A translation of the Confucian [Yih king] or the "Classic of Change", with notes and appendix. de Reverend Canon [Thomas] McClatchie - 1876: [I Ching]

First edition in English of the I-Ching, the ancient Chinese book of divination, sometimes attributed to Confucius but actually much earlier, possibly with origins in the second millennium and so the most ancient text of Chinese Civilization. OCLC lists but eight copies worldwide. In McClatchie's view Qian and Kun represented the "God of Heathendom. Qian or his Male portion… and Kun or his Female portion …. These two, he goes on to say, "are enclosed in the circle or ring… known as the Supreme Ultimate or Great One, from which all things are generated." His contemporaries "ridiculed this decidedly sexual view (Shchutskii described it as the product of "pseudoscientific delirium"), but recent work by other scholars suggests its essential validity. (Richard J. Smith, "How the Book of Changes arrived in the West"). This copy very handsomely bound by Bennett of New York about seventy years ago in grained sienna morocco with title & author in double gilt ruled spine compartments; tooled hubs; top edge gilt. "Shanghai 1876" and owner's name to foot of spine. Preliminaries slightly foxed. xiii (vii -xiii of which are plates),[i],xvii,455, [i] (errata). Chinese and English on opposite pages. "Shanghai, Nov. 1876" in light pencil to front fly. Slight loss of paper to front board. Please see images.