Abstract

In the current "Eastern culture fad" now engulfing the East Asian mainland, the Book of Changes, that repository of "shining mysteries" that symbolizes the special quality of East Asian culture, has attracted considerable attention. Over the past several thousand years, the Book of Changes has played an extremely important role in molding the foundation of China's great intellectual tradition. It is for this reason that this work has always been so highly regarded as "the first of the Six Classics," as "one of the three mysteries." But the extent and depth of the present studies of the Book of Changes are unprecedented. The Book of Changes was first introduced to the West in the seventeenth century and, arousing the interest of Western scholars, was translated into one language after another. But never before have so many scholars in so many countries been so caught up in studying the Book of Changes as at present. The reason this work has attracted such universal attention is in part the particular conditions of the times and in part the timeless, lasting value of the Book of Changes itself