction for casting a question to the Yi Jing as well as how to cast. Basically nothing in the process is unclear from this single work.
Since it’s a “workbook”, it has exercises. Some of the exercises seem a little weird for a basic Yi Jing book, but they involve idealizing some of the concepts of Daoism and general eastern mysticism (for better and for worse). The workbook includes a basic guide for meditation (more a Zazen type meditation than Daoist), alter use and maintenance, and plenty of other assorted pieces to work with Yi Jing. These can be as cumbersome as they are useful if you are reading this to relate back to Daoism, but the rest of the book more than makes up for it if you’re not “reading to believe”.
What It Does Well
The book covers the theory in a way a lot of books omit. What exactly is a trigram? I probably couldn’t have answered that as concisely and completely before this book. A hexagram takes on a meaning in terms of the more basic interactions between Yin and Yang and the implications with a Daoist worldview with the understanding in this book. If you read other Daoist works, you’ll see references to the Yi Jing or parts from the Yi Jing and this book helps you to understand them in context.
If you like using the Yi Jing for divination, this book will give you an understanding of the underlying philosophy and theory behind it all. It manages to do so without the spiritual aspects drowning out the philosophical ones. Most Yi Jing books either omit the spiritual aspects and serve as plain translations, or drown in them. Some play metaphysics more than practical application as well. This book is guilty of not mentioning Daoism by name, but once you know the connection exists, it’s easy to see the parallels.
The book includes multiple casting methods. It teaches the coin method, the bead method, and the traditional yarrow stick method. It also includes the different traditional percentages that matter. This can make the system easy to adapt to other mediums as desired (different dice, cards, etc.).
Why It Needs An(other) Yi Jing Translation
The book ends with an interpreted section of the various hexagrams. The issue is that it does not include the original translation. This is a weird omission, but I feel that the author originally intended this as a more advanced book and fleshed it out to be more accessible, or else they ran out of space for the requisite size of the book (publisher wanted <200 pages, they had more). Their condensed interpretation is good to use with a plainer translation though. Each hexagram has an interpretation of how auspicious it is at the bottom. It also has an analysis of the individual lines. The description is committed to tying the hexagram back to the theory behind it and what is written in the original Yi Jing. The description is a heavily shortened paraphrase of the original with padding to bring the concepts to life. It feels a bit like a cheat sheet or a review for a translated work rather than a standalone interpretation.
This makes it one of the more powerful Yi Jing books, but also makes it rely on the use of another work. I would advise any translation you like which isn’t too old. Some of the older translations don’t really fit with what the original literary Chinese is saying. Newer ones may not always be either, but they’ll at least be more accessible.
This book really needs a translation in it, especially if you want to understand the original references from the Yi Jing, or want to see what was originally written and if it applies to you differently. An interpretation or paraphrase will usually color the original. If not overtly, it may color it subtly for certain applications. The interpretation is good for basic notes, but another translation makes everything that much clearer.
Other Considerations
There are some spots where it gets a little new age spiritual, but I feel that the book more than makes up for it with the actual content. The book also covers some other bits relating to divination and astrology. These really weren’t my thing, but they don’t take up too much space and might be interesting.
The workbook has practical exercises for spiritual growth and more related to a more spiritual use of the Yi Jing. If you are learning about the Yi Jing for a more practical usage, this book can be a great reference in conjunction with other works. Make sure to have a good translation on hand to go with this book for whatever you’re using it for.
Conclusion
This is one of the best Yi Jing books I’ve read as far as the theory and practice is concerned. Most gloss over it or include a little 2 page guide to using the Yi Jing, or else they delve so far into the new age spirituality you’re wondering what chakras have to do with any of it. While this book avoids using direct references to Daoism, it is built on a Daoist philosophy and ties everything back to it (with a few exceptions).
If you’re interested in the Yi Jing from a theoretical standpoint, and whether you believe in divination or not, this book is great. It explains the general theory and meaning behind the hexgrams, what the trigrams actually are, and how the casting works. All of these are referenced to some degree in later Daoist works. This book enables you to understand what references to the Yi Jing mean in context of the original work, and why they were chosen.
If you want to learn more about the Yi Jing, get this book. If you bought a translation of the Yi Jing and don’t know what to do with it, get this book. For research on how Daoist philosophy applies to the interpretation of the Yi Jing, this is a great work (but probably not a good citation for a paper).
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