Eastern discoveryGerman sinologist Roderich Ptak says I Ching studies have a long history in Europe, and there are more than 300 different translations of the work. The most authoritative--and best-selling--German translation is that by Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930). Wilhelm was a missionary born in Stuttgart. He chose the Chinese name Wei Lixian for himself, and in 1899 was sent to what was then a German colony, Qingdao in China's Shandong Province, to conduct missionary work.
Wilhelm spent more than 25 years in China, becoming the archetypical "China hand." In 1913, he began to translate the I Ching under the tutelage of the scholar Lao Naixuan. He finished the project ten years later in Beijing, and then the year after that he returned to Frankfurt, Germany to become one of Europe's preeminent sinologists.
Many of the literati of the day were influenced by Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching. Herman Hesse, for example, went from being a pious Christian to a student of Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian thought. In addition to translating the I Ching, Wilhelm also produced a translation of Laozi's Dao De Jing in 1910.
Though in the 70 years since Wilhelm's death many scholars have published translations of the I Ching, none has bested his. Then in 1950, an American sinologist named Cary F. Baynes translated Wilhelm's German into English for a wider audience. His translation was lauded as the "New Testament of I Ching Studies."
The "Old Testament," then, was the version entitled I Ching: Book of Changes, also translated by a missionary, James Legge (1814-1897). Legge produced it with the assistance of the Chinese scholar Wang Tao, and it was published by Oxford University Press 41 years before Wilhelm's German translation appeared. Academics generally agree that it was the best of its era.
Later versions never matched these authoritative master translations, but they continued to appear both in Europe and America.
In 1983, an English version translated by John Blofeld (1913-1987) was published. Blofeld, the preeminent "China hand" of the 20th century, lived out his youth in pre-Communist China, where he developed an interest in traditional wisdom and philosophy. He'd often visit Buddhist and Daoist temples as well as religious recluses, and through those visits was inspired to become a scholar. He chose to study the I Ching, and after decades of work completed his "modern version."
In his preface, Blofeld says that he does not wish to be a second Wilhelm or Legge, nor does he wish to criticize those predecessors' shortcomings. He says his intention was to create a version in vernacular language that would be readable for the general public and to provide what he thought was the correct interpretation for ambiguous passages.
The I Ching is the subject of serious scholarship in Europe, and Professor Van Ess is an authority in the field. The bookshelves behind him are full of research materials on the subject.