The Book of Changes (Zhouyi) A Bronze Age Document
Zhouyi is a manual of oracles compiled in an archaic script during the Chinese Bronze Age (c2500BC-c300BC). As the language developed and the script was reformed, the original meaning of the oracles gave way to a new interpretation resulting in a book of wisdom. By the second century AD eight explanatory tractates, confusingly known as the 'Ten Wings', had been added to them. Thus, Zhouyi and the Ten Wings together came to be known as Yijing (or I Ching) - The Book of Changes. During the twentieth century historians and philologists, aided by advances in archaeology and linguistics, have striven to recover the original meaning of Zhouyi. Richard Rutt has drawn upon this work to make a new translation that conveys the modern understanding of the ancient oracles, showing how their rhymes and primitive omens deal with Bronze Age politics and warfare.