Familiarise Yourself With the Yijing Text!
Dear J
Thank you for your interesting email.
Richard Hunn spent much of his mature years working upon a full Chinese-English translation of the Yijing whilst working with a British publisher at a time when such an idea was unheard of in the West. The problem was that this publisher wanted to change many aspects of the translation and Richard Hunn disagreed - as these changes would alter the intended meaning of the translation. Due to these creatiive difference - the Publisher eventually pulled the plug and the project was shelved (in the late 1980s).
Nowadays, translations like this are fairly common in the West (many produced by ethnic Chinese scholars) - so perhaps Richard Hunn was ahead of his time! As well as studying the available Richard Wilhelm translation (in its various guises) - Richard Hunn thought highly of the concise (English) translation generated by John Blofeld (not very well-known today). Although Richard Hunn would spend much of his time reading the original Chinese language version of the Yijing presented to him by Charles Luk (1898-1978).
John Blofeld translation is only the 64 Hexagrams and the directly related commentary material (together with the 'line' commentaries) excluding the Ten Wings content. This is similar in structure to the various 'Pocket' or 'Concise' editions of Wilhelm (premised upon the 1950 edition translated by Cary F. Baynes from the German into the English language). John Blofeld's rendering of the Yijing, however, is a very different English language translation than that generated by Wilhelm-Baynes (Richard Hunn personally knew John Blofeld - despite Richard being much younger than John). John Blofeld ended his days living in Thailand (I believe with his Asian family).
Once a suitable translation of the Yijing is secured - as there are many today - then it is a matter of a) intellectually studying the history and meaning of the text as if it were a typical (narrative) subject similar to academic history or philosophy, etc, and/or b) taking the exactly opposite approach of relating to the Hexagram and related text (including the Ten Wings) - in a direct and existential manner which draws the totality of the 'past' and the 'future' into the 'eternal' present. This replicates today exactly how the original 'Zhouyi' a) developed over time, and b) was used 'directly' by the Diviners of the Zhou Kings! Of course, Chinese language tradition talks of earlier (but similar) divinity manuals existing during the Xia and Shang Dynasty.
Best Wishes
Adrian
Thank you for your interesting email.
Richard Hunn spent much of his mature years working upon a full Chinese-English translation of the Yijing whilst working with a British publisher at a time when such an idea was unheard of in the West. The problem was that this publisher wanted to change many aspects of the translation and Richard Hunn disagreed - as these changes would alter the intended meaning of the translation. Due to these creatiive difference - the Publisher eventually pulled the plug and the project was shelved (in the late 1980s).
Nowadays, translations like this are fairly common in the West (many produced by ethnic Chinese scholars) - so perhaps Richard Hunn was ahead of his time! As well as studying the available Richard Wilhelm translation (in its various guises) - Richard Hunn thought highly of the concise (English) translation generated by John Blofeld (not very well-known today). Although Richard Hunn would spend much of his time reading the original Chinese language version of the Yijing presented to him by Charles Luk (1898-1978).
John Blofeld translation is only the 64 Hexagrams and the directly related commentary material (together with the 'line' commentaries) excluding the Ten Wings content. This is similar in structure to the various 'Pocket' or 'Concise' editions of Wilhelm (premised upon the 1950 edition translated by Cary F. Baynes from the German into the English language). John Blofeld's rendering of the Yijing, however, is a very different English language translation than that generated by Wilhelm-Baynes (Richard Hunn personally knew John Blofeld - despite Richard being much younger than John). John Blofeld ended his days living in Thailand (I believe with his Asian family).
Once a suitable translation of the Yijing is secured - as there are many today - then it is a matter of a) intellectually studying the history and meaning of the text as if it were a typical (narrative) subject similar to academic history or philosophy, etc, and/or b) taking the exactly opposite approach of relating to the Hexagram and related text (including the Ten Wings) - in a direct and existential manner which draws the totality of the 'past' and the 'future' into the 'eternal' present. This replicates today exactly how the original 'Zhouyi' a) developed over time, and b) was used 'directly' by the Diviners of the Zhou Kings! Of course, Chinese language tradition talks of earlier (but similar) divinity manuals existing during the Xia and Shang Dynasty.
Best Wishes
Adrian
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