Jonathan Chatwin reviews John Minford’s new translation of the I Ching 易經 (Viking, 2014) for the Asian Review of Books:

the I Ching is not simply a single book, written in one place and time and one author and unchanging thereafter. Rather it should be seen as a collaborative work, a palimpsest, with layers of meaning having built up over centuries, added by those generations of readers who have consulted it.

Countless commentaries have been written on the I Ching; some, such as the early texts known as the “Ten Wings”, have become an intrinsic part of the overall work. Minford adds to these a digest of more recent Chinese commentaries along with his own observations …

John Minford has, however, endeavoured to keep the presentation of the text as straightforward as possible, avoiding the cluttering of footnotes or other citations. The interpretations of those commentators to which he repeatedly refers tend to clarify rather than obfuscate. This is a translation intended to provide a clear and readable version of the text, and to open to all the elliptical musings of this profoundly influential text—to be considered, according to Minford, as “the Chinese book.”

Click the image for the full review.