Easy Learning New Exploration

Author: Cheng Shiquan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-12-01
Features: The author began studying the I Ching under Fang Dongmei in his early years. Whether pursuing studies in Britain or the United States, or teaching in China or the United States, he never abandoned his research on the I Ching. After decades of dedicated study, he gained profound insights and thus wrote the "Three Books on the I Ching"（《New Interpretation of the I Ching Terms》, 《New Exploration of the I Ching》, 《New Discussion of the I Ching》). Among them, 《New Interpretation of the I Ching Terms》 and 《New Discussion of the I Ching》 were published together as 《New Interpretation of the I Ching》 by this press in 2000 and received positive feedback from readers. Now, we are releasing his 《New Exploration of the I Ching》, which offers a comprehensive view of Cheng's approach to the I Ching. In this book, the author not only refutes the view, dating back to Zhu Xi, that the I Ching is a divination book but also challenges the current tendency in I Ching studies to compare it with medical practices, military strategies, musical scales, and other fields. The author argues that the I Ching was created by ancient people to "manifest the virtue of connecting with the divine and classify the emotions of all things," not for divination. Although it was used for divination during the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, after Confucius' commentary and interpretation, it became a philosophical work. Another distinctive feature of the book is the author's innovative analysis of the I Ching's "symbolic representation" from the perspectives of the worldview, life philosophy, and mindset of ancient people when creating artifacts, the six methods of character formation, and the techniques of parallelism, comparison, and evocation in poetry. It is believed that the successive publication of the "Cheng Family's Three Books on the I Ching" will contribute to the advancement of contemporary I Ching studies.