Why the Same Zhouyi Passage Reads Differently in Translation

One translation makes a hexagram or line statement sound like practical advice; another retains the language of sacrifice or divination. Before deciding that someone has mistranslated it, check whether the translators are working with the same text, interpretive material, and questions. Our earlier article on the layers of text and commentary provides a starting point.

Establish what is being translated

Read the introduction, editorial notes, and contents. Record the translator, edition, and stated source text. Does the translation follow the received text or an excavated manuscript? When readings differ, does the translator preserve the written form, adopt an emendation, or discuss alternatives only in a note? If the explanation is unavailable, mark the point as unverified rather than guessing from the cover.

Also check whether the book includes the traditional commentaries and how it arranges them. Two books bearing the name I Ching may ask a page of text to do quite different work.

Two identifiable editorial choices

Richard John Lynn translates through Wang Bi's interpretation. The publisher's description and contents identify both text and commentary. Read for the relationship between them instead of extracting an English sentence on its own.

John Minford offers a reading with traditional commentary and another concerned with early divination; see his supplementary notes, pages 4 and 40. Both use the received text, rather than translating a newly discovered ancient manuscript, as Adler's scholarly review explains on page 148.

Separate core text, Wings, and later notes

Identify whether the passage under comparison is a hexagram statement, a line statement, or material from the Tuan or Xiang. Then identify the named commentator and any remarks by the translator. Printing these together makes consultation easier; it does not make them products of the same period. Selecting one commentator does not establish a consensus among commentators.

If a translation supplies someone's motive or turns a phrase into advice, ask where that addition comes from. Is it in the core statement, in a commentary, or an expansion needed to make the translation readable? Comparing which sentence feels more personally appealing will not answer those questions.

Return a term to its sentence

In Kun's phrase about the mare and zhen 貞, Minford's two treatments emphasize steadfastness and augury respectively; Adler reproduces the comparison on page 150. Minford's supplementary notes, page 40, connect zhen with the setting of oracle-bone divination.

Treat this as a reason to investigate, not as permission to replace every occurrence with one modern equivalent. Ask which textual layer contains the word, what it qualifies, and how the interpretation is argued. A difference may concern vocabulary, but it may also concern what the translator is trying to explain.

Keep a note that someone else can check

Choose one hexagram or line statement at a time and record five things:

1. The hexagram, line position, and Chinese wording. If the position is unclear, consult why lines are read from the bottom upward.
2. The translator, edition, page, and account of the source text.
3. Your own summary of the difference between the renderings.
4. The Wings, later commentator, or variant reading supporting each one.
5. What you have verified and what still needs checking.

End with a limited conclusion, such as “this edition follows this commentator here,” rather than a claim to have recovered the one true original meaning. Comparison becomes useful when it shows how a judgment was reached and where its evidence ends.

References

• Lynn, Richard John, trans. The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi. Columbia University Press, 1994.
• Minford, John. Online Notes for I Ching (Yijing): The Book of Change. 22 December 2014. See pages 4 and 40.
• Adler, Joseph A. Review of John Minford's translation of the I Ching. Dao 14 (2015): 147–152. DOI: 10.1007/s11712-014-9424-8.