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.
17 December 2018
既雨既處。尚德載。婦貞厲。月幾望。君子征凶。 Ji 既: on oracle bone and bronze inscriptions used with the meaning of ‘finished, complete, the end, to stop, the final stage’ (Liu Xinglong 劉興隆,《新編甲骨文字典》, p. 299; Ma Rusen 馬如森, 《殷墟甲骨學》, entry…
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19 March 2018
有孚攣如。富以其鄰。 有孚攣如: this sentence also occurs at H61.5. You fu 有孚: see here. Luan 攣: to join, to connect. There are a few dictionaries (like 《新甲骨文編》) who link this character to an oracle…
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14 March 2018
有孚血去. 惕出. 无咎. It has been more than a year since I wrote my last Translation Note. This has mainly to do with one word: punctuation. The original Chinese text does…
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11 February 2017
輿說輻. 夫妻反目. Yu 輿: a chariot, but also the box of the chariot: Shuo 說: loan for tuo 脫, ‘fall off’ or ‘remove’. It also is a loan for shui 税,…
Read article →27 January 2017
Line 1 復自道. 何其咎. 吉. I have struggled for many months with the segmentation of the first sentence, 復自道. I was not sure if I should read it as (1) 復自…
Read article →28 June 2016
小畜. 亨. 密雲不雨自我西郊。 Xu 畜: accumulate, make it grow in small amounts. According to Lu Deming 陸德明 (556-627) it was originally written as xu 蓄, ‘to store, save, grow’. The top…
Read article →22 April 2016
比之无首。凶。 Shou 首: head; chief, leader; main points, essentials; the first, the highest. Also ‘towards (direction)’ and loan for dao 道, ‘road, path’ (漢語大詞典). Without a leader or direction, without the…
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17 April 2016
顯比。王用三驅。失前禽。邑人不誡。吉。 Xian 顯: appear, become visible, make public, (to) display, (to) manifest. Also a loan for xin 欣, ‘joyful (appearance)’. Xianbi 顯比 can mean that the alliance is made public. Sanqu…
Read article →30 November 2015
外比之。貞吉。 Wai 外: those outside the clan, not related by blood, ‘outsiders’, those with different surname. In oracle bone inscriptions wai was used as a prefix for former kings that were…
Read article →29 November 2015
比之匪人. Bi 比: see line 1. Fei 匪: ‘without’: 后非眾，罔與守邦… If the sovereign had not the multitude, there would be none to guard the country (for him)… Shujing 書經 (tr. Legge) 析薪如之何、匪斧不克。…
Read article →23 November 2015
比之自內。貞吉。 Bi 比: see line 1. Zi 自: (starting) from: 自天子達於庶人…. From the emperor to the common people… (Mengzi 孟子, Lun Heng etc.) Nei 內: its regular meaning is ‘inside, interior’, but…
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22 November 2015
有孚比之.無咎.有孚盈缶.終來有它.吉. About you fu 有孚 see here. Bi 比: ‘assist, support’, ‘join (to support)’, to form a bond to reach a common goal, if necessary in a secondary position, to put yourself…
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