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.
10 February 2015
利永貞. Yong zhen 永貞: long-term (長久) divination: 戊寅卜貞我永. Crack-making on day 15, divines for my long-term prognosis. (Heji 合集 248) Several oracle bone inscriptions end with a character or phrase denoting the…
Read article →29 January 2015
大君有命開國承家.小人勿用. Dajun 大君: ‘great ruler’, respectful title for the king: 大君若不棄書之力… (…) 惟大君命焉. O great ruler, if you have not forgotten the zealous duty of Shu… (…) It is for you, O great ruler,…
Read article →11 December 2014
田有禽.利執言.無咎.長子帥師.弟子輿尸.貞凶. Tian 田: ‘to hunt’. You qin 有禽: ‘there is a catch’. These first three characters probably deal with the royal hunt, a theme which is often mentioned in the oracle bone inscriptions,…
Read article →5 December 2014
師左次.無咎. Zuo 左: in its ordinary meaning ‘the left side’, but already on oracle bones used as a loan for zuo 佐, ‘to assist, to help’. and you 佑, ‘to assist, to protect’. The 漢語大詞典 says, ‘用兵則居次方位’:…
Read article →2 December 2014
師或輿尸.凶. Huo 或, ‘there is’. See also hexagram 1, line 4. The regular meanings of huo are ‘perhaps’ and ‘someone’. But in old texts it is often used with the meaning of you 又/有,…
Read article →