The lost work of Wallace Andrew Sherrill

A few years ago Frank Coolen told me he had bought a book by W.A. Sherrill which was quite unknown in the world of Yijing students. Indeed, the book is so rare that isn’t even listed in I Ching – An Annotated Bibliography. Naturally I also wanted to have a copy of this curious book, so with a lot of searching on the internet, and by paying way too much money, I was able to obtain this book.

Sherrill is mostly known by his co-authorship with W.K. Chu. They wrote An Anthology of I Ching, which gives some divination techniques that are (sometimes loosely) associated with the Yijing,  and The Astrology of I Ching, which is their adaptation of Heluo Lishu, a kind of numerological system that calculates birth and life hexagrams. They were both good friends with Nan Huaijin 南懷瑾, a well-known Buddhist teacher.

Sherrill’s book Heritage of Change – a Background to Chinese Culture and Thinking is written as an introduction in the Yijing and Chinese culture and philosophy from a Westerners point of view. I must confess I have never read it thoroughly. The contents does not really appeal to me, I am not interested in philosophical explanations. But I am sure others will find it a joy to read and many might find the book stuffed with a lot of intriguing concepts and information.

That is why I made a scan of the book. It can be downloaded here: