🕯️ Occult Philosophy −13%

A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology

✍️ Nielsen, Bent
Reader Score
4.4
(3 reviews)
$73.99 $86.00 Save $12.01 (13%)
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📚 WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT

This volume rescues the Xiangshu tradition from obscurity, focusing on the mathematical and visual structures of the Yi Jing rather than its ethical teachings. Organized as a bilingual encyclopedia, it maps the intricate web of hexagrams, trigrams, and numerological charts that underpin ancient divination. By prioritizing the 'image and number' framework, it offers scholars and practitioners a rigorous technical guide to the cosmological mechanics that Western translations have long ignored.

🕯️
Occult Philosophy
🏛 Routledge 📖 424 pages 📔 Paperback ISBN: 9781138862678
Fun Fact
Nielsen delivers a crucial corrective to the moralistic bias of Western I Ching studies, offering a rigorous, encyclopedia-style exploration of the Xiangshu tradition. Its bilingual format and technical depth make it indispensable for serious researchers. However, casual readers seeking spiritual comfort may find it dry. It sits firmly in the realm of academic esotericism, essential for understanding the text's mathematical soul.

📝 Description: A Companion to Yi Jing Numerology and Cosmology

Translations of the Yi jing into western languages have been biased towards the yili ('meaning and pattern') tradition, whereas studies of the xiangshu ('image and number') tradition - which takes as its point of departure the imagery and numerology associated with divination and its hexagrams, trigrams, lines, and related charts and diagrams - has remained relatively unexplored. This major new reference work is organised as a Chinese-English encyclopedia, arranged alphabetically according to the pinyin romanisation, with Chinese characters appended. A character index as well as an English index is included. The entries are of two kinds: technical terms and various other concepts related to the 'image and number' tradition, and bio-bibliographical information on Chinese Yi jing scholars. Each entry in the former category has a brief explanation that includes references to the origins of the term, cross-references, and a reference to an entry giving a more comprehensive treatment of the subject.

💎 Expert review

“
💎
Esoterica Books editorial team
Occult literature desk
Bent Nielsen delivers a vital corrective to Western Yi Jing scholarship by prioritizing mathematical structure over ethical teaching. This bilingual encyclopedia provides necessary clarity on Xiangshu traditions, mapping complex numerological charts with academic rigor. However, it does not suit casual readers seeking accessible divination advice or those preferring moralistic interpretations of the text. The technical nature and encyclopedic format demand patience. It is best reserved for researchers and dedicated practitioners who require a deep, structural understanding of the cosmology underlying the hexagrams, rather than those looking for simple spiritual guidance.
✓ EDITOR'S REVIEW

📖 Why choose it

📖

Why this book is worth reading

Scholars and serious practitioners seeking to understand the cosmological mechanics behind the Yi Jing will find this volume indispensable. It offers a rigorous technical guide that rescues the 'image and number' framework from obscurity, providing a bilingual encyclopedia of hexagrams and trigrams often ignored by Western audiences. If you feel that standard translations have reduced this ancient text to mere moral instruction, this book unlocks its lost numerical soul. It is essential for those ready to engage with the intricate web of visual structures and divination mechanics, offering depth and precision that purely philosophical approaches lack.

⭐ Reader reviews

The starting rating comes from the team Esoterica Books —
⭐ Esoterica editorial review Editorial rating 4.6/5
★★★★★
Scholars of Chinese philosophy, divination practitioners seeking technical depth, and historians interested in the mathematical roots of I Ching cosmology.

Reader rating

4.4
Based on 3 reviews
5
1
4
1
3
1
2
0
1
0
L
Leon L.
July 31, 2025
Excellent find

Exactly what I was looking for. A text you study rather than simply read. Will be gifting a copy to a friend.

F
Felix T.
February 17, 2025

I've read excerpts online before, but having the full text is different. The material is presented clearly and the structure makes it easy to revisit key passages. It connects ideas I'd only seen treated separately elsewhere. Delivery took a bit longer than quoted. Solid, if not essential.

E
Esoterica Books editorial team

Bent Nielsen delivers a vital corrective to Western Yi Jing scholarship by prioritizing mathematical structure over ethical teaching. This bilingual encyclopedia provides necessary clarity on Xiangshu traditions, mapping complex numerological charts with academic rigor. However, it does not suit casual readers seeking accessible divination advice or those preferring moralistic interpretations of the text. The technical nature and encyclopedic format demand patience. It is best reserved for researchers and dedicated practitioners who require a deep, structural understanding of the cosmology underlying the hexagrams, rather than those looking for simple spiritual guidance.

❓ Frequently asked questions

It is best for those with foundational knowledge, as it focuses on complex technical and numerological structures rather than basic introduction.
No, it complements them by providing the missing mathematical and visual context often omitted in moralistic Western editions.

📖 Who should read this

Scholars of Chinese philosophy, divination practitioners seeking technical depth, and historians interested in the mathematical roots of I Ching cosmology.

🎯 Key themes and symbolism

Xiangshu Numerology

Hexagram Cosmology

Bilingual Encyclopedia

📜 Historical context

While Western Yi Jing studies have overwhelmingly favored the Yili 'meaning and pattern' school, this work revitalizes the Xiangshu 'image and number' lineage. It bridges ancient Chinese scholarly traditions with modern comparative analysis, preserving esoteric numerological systems that define the text’s original cosmological architecture.

📚 Glossary

Xiangshu
Yili
Pinyin

📔 Questions to reflect on

  1. How does the numerical structure of a hexagram alter your perception of its symbolic meaning?
  2. What patterns do you notice when comparing the Xiangshu cosmology with Western numerological systems?
  3. In what ways might mathematical precision reveal aspects of divination that moral interpretation obscures?

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