The technique of residential fengshui known as Bazhai mingjing (Illuminating the eight halls), on... more The technique of residential fengshui known as Bazhai mingjing (Illuminating the eight halls), one of the most popular systems in use since the Qing dynasty, has been called the most obscure and difficult to understand of the different versions of the compass school. This is because there has never been a satisfactory explanation of the cosmological principles employed by this school, including, but not limited to, a justification for its apparently arbitrary assignment of good and bad fortune to the compass directions. This essay will first outline the rudiments of the technique as currently practiced, then suggest a possible derivation of its most baffling methodologies.
1 Toward the end of the Warring States period and the beginning of the Former Han dynasty (3rd-2n... more 1 Toward the end of the Warring States period and the beginning of the Former Han dynasty (3rd-2nd century BCE), ten commentaries were appended to the Zhouyi to form the Yijing as we now know it. The most important of these "wings" was the Xici zhuan, a theoretical treatise that established the Yijing once and for all as philosophy and diminished its role forever as a religious artifact. Another wing, the Shuogua zhuan, similar to the Xici in philosophical depth, also attempted to explain the significance of the names of the trigrams and hexagrams.
The Essentials of the Yi Jing is a new annotated translation of the Yijing, or Book of Changes, b... more The Essentials of the Yi Jing is a new annotated translation of the Yijing, or Book of Changes, by Chung Wu, Ph.D., who was "privately tutored in the classics of Chinese literature," according to his publisher. It is a complete translation, including separate chapters on five of the Ten Wings: "Treatise on the Appended Words, Parts I and II" (chapters 1 and 2), "Treatise on the Discourses on the Trigrams" (chapter 3), "Treatise on the Sequence of the Hexagrams" (chapter 5), and "Treatise on the Non-Sequence of the Hexagrams" (chapter 6). The remaining five wings-"Treatise on the Judgments of the Hexagrams, Parts I and II," "Treatise on the Symbolism, Parts I and II," and "Treatise on the Elaboration of the Words"-are incorporated into the translation of the hexagram-and-lines texts (what Wu calls the "Yi Jing proper"), all of which forms chapter 4 of the book. In addition, there is a substantial Introduction, an Appendix of tables and charts, a Glossary, and an Index.
The technique of residential fengshui known as Bazhai mingjing (Illuminating the eight halls), on... more The technique of residential fengshui known as Bazhai mingjing (Illuminating the eight halls), one of the most popular systems in use since the Qing dynasty, has been called the most obscure and difficult to understand of the different versions of the compass school. This is because there has never been a satisfactory explanation of the cosmological principles employed by this school, including, but not limited to, a justification for its apparently arbitrary assignment of good and bad fortune to the compass directions. This essay will first outline the rudiments of the technique as currently practiced, then suggest a possible derivation of its most baffling methodologies.
1 Toward the end of the Warring States period and the beginning of the Former Han dynasty (3rd-2n... more 1 Toward the end of the Warring States period and the beginning of the Former Han dynasty (3rd-2nd century BCE), ten commentaries were appended to the Zhouyi to form the Yijing as we now know it. The most important of these "wings" was the Xici zhuan, a theoretical treatise that established the Yijing once and for all as philosophy and diminished its role forever as a religious artifact. Another wing, the Shuogua zhuan, similar to the Xici in philosophical depth, also attempted to explain the significance of the names of the trigrams and hexagrams.
The Essentials of the Yi Jing is a new annotated translation of the Yijing, or Book of Changes, b... more The Essentials of the Yi Jing is a new annotated translation of the Yijing, or Book of Changes, by Chung Wu, Ph.D., who was "privately tutored in the classics of Chinese literature," according to his publisher. It is a complete translation, including separate chapters on five of the Ten Wings: "Treatise on the Appended Words, Parts I and II" (chapters 1 and 2), "Treatise on the Discourses on the Trigrams" (chapter 3), "Treatise on the Sequence of the Hexagrams" (chapter 5), and "Treatise on the Non-Sequence of the Hexagrams" (chapter 6). The remaining five wings-"Treatise on the Judgments of the Hexagrams, Parts I and II," "Treatise on the Symbolism, Parts I and II," and "Treatise on the Elaboration of the Words"-are incorporated into the translation of the hexagram-and-lines texts (what Wu calls the "Yi Jing proper"), all of which forms chapter 4 of the book. In addition, there is a substantial Introduction, an Appendix of tables and charts, a Glossary, and an Index.
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