Book of Changes

King Wen, Duke of Zhou, Confucius

Translated by James Legge

76 chapters · about 4 h

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The opening

I Ture AwyreN HEXAGRAM.

Khien (represents) what is great and originating, penetrating, advantageous, correct and firm.

1. In the first (or lowest) line, undivided, (we see its subject as) the dragon lying hid (in the deep). It is not the time for active doing.

2. In the second line, undivided, (we see its subject as) the dragon appearing in the field. It will be advantageous to meet with the great man.

3. In the third line, undivided, (we see its subject as) the superior man active and vigilant all the day, and in the evening still careful and apprehensive. (The position is) dangerous, but there will be no mistake.

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About this edition

The words
James Legge's English translation, copied word for word.
Left out
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 3 places
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 7 places
  • Dover's list of its books on Eastern philosophy (inside front cover) (29 blocks)
  • The lending library's barcode, stamps and date-due slip on the scanned copy (7 blocks)
  • Archive.org's notice (“Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016”) (2 blocks)
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 2 places
  • The printed table of contents (the app makes its own)
  • Pictures and their captions
  • A preface, foreword or afterword, in 2 places
  • Other material that isn't the author's, in 4 places
  • Dover's catalogue of its books (195 blocks)
  • Hexagram figures, Chinese characters and specks read as stray letters by the OCR (“ee ee”, “Se”) (112 blocks)
  • The source website's menus, layout and notices
  • Appendix VII: the hexagram numbers printed in the margin beside the rhymes (some read as letters by the OCR) (24 blocks)
  • Appendix VII: a hexagram number printed in the margin, read by the OCR as a line of the rhyme