Global Yijing: Intercultural Encounters with World Religions and Thoughts

This book is an examination of the globalization of the Yijing from cross-cultural and comparative perspectives, with a special focus on the Yijing encounters with world religions and thoughts over the past centuries. It presents an ambitious effort to bring together leading Yijing—The Book of Changes—scholars in the world. Composed of three parts and twelve chapters, it begins with a conceptualized narrative of the globalization of the Yijing, highlighting the intercultural encounters and transformation of the Yijing in different religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions across the globe. Part One investigates the interaction of the Yijing in Asian religions and philosophy including the Confucian and Buddhist traditions, as well as Maoism in Japan. Part Two explores how the Yijing was creatively and provocatively interpreted by Jesuit and Protestant missionaries, Chinese Christian intellectuals, and Chinese Islamic scholars from the Qing period to 20th century China. Part Three examines the multifaceted issues associated with the reception and transformation of the Yijing in Western thoughts, like French occultism, Carl Jung’s analytical psychology and John Cage’s experimental music theory and practice. This book is an essential reading for those who are interested in the Yijing and also serves as a useful reference for students and scholars of Chinese culture, Asian philosophy, East Asian studies, and translation studies.

Prof. John Tsz-pang Lai received his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Oxford (2005), and is currently Professor in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests focus on Chinese Christian literature; Translation of religious texts; and Global Yijing (Book of Changes) studies. He has published more than ten books, including An Annotated Anthology of the Yijing Commentaries by the Early Qing Jesuit Joachim Bouvet (2020) and Christian Yijing: A Critical Study and Annotated Edition of Yijing benzhi (Original Meaning of the Yijing) by Lü Liben, a Chinese Catholic Believer in the Qing Period (2024). He is now working on a major research project “The Global Yijing: The Cross-Cultural Translation and Transnational Reception of the Yijing in Western Religion and Literature,” supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong.