The “singular book of great esteem” is the I Ching. It originated in China some 5,000 years ago as a form of divination, and around 3,000 years ago it was formulated into a system of sixty-four images with corresponding text, built up from the foundational yin-yang (binary) concept. It has been used since then by emperors, officials and ordinary people for wisdom and guidance. I am not qualified to write an academic book about it, but I have lived with the I Ching for fifty years, and I wanted to explain what it is all about. I have found it illuminating and inspiring. I think it speaks to our inner core, and it is a way of navigating yourself through good times and pain, confusion and despair. After I started on this project, I had a medical episode described by doctors as a “slight stroke”. After a period where I was “becalmed”, I turned to the I Ching to make sense of it and it spoke (in its own way), as clearly as ever. The book then took its own shape.