Unearthing the Changes

In recent years, three ancient manuscripts relating to the Yi jin g ( I Ching ), or Classic of Changes , have been discovered. The earliest—the Shanghai Museum Zhou Yi—dates to about 300 B.C.E. and shows evidence of the text's original circulation. The Guicang , or Returning to Be Stored , reflects another ancient Chinese divination tradition based on hexagrams similar to those of the Yi jing . In 1993, two manuscripts were found in a third-century B.C.E. tomb at Wangjiatai that contain almost e