Hi everyone, Lhasla Montgomery here, welcome to another edition of the China History

podcast.

So far in this series we've looked at pre-Confucian and Confucian philosophy as well as the

school of legalism.

Today in this episode we're going to start off by focusing on the E. Jing,

the Book of Changes, also called the Classic of Changes,

or the Changes by itself. You'll also see it referred to as the Joe I, the changes of Joe.

Of all the ancient Chinese classics, this one is the most widely read and continues to be read on a daily basis by millions.

Book of Odes, the Book of Documents, Shoo-Jing, Shang Shoo, all those others. People keep it in their library, but those volumes don't

get taken off the shelf as much as the I-Ching. Besides being one of the most published and widely read books on the planet, it's also

one of the oldest ever written that's still in existence.

Alongside the Old Testament, the I-Jing is the oldest book in continuous use since ancient times.

Unlike the Old Testament, the I-Jing contains no gods, capital or small g, plural or singular.

Depending on which expert you listen to, the E. Ching is almost 4,000 years old. but everywhere I read it's more often pegged at 3,000 years old.

Well, it wasn't all written at once or by the same person, so how old is the E. Jing, like most of what we know about anything in China from the oldest of olden days.

Can't say for sure.

Of the W

five classics, this is the only work that can be slotted in the metaphysical category.

All the other Confucian classics are concerned only with human affairs and the place human beings occupy in the

Cosmos. With the I-Jing, this oldest of the classics, one can argue this is where the beginnings of philosophy can be marked

on China's historical timeline. Skeptics might scoff at the Eiching, just as secular people might do at religion.

It's easy to take one's rational eyes and lack of faith and cast doubt on a book that's filled with words that have no fixed meaning and yet can unlock so many of the mysteries of life and of the universe.

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