Understanding the I Ching: Restoring a Brilliant, Ancient Culture

by Alfred Huang, Daniel Nesbitt (Editor)

As Confucius states in The Great Treatise, divination is not the highest use of the I Ching. It can and should be used as a living reference for the highest moral and ethical standards for any individual in virtually any given circumstance.

After writing The Complete I Ching, Taoist Master Alfred Huang, encouraged by friends and family to further expound on the subtleties of the sacred text, decided to take a fresh approach. Considering the tremendous differences between life today and life three thousand years ago, the author began to discover new ways to present the ancient wisdom to modern readers. Now, in Understanding the I Ching, he offers a detailed commentary of the sixty-four hexagrams and their characters, including a detailed examination of the nature and principles of the first two gua—heaven and earth—as well as interpretations of the first hexagram and the guiding principles represented by its four characters.

With an in-depth analysis and study of the two different schools of interpretation, the construction of the hexagrams, and the placement and significance of the hexagram’s host, this scholarly yet easy-to-understand book provides exceptional insight for those who have studied the I Ching and seek a deeper understanding of its subtleties and profundity.

Genres: Philosophy, Taoism

148 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 7, 2014

About the author

A third-generation master of Wu style Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Kung, and Oriental meditation, Master Alfred Huang is a professor of Taoist philosophy who studied the I Ching with some of China’s greatest minds--only to be imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and sentenced to death. For 13 years in prison Master Huang meditated on the I Ching and found the strength to survive. Released in 1979 weighing only 80 pounds, he emigrated to the United States. Master Huang is the founder of New Harmony, a nonprofit organization devoted to teaching self-healing, and is the author of The Numerology of the I Ching and Complete Tai-Chi. He lives on the island of Maui.

Reviews

[pestorika 大犬 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written or edited badly. There are indeed good points, but they are explained in such repetitive and unconstructive way that does not allow you to comprehend anything. The author loves giving examples that are equally incomprehensible and puzzling as the thing he’s trying to explain, which doesn’t help.
The titles don’t make sense at all, chronologically or logically.
Things are repeated and the same issue gets mentioned over and over, each time with even less explanation. The part about yuan, heng, li, and zhen are regurgitated every page, and judging by the frequency the author mentions it, Confucius must have broken a lot of thongs when studying the I Ching.

[Nirav Sanket · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most reliable and basic facts about "ICHING"

The basic fundamentals to understand "Iching" and philosophy of ICHING. History and Mystery of ICHING revealed from Taoist Master Alfred Huang.

[Mike Schellman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huang takes a complex subject and makes it very easy to understand. The historic significance of the I CHING to all of Chinese culture is very interesting.