A few weeks ago, I borrowed the audiobook of the John Minford translation of the I Ching, which was a good way to go through all the introductory material, but really quite lousy once it started to go through each hexagram.
I’m not a believer in the divine per se, but I do believe in the unconscious. This translation by Thomas Cleary seemed to be the most straightforward, least western new age woo woo physical copy that was available at the library.
It is a lovely pocket paperback. Just the straight text with a short introduction and minimal notes at the end. It was good to first meet the I Ching by walking (often confusedly) through the text without any commentary to clog the flow.
The simplicity of this format helped me wrap my head around the framework of the book. It let my mind start to feel the contours of this world, the hexagrams flowing one after another, flipping back and forth.
Even so, I must be admit that the damn book (the original, not the translation) is a word salad. This isn’t a bad thing (I suspect that’s why it continues to speak effectively to querents), but there is no denying that the text can feel like bunch of images that don’t make much coherent sense.
Then again, it’s been making sense for millennia, so there must be something there. Does the emperor have no clothes? Maybe not this time. I sense that there is something here, even though the pieces are not logically tied together.
Ultimately, I’ve purchased a copy of the several translations for long term reference. This small book was a good introduction to the I Ching and will stay on my shelves until someone puts it on hold at the library, but I don’t feel a need to purchase my own copy.
Since writing the first draft of this post, I have gotten really into the I Ching. I appreciate this translation as in my personal history since it introduced me to the book. However, I don’t ever reference this translation when I conduct a reading. I’ve stopped pulling it off the shelf, preferring my Minford, Wilhem/Baynes, Lynn, Richter, and Richmond versions. There is something to be said for being available at the right time, but I fear that may be the best one can say about it.