Richard J. Smith

Preface

This Cha special feature consists of a set of essays on a recent book entitled Changing by the English poet Richard Berengarten (李道, b. London, 1943). This ambitious literary work, which may be read either as a single poem or as a mosaic of poems, is based directly on the I Ching (Classic of Changes) and written in homage to it. Changing has already attracted widespread international attention and commentary from, among others, poets and literary scholars, Sinologists, and I Ching experts (both theorists and practitioners). For example, the distinguished literary theorist Gu Ming Dong (顧明棟, University of Texas, Dallas, USA), has written: “Berengarten’s Changing is a bona fide specimen of world literature and blazes a new path for cross-cultural dialogue between Eastern and Western poetry and poetics.”¹

In 2023, a book of eighteen critical and interpretative essays on Berengarten’s magnum opus, entitled Under the Sign of the I Ching: Essays on Richard Berengarten’s Changing, will be published by Shearsman Books, edited by Paschalis Nikolaou (Ionian University, Corfu, Greece) and myself. Among these texts are the eight essays which we present here, by Paul Scott Derrick (University of Valencia, Spain); Sophia Katz (柯書斐, Tel-Hai College, Israel); Lucas Klein (柯夏智, Arizona State University, USA); Mike Barrett (Missouri, USA); Hon Tze-Ki (韓子奇, BNU-HKBU United International College, Zhuhai, China); Tan Chee Lay (陳志鋭, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore); Alan Trist and Bob DeVine (USA); and Paschalis Nikolaou. The international span of these authors and the breadth of their interests reflect the cosmopolitan flavour of Under the Sign of the I Ching and of the poetics of Richard Berengarten himself.

The feature concludes with some working notes by Richard Berengarten, which he made during the composition of Changing.

Enjoy!

Published: Wednesday 21 December 2022

[RETURN TO CHANGING]

Richard J. Smith (司馬富), co-editor of Under the Sign of the I Ching, is currently George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities emeritus, a Baker Institute Scholar, and a Research Professor at the Chao Center for Asian Studies, Rice University. A specialist in modern Chinese history and traditional Chinese culture, Smith also has strong interests in transnational, global and comparative studies. He has published nine single-authored books, the most recent of which is The Qing Dynasty and Traditional Chinese Culture (2015). He has also co-edited or co-authored eight volumes, the most recent of which are Reexamining the Sinosphere: Cultural Transmissions and Transformations in East Asia (2020) and Rethinking the Sinosphere: Poetics, Aesthetics, and Identity Formation (2020).