If ever someone claims that the Book of Changes (I Ching/Zhou Yi/Yijing/the Yi) cannot tell the future, ask a pertinent question and probably that person will provide an inadequate answer to support this viewpoint. Also be careful of the many who claim that they have studied the Yi for several decades. From the incorrect views they hold on the Yi and related matters, and from their frequent incorrect interpretations of answers from the Yi it is obvious that some of them have left the Yi on their bookshelves for many of those claimed years of study. Such students should go deeper into Yi studies before another ten years passes by and unabashedly lay claim to a further decade of studying the Yi.
If you are a Yi student, learn to discern between the fools and the wise especially in forums. Do not get misled into dark alleys and winding paths. It may take years to realize the mistakes and the harm done to your own studies and knowledge.
Over the past few years while surfing the net and participating in I Ching or other forums, one has only encountered a mere handful of scholars who really knows their Yi studies well. They are equally knowledgeable on its history, its wisdoms, the images, ancient thoughts and they provide clear interpretations of hexagrams or lines. These experts are usually in a class of their own and have dedicated several years if not decades of their lives to the study of the Yi. Therefore only an earnest and dedicated student has the sincerity to go far in the Yi studies. Whether a student can reach the spiritual level to receive omens and be like a spirit (shen) will depend on his or her own level of sincerity. (One may write about this topic another time.) As additional information, I refer you to the Great Treatise (Ta Chuan) [Wilhelm/ Baynes] and to what the ancients said about telling the future:
“In that it* serves for exploring the laws of number and thus for knowing the future, it is called revelation. In that it serves to infuse an organic coherence into the changes, it is called the work.” (Tao*)
“The Changes illumine the past and interpret the future. They disclose that which is hidden and open that which is dark. They distinguish things by means of suitable names. Then, when the right words and decisive judgments are added, everything is complete.”
If the Book of Changes cannot tell the future, how can the Yi indicate whether an intended action or investment will lead to good fortune, misfortune, remorse, humiliation or no blame in time to come? From a historical point of view, why would the Great Plan of the Hsia said to be written by the Great Yu (Ta Yu) require the employment of officers to use tortoise shells and the milfoil (yarrow stalks) to obtain oracles before deciding on all important matters of the state?
It is all because the Yi can tell the future or more if one knows how to interpret the multi-layered answers.
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