What's the best translation of the I Ching?

What's the problem, user?

reading 'about' the i ching sounds boring af. it's not difficult to consult, and its how one actually experiences the text. if you want to read 'about' the i ching, the wilhelm translation is still one of the best ways to do that with its inclusion of ancient chinese commentary. (supposedly the huang translation is also ok, can anybody confirm?)
reading straight through the i ching hexagram by hexagram is also completely worth it, but you really can't rush through it. it hasn't been compiled to be read that way.
>pleasant and aesthetic
is a frustrating characterization of the i ching that reflects a terrible generational malaise marked by this tepid post-ironic search for the aesthetic, the comfy, the agreeable. consistent and sincere use of the i ching will polish your mysterious mirror and help you to effectively direct your chi. on the one hand it is a catalogue of perspectives on infinite becoming, while on the other it teaches a powerful ethos. it's a singular text that every student of literature should at least borrow from the library once.

>I Chink
Is this an I Robot remake?

unlessyoure already invested in occultism youre wasting your time. understanding even the format and spirutal/philosophical context of the i ching will take some serious study. its not like western esoteric texts, you arent going to pick it up and be blessed with wisdom in a straightforward narrative fashion.

this is completely incorrect, for basic usage its one of the simplest oracles out there. it rewards deep study but doesn't demand it. this user might be brainlet tier, or rigidly autistic about understanding the 'original meaning' about the text, but in any case you can simply ask the book a question, throw the coins for your hexagram (most complicated part and even a retard could do it), and then read the text. all editions of the I Ching, even in chinese, come loaded with commentary because the editors understand that lay readers won't be able to make sense of "Dragons fight in the meadow / Their blood is black and yellow", but once you have the commentary it's something even grandma could understand. the tarot is a hundred times more esoteric and difficult to extract sensible readings from.

moving the goalposts to include modern supplemental material kinda just reinforces my point

the vast majority of said commentaries are not 'modern', and all commentary is situated in a tradition as old as the I Ching itself. you have to disabuse yourself of whatever western notions of authorship or 'the pure text' you're imposing on the chinese classics, because the commentary is part and parcel of its cultural value.

the i ching began as a series of hexagrams/ideograms. later, duke wen (according to legend) appended the judgments. later, other commentators appended the images. later still, confucius (according to legend) wrote the ten wings, a series of commentaries and expositions of the I Ching which are appended to literally every serious edition of the book to this day.

it's not "moving the goalposts", it's having an entry level understanding of chinese literary traditions. just read the fucking book.

how believable is that confucius legend, or is this more of that "confucius did it" meme in chinese lit. wasnt he diametrically opposed to taoists? chuang tzu eviscerates confucists constantly

Probably the Shambhala edition.

the i ching isn't a taoist text, it precedes both confucianism and taoism and has acted as a common source for both.

it's basically certain to be an instance of the confucius meme, there's not much evidence that he actually read the I Ching (just one possible reading of one passage in the analects afaik) but later confucians included it in the five great classics of confucianism and studied it extensively (hence the attribution of the ten wings to confucius).

confucianism also precedes taoism. he often shits on the 'primitivists' (pre-taoists) in the analects but in a sort of sympathetic way - he fantasizes about going off into seclusion himself, and his admonitions are more like what you would expect from opposed-but-friendly scholars than bitter philosophical rivals.

As a reminder "The Man In The High Tower" by PKD was written using the I Ching, when I choice would arise in the story of different paths PKD would throw some sticks or coins and consult the I Ching to chose his adventure.

thanks for sharing, not often you come across someone who has actually read eastern works

any key texts you would suggest?

sure, no problem. i'm not very familiar, i've just read a few of the most well known works.
as already mentioned the wilhelm/baynes I Ching is to this day the english standard and even if you have no interest in chinese philosophy or history it's an amazing text with magic power.
the hackett editions of confucius (slingerland) and the daodejing (ivanhoe) are a good place for westerners to start with chinese philosophy proper, IMO. with these books you get a good introduction to the two big, surviving schools of ancient chinese philosophy and they both contain solid commentary/reference material. from that point you can make your own destiny. if you like Confucius you can go on to the Mengzi (burton or van norden) and the xunzi, and if you want something totally different you can go with zhuangzi/chuang tzu (burton or ziporyn) - his text was appropriated by the taoists but it's quite a bit different from anything else, notoriously difficult to translate because of its literary style and humor.

Perhaps you ought to undertake a deeper study of the Tarot?

No more than the I Ching, the Tarot " for basic usage its one of the simplest oracles out there. it rewards deep study but doesn't demand."

As a reminder, PKD ended up not knowing how to end the book due to this method of writing and tore his hair out in frustration at the Book of Changes. Hence the novel is complete in an incomplete kind of way.

see this: biroco.com/yijing/dubs.pdf
debatable, but interesting nonetheless.