The Numerology of the I Ching: A Sourcebook of Symbols, Structures, and Traditional Wisdom | 
 enlarge | Author: Taoist Master Alfred Huang
Publisher: Inner Traditions
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 171733
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.5
ISBN: 0892818115
Dewey Decimal Number: 299.51282
EAN: 9780892818112
ASIN: 0892818115
Publication Date: July 1, 2000
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Product Description
The first book to cover the complete Taoist teachings on form, structure, and symbol in the I Ching.
• Provides many new patterns and diagrams for visualizing the layout of the 64 hexagrams.
• Includes advanced teachings on the hosts of the hexagrams, the mutual hexagrams, and the core hexagrams.
• Written by Taoist Master Alfred Huang, author of The Complete I Ching.
The Numerology of the I Ching is the first book to bring the complete Taoist teachings on form, structure, and symbol in the I Ching to a Western audience, and it is a natural complement to Alfred Huang's heralded Complete I Ching. It examines not only the classic circular arrangement of the eight trigrams but also the hidden numerology in this arrangement and its relationship to tai chi and the Chinese elements. Huang explains the binary code underlying the I Ching, the symbolism behind the square diagram of all 64 hexagrams, and Fu Xi's unique circular layout of the 64 hexagrams, completely unknown in the West. Entire chapters are devoted to such vital material as the hosts of the hexagrams, the mutual hexagrams, and the core hexagrams--all barely hinted at in previous versions of the I Ching. With appendices listing additional symbolism for each hexagram, formulas for easily memorizing the Chinese names of the sixty-four hexagrams, and much more, The Numerology of the I Ching is a must for serious I Ching students.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Mathematician's opinion May 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good book about basis of I Ching.
It has been written so that everybody understands.
Sometimes the core of detailed information is missing.
 For I Ching Beginners May 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After reading the book I feel like I paid 10 bucks just to read this one idea in this book that is interesting and unique to other I Ching book. So here it is, read it, and then read the rest of my review to decide whether or not to buy this book: "The mystery of the mutual gua of each of the 64 gua will be either Initiating, Responding, Already Fulfilled, or Not Yet Fulfilled." (For those of you who use a different translation, basically they are hexagram 1, 2, 63, and 64)
That's it about this book. Everything else covered in this book is covered in other books but more in-depth and detailed.
But let's start from the beginning. First of, when you see the title "Numerology of the I Ching," you'd think this book would be very technical and sophisticated in discussing the mathematical implications and the numerology behind I Ching, that it would be a thick volume. Well the whole thing was about 170 pages. And if I didn't believe that page numbers justify a book, I now do.
This book would be a good entry-level book for beginners that covers everything I Ching. And as an introductory level book, and ONLY an introductory level book, it is decent in covering the philosophy behind the trigrams and hexagrams, the development of them, their special arrangements. It even goes into talking about how the arrangements of the Guas correspond with the sequences of binary code, which most entry level I Ching book does not cover. It also explains about the judgments, the ruling line of the Gua, the mutual Gua, etc, which is pretty expansive.
However, the book tries to cover too many things within limited pages, which makes the whole reading experience feel superficial. It makes me want to scream, "Dig a little bit deeper please!"
The author treats the readers like retards, which is another thing that puts me off. For example, when explaining the Lo Shu, the author says that each horizontal, vertical, and diagonal line add up to be 15. He also shows a diagram of the square with all the numbers. That alone was sufficient. But then the author goes so far as to add up all the numbers in each line to show that they in fact add up to 15. And he did it for all the lines! I would assume that any normal human being would have no problem adding up single digit numbers such as " 1+9+5 = 15"
Idiotic and unnecessary listings like this occur everywhere in the book. For example, the author also lists the twelve months and their corresponding hexagrams. Such as this, "Fourth Month, May Initiating, Beginning of summer." Then on the next page he says, "The fourth month is made up of Beginning of Summer and Grain Full. The yang energy reaches its fullness. It is symbolized by Initiating." And he does that for all 12 months!
There is trying to be thorough or restate things to reinforce an idea, but then there is just being plain repetitive. If someone edited out all the repetitive and unnecessary restatements in the book, the book's length would probably be reduced to half, and most likely even more.
Also, counting out how many times each judgment appear in each hexagram for all 64 hexagrams and listing them for like 10 pages is not numerology! It is completely useless in understanding I Ching while the author wrote a whole chapter on counting the number of times "yuan, heng, li, zhen" appear in the judgments in all 64 hexagrams. I just don't see how that's any helpful unless you memorize exactly which Yao of which hexagram that these judgments appear...wait, no, even then it's still useless.
In all, the book does have some interesting ideas and discoveries that not many I Ching books cover. But such valuable information takes up maybe 5 pages, in a almost 200-page book. Moreover, this book is for people who wants to study and understand the I Ching. It is for I Ching scholars rather than people who just want to cast the coins and get a reading. If you use the I Ching at an entry level but are curious to learn a little more about it, I would recommend this book. If you want access to the maybe 5 pages worth of interesting info or you are a completist, get it. If you want something deeper to chew on, look somewhere else.
 Where are the coins/icons? February 22, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
The book is great. Unfortunately, the coins/icons that are needed to perform the readings are not included.
 An enlightening book on I Ching subject May 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
There is two ways to understand I Ching, first, the thematic approach and second, the structural approach. Mostly all books I have encountered for years were discussing I Ching from thematic approach and never explaining purpose of each line that represented Changes.
The Numerology of The I Ching is a quite different book. It was explaining I Ching from the view of structural approach. It was quite enlightening and giving a deep understanding about true nature of every line that represented Changes. I will recomend it to every I Ching lover without doubt.
The mutations May 15, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'm engineer. The numeric world and the I CHING is a splendid combinations of mutations. The real world and the real life have a constant: mutations. Read numbers and see mutations...
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