Quite a number of posts across the Forum refer to the I Ching. However, there did not seem to be a thread about its translations, but there are many. Below are mentioned just two, that of Richard Wilhelm and Alfred Huang, though as you will see the notes to the first took up much more space, as I discovered that the German-Chinese cultural exchange in the late 19th and early 20th century was more significant than I had previously realized.
The I Ching or Book of Changes by Richard Wilhelm (originally German) and translated into English by Cary F. Banes proved to be a milestone and popularized the I Ching in the Western world. There are serveral reprints and editions. Like this from Princeton University 1967, from 1989, from 1995, and the following (image) is coming out in April 2026.
For years this book was a stable, but it took a long time to address an issue, However some years ago, a Dutch I Ching researcher, Harmen Mesker, who edited the Dutch version, wrote in a post on The Dao Bums forum where he linked to four blog entries about work he had done:
Going back to the source: the manuscripts of Richard Wilhelm (3)
The discussion earlier about the oversight in Wilhelm's original manuscript, I found when reading in The Dao Bums thread: Is Alfred Huang a reliable translator? The people say that both the translation of Wilhelm and Huang are are coloured by Confucianism. Every translator has an angle so that is as expected. The work in question, which is also the copy I have, is:
The Complete I Ching ― 10th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Translation by Taoist Master Alfred Huang
Alfred Huang has had an interesting life and spent many years in prison at a time when I Ching and Taoism was suppressed. It is a book made by a translator and practitioner with more life experience than most, and I think it carries over to his work, based in tradition but also open and flexible. I could not find any information that he has passed. By now he would be 104? Even if he made it to his late nineties that alone would be worthy of respect.
Another book of his is The Numerology of the I Ching: A Sourcebook of Symbols, Structures, and Traditional Wisdom Many reviewers say this is more for those who are familiar with I Ching already. The description on the Amazon page includes:
There are many other translations of the I Ching. Some are surely better than others, but all insights are hardly contained in one book. Besides the letters and lines of the I Ching and its translation(s), there is also what is between the lines. What does an expression mean for us?
I am hoping someone else has comments to offer.
The I Ching or Book of Changes by Richard Wilhelm (originally German) and translated into English by Cary F. Banes proved to be a milestone and popularized the I Ching in the Western world. There are serveral reprints and editions. Like this from Princeton University 1967, from 1989, from 1995, and the following (image) is coming out in April 2026.
For years this book was a stable, but it took a long time to address an issue, However some years ago, a Dutch I Ching researcher, Harmen Mesker, who edited the Dutch version, wrote in a post on The Dao Bums forum where he linked to four blog entries about work he had done:
Below are some excerpt from one of them:
Going back to the source: the manuscripts of Richard Wilhelm (3)
Some say that a book written by a real Chinese would be preferable but Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930) was more than an ordinary German sinologist:You might wonder why I am making such a fuzz out of something that seems to be a minor detail in Wilhelm’s translation of the Yijing. Is it really important whether ⚍ and ⚎ are either called shao yin 少陰 or shao yang 少陽? Are the names really that important?
In fact they are. The concept and usage of the sixiang 四象, the Four Images ⚌ ⚏ ⚍ ⚎ goes beyond their designations: they are linked to the seasons, and out of this link entire new concepts are constructed. Hexagrams can be seen as a combination of several two-line symbols. If you don’t know their proper names you will not know how to properly link the symbols to the seasons, and if you are interested in time related consultations with the Yi this can get you in serious trouble. The names are important because these names are also used as names for the seasons: tai yang 太陽 is Summer (it is also a name for the sun), tai yin 太陰 is Winter, shao yang 少陽 is Spring and shao yin 少陰 is Autumn. If you want to use these names to link the seasons to the sixiang you must know the proper names of these symbols.
In China this has never been an argument. There was no confusion about the names of ⚍ and ⚎.
[...]
But we, the readers in the West, do have this discussion, and it started with Wilhelm’s Yijing translation in which he switched the names of shao yin and shao yang:
‘⚍ the young or small Yang, ⚎ the young or small Yin.’
This is not the Chinese way. Did he always name the sixiang like this? No. In front of me were two pages that proved this.
[...]
Again Wilhelm gave the Four Symbols their original Chinese names! This document was dated 1914. The other loose papers that I mentioned earlier are probably from around 1919. For at least five years or so Wilhelm did not have any doubts or change in the names of the sixiang. So how did the switch end up in his book? The last maps in the box should be decisive: they contained the handwritten manuscript that was to become the final version of the draft for his book.
[...]
The text still contains many corrections and there are several leaflets inserted with notes and remarks, like the small paper that became the footnote about James Legge’s translation. But it can immediately be recognized as the manuscript that was the source for his book. All the corrections that are made in this manuscript are also found in his book. So how does this final draft give the names of the sixiang? I thumbed through the manuscript until I found the relevant page.
‘⚌ das alte oder große yang ⚏ das alte oder große yin
⚍ das junge oder kleine yang ⚎ das junge oder kleine yin’
I was disappointed. This was exactly how it ended up in Wilhelm’s book. I was hoping that the names of the sixiang in the manuscript would correspond with his earlier notes. I was hoping that I could say, Look! Wilhelm wrote it correctly! The publisher screwed up, not Wilhelm!’ But the manuscript proved otherwise. The names in the manuscript were the same as the names in Wilhelm’s book. I closed the manuscript and put it back in the map. My job at the archive of the Bayern Akademie der Wissenschaften was finished.
How did the name switch end up in the handwritten manuscript? We will probably never know. My personal guess is that it is a slip of the pen: two times Wilhelm gave the Four Symbols the right names, only the final draft of his book shows the name switch. Had he done this on purpose he would no doubt have mentioned it, in the same way he mentioned alternative readings of a line or character in Book III of his translation.
I did not find conclusive facts, but for me the matter was settled.
The German Wiki has:
Looking up Lao Naixuan, shows he was an influential thinker and official. One paper that mentions his work in some detail, this is not I Ching related, but it shows that Wilhelm was so much more than a translator.
[...]
[...]
Looking for a picture of Lao Naixuan, there was this:
The discussion earlier about the oversight in Wilhelm's original manuscript, I found when reading in The Dao Bums thread: Is Alfred Huang a reliable translator? The people say that both the translation of Wilhelm and Huang are are coloured by Confucianism. Every translator has an angle so that is as expected. The work in question, which is also the copy I have, is:
The Complete I Ching ― 10th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Translation by Taoist Master Alfred Huang
Alfred Huang has had an interesting life and spent many years in prison at a time when I Ching and Taoism was suppressed. It is a book made by a translator and practitioner with more life experience than most, and I think it carries over to his work, based in tradition but also open and flexible. I could not find any information that he has passed. By now he would be 104? Even if he made it to his late nineties that alone would be worthy of respect.
Another book of his is The Numerology of the I Ching: A Sourcebook of Symbols, Structures, and Traditional Wisdom Many reviewers say this is more for those who are familiar with I Ching already. The description on the Amazon page includes:
As an example of an insight from the book, Huang writes, though the hexagram signs have been replaced with brackets:
While there are 64 hexagrams, not all are equally known:
If less than the whole I-Ching has proven helpful to many people for centuries, it shows that one can gain from studying or reading the I Ching without knowing all that there is to know. In practical terms we may have a question in mind and look up what perspective and food for thought the I Ching has to offer.
There are many other translations of the I Ching. Some are surely better than others, but all insights are hardly contained in one book. Besides the letters and lines of the I Ching and its translation(s), there is also what is between the lines. What does an expression mean for us?
I am hoping someone else has comments to offer.
