Overview
The I Ching Handbook is the very best compendium of study aids, technical resources, and useful information on the I Ching, or Book of Changes, the best-known and most widely read text from early Chinese culture. Dr. Hacker’s text provides information that formerly has been available only to those who read Chinese, or to those having experience with formal logical systems.
The text describes the many views of the I Ching, particularly its use for prediction, its structure and origin, the function of yin and yang lines, emblems, and trigrams. The hexagrams are described in detail, each with an English name derived from the consensus of translators’ insights.
Also discussed are the nuclear trigrams, and the stories, “flowers,” and cycles that are formed by the textual sequence. Dr. Hacker has made deeper levels of meaning and insight from the I Ching accessible to the reader.
The Book of Changes (the I Ching) is the Chinese classic that is best-known and most widely read in Western civilization. Although it was written nearly three thousand years ago, its wisdom is still applicable to modern issues. In its multi-metaphorical themes one may find insights and solutions to the personal, social, political and philosophical problems that we encounter today.
Author Information
Dr. Edward Hacker is a retired professor from Northeastern University in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, where he teaches Chinese Philosophy, Logic and Introduction to Philosophy.He is also a licensed psychologist in the state of Massachusetts.
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As a student of the I Ching what you gain from Dr. Hacker’s work is the detail of the text structure and the various inter-relationships it shows. The text does not support a particular theory as much as it supports study of characteristics that are not available to English-speakers.