Book excerpt: "This book is a concise introduction to the Scripture of Change, or Yijing (formerly spelled I Ching), for general readers, practitioners of divination, students, and non-specialist scholars. Sometimes called the Book of Changes or Classic of Changes, this ancient Chinese text, with roots going back about three thousand years, has traditionally been considered the most profound of the Chinese "classics." Originally a manual of divination, in the late 1st millennium BCE it accumulated appendices, traditionally attributed to Confucius, that transformed it into a uniquely Chinese expression of wisdom. Through the centuries it has inspired countless commentaries, mostly in China but also throughout East Asia. Since the 20th century it has gained global popularity for both its use in divination and its contribution to the world's wisdom literature"--