The Book of Changes is an arbitrary amalgam of two quite separate works.One is an omen or peasant interpretation text,the other is a divination text of far more sophisticated nature.The omen text is entirely in verse form and tends to-wards certain formula,while the divination text is mostly in prose form,consis-ting of divinatory formulae closely akin to those found on the Yin oracle bones.The contents of the omen texts may be divided into three classes:those connected to subjective feelings,those about plants and animals,and those con-cerning natural phenomena.The interpretation of The Book of Changes was still be classified as a book of divination even in the 3rd century,and the ethical and cosmological treatise is embodied in The Ten Wings which was completed in the Han dynasty.The text was probably cut up and shuffled a good many times be-fore it reached its present order.
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