Articles, sources and criticism
Explore historical sources, translations, research articles and critical discussions of the Yijing.
Subjects assigned by the editor take priority. Unclassified articles are provisionally matched by title and excerpt; the complete archive remains available above.
3 March 2014
First line 履霜堅冰至. Thread on frost: hard ice comes. Second line 直方大.不習無不利. See for zhi 直, ‘to receive’ and other meanings this page. See also Scott Barnwell’s excellent article about de 德, The Evolution of…
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2 March 2014
Name Just as with the name of hexagram 1, the name of hexagram 2, kun 坤 is difficult to translate, because the character only occurs in the Yijing and nowhere else (accept later…
Read article →28 February 2014
Fifth line 飛龍在天.利見大人. Daren 大人 (see also line 2) can refer to a person in a high position, like the nobility. In the Shijing 詩經 it is used as the title for a…
Read article →28 February 2014
What in most translations is called The Judgment Text has the Chinese title Tuan 彖. This character might be related to 㣇, which is read as 祟 on oracle bones, meaning ‘to expel…
Read article →27 February 2014
不永所事.小有言.終吉. bu yong 不永, ‘not eternal’. Suo shi 所事, ‘this matter’ (指某一件事，這件事). Xiao 小 refers to the common people. (about 小有言 see here). This matter does not last forever. The common people will have criticism. In the…
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