One of the most important books in the history of Oriental culture is the I Ching, or as it is usually called in English, the Book of Changes. Its basic text seems to have been prepared before 1,000 B.C., in the last days of the Shang Dynasty and the first part of the Chou Dynasty. It was one of the Five Classics edited by Confucius, who is reported to have wished he had fifty more years of life to study it. Since the time of Confucius it has never lost its enormous significance; it has been use