Correspondence from Karl Germer to Philip Kaplan

West Point, Calif.

Jan. 28, 1959.

Dear Philip:

Thanks for your note of Jan. 19 and the photo of the Yi King Wheel. It was very kind of you to go to this trouble. It is not necessary to make a larger copy. I am glad to have this as it is, if it were larger it would not help me much, as I cannot read Chinese anyway.

You can buy Legge's Yi King from any bookseller. It is one of the Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XVI., Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1899. I paid $5.00, from Weiser, I think.

Yi King sticks: I made my own from wood and lackered [sic] them myself. Since I now have A.C.'s personal sticks, I use these. They are 5" x 1", six in all, black on one side, on the reverse black with the red division in the center to make them female/

I know there are other methods to use them for divining. I know one person who uses what you call 'splints'. But it would be too much trouble for me, and I use A.C's method: I take the six sticks in my hand, think closely of the question I want to ask, turn the sticks, then lay them down. I have found this satisfactory.

I understand that some good books on the Yi King have recently been published in France. I have here a French magazine which has a deep and interesting article using the Yi King system for base. The results are astonishing. The article mentions the name:—

Yuan Kuang, Méthode Pratique de Divination par le Yi-King, édit. Vega, Paris.

I have not gone to the trouble to order the book.

Sincerely

Karl.

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