Book of Changes

Also known as I Ching. Ancient Chinese sacred book, one of the classics of Confucianism and one of the earliest works of Chinese literature, traditionally used for divination and as a moral, philosophical, and cosmological text. It is based on 64 symbolic hexagrams. Each hexagram consists of a pair of trigrams. There are eight basic trigrams, each named for a natural phenomenon. The symbolic significance of each hexagram is expressed in cryptic poetic passages and in philosophical commentary.

The book is consulted by casting lots six times to determine the appropriate hexagram. The hexagrams evolved as fortune-telling symbols. Wen Wang (flourished about 1150 BC) is traditionally thought to have added moral counsel to the original divinatory function of the hexagrams. It is probable that Confucius and his followers added further philosophical commentary.

Although rejected by the empiricist scholars of the Qing (Ch'ng) dynasty, the numerological aspects of the work have been reemphasized by Westerners interested in Eastern mysticism. The work was translated in the nineteenth century by James Legge and Richard Wilhelm. Wilhelm's translation included a forward by the psychoanalyst Carl Jung who saw the text as a means to accessing the subconscious through meditation upon the symbols.

one correction:

The work of Wilhelm was translated in the 20th century.
Not the 19th century, and there are more 358 known translations. all in the 20th century.
Richard Wilhelm was born far from China, in Germany, in 1873. But the translation done in 1903.
James Legge' Birthdate is 12/20/1815 and he was the first to traslate the I-ching to english.