Stephen Karcher

To me this is The Book on I Ching, the ultimate reference. This is the book I will turn to if other interpretations are not enough, if the answers are not clear to me. It has a very thorough introduction that will teach you a lot about the I Ching and its background. The interpretation of the hexagrams are not like anything I have ever seen before or since. It gives you a translation of (Chinese) character by character of the original text, and a thorough explanation of how each word/symbol/character should be interpreted in the I Ching context. This approach also makes it possible to include a concordance, so that you can check i what other contexts a certain character appear, in order to deepen your understanding of it, the answer, and the I Ching itself. This book is not easy reading, at least not the hexagrams, but I find it well worth the effort. I have yet to find any other interpretation/translation that can give such a deep immersion into the soul of the I Ching.… (mehr)

I find this to be the I Ching interpretation that speaks most directly to me. When asking important questions I tend to look in more detailed books (mostly Ritsema's wonderful interpretation) too, but often this book will give me a clear and direct answer to my question, relevant and understandable, usually not difficult to apply to the situation I find myself in. In a way I feel a bit stupid using this compact book when I have other sources of information with much more depth, but Many years of using it, together with several other interpretations of the I Ching, convinces me more and more that this one book might be all that is needed. I still want to go deeper into the mysteries, thoughts and images, of the I Ching, but even for more complex and important guidance this book seems to give me just what I need. (I have been using the 1995 edition, ISBN 1852307013.)… (mehr)