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Yijing – The Classic of Changes – Jeffrey Yuen

Yijing – The Classic of Changes online course is delivered by Master Jeffrey Yuen.

Classical Chinese Medicine, the most ancient and authentic aspect of the Chinese medical- philosophical tradition, is based on a corpus of texts which contain its salient aspects, whose correct understanding necessitates the guidance of a teacher. The classical texts themselves often include commentaries and elements derived from oral transmission over the centuries, carried out through direct teacher-pupil transmission. This last aspect is still indispensable for a correct interpretation.

Yijing – The Classic of Changes, even before the inclusion of the Confucian commentaries known as the “ten wings”, and centuries before becoming one of the fundamental “six canons” of the Literati tradition, already existed during the Zhou dynasty (Zhouyi “Changes of the Zhou”), in the form of a sequence of binary symbols, articulated in trigrams and hexagrams, each of them followed by a statement. Some of these hexagrams were even found on the oracular bones of the Shang dynasty, around four millennia ago. The study of the Yijing – as a Confucian canon – became mandatory to pass state examinations at the time of the Song dynasty’s Neoconfucianism.

Although nowadays this classic is considered essentially a text of divination, it is believed to be one of the most influential works in the history of Chinese thought, it encloses in its symbols the universal laws of becoming and it is an indispensable, transversal reference for virtually every discipline rooted in the ancient Chinese culture, with a privileged relationship with the medical art, since, as the famous physician Zhang Jiebin summarized, “Changes and medicine have the same origin”.

This text has aroused great interest even among the great Western thinkers, particularly starting from the translation by Richard Wilhelm, perhaps the best known in the West. The very important preface by Karl Gustav Jung to Wilhelm’s translation, resumed its traditional mystery reconnecting it to the psychology of the deep, extending its field of application and projecting it into the medicine of the future.

This Seminar of Master Jeffrey Yuen dedicated to the Yijing is in the wake of this millennial transmission, which – founded on the primevals – offers a model of the man and the world still valid at any time. This extraordinary source of wisdom provides valuable insights to interpret nature and man, even – perhaps mainly – in the context of Classical Chinese Medicine. In its medical application, Yijing is a valuable aid for a better understanding of the principles of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, a precious text whose study is not limited to enriching one’s knowledge but offers as well a valuable aid in the quest for personal balance.