FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Will Buckingham puts the I Ching to work to create his latest work - Sixty-four Chance Pieces
Hong Kong
– April 9, 2015 – The I Ching - the Book of Changes - is one of the oldest and most mysterious of the world’s books, and it has been used by the Chinese for aeons for divination and other purposes. Novelist and philosopher Will Buckingham, has just published a new book which uses the I Ching to create sixty-four stories of chance and change, each one flowing from one of the I
C hing’s 64 hexagrams.
Moving between myth, fable and travel-writing, Sixty-Four Chance Pieces (ISBN: 978-988-82730-2-7;
Earnshaw Books) offers an attempt to make sense of the maddening, changeable book that is the I
Ching with tales of inventors and fox-spirits, ancient poets and non-existent rulers, kleptomaniac pensioners and infernal bureaucrats. Like the I Ching itself, this new Book of Changes is a puzzle, a conundrum and a journey of many transformations, where nothing is quite what it seems.
Will is available for interviews. To provide a sense of the depth and quirkiness of this project, here is a
Q&A with him:
Why did you write the book?
It started out as a whim. I wanted to write sixty-four intriguing stories, using the I Ching simply as a means to this end. But then the I Ching got the better of me. If you mess with a book that has survived for three thousand years, it is going to get the better of you. So I found myself getting sucked in. The project was supposed to take a couple of years. But in the end —what with learning Chinese, doing the research and all that
—it took almost a decade.
What has an old Chinese book got to do with global 21st century people?
Old books are not to be underestimated. The I Ching has had a huge influence on China and, increasingly, on the rest of the world. Whilst writing this book, I was surprised by how many people confessed to me that they used the I Ching in their daily life. One student I met in Suzhou asked me whether it could be trusted when it came to fashio n advice. I’m still not sure about this. I am not the person to ask about fashion advice.
Do you believe in fate? Do you think the I Ching reflects some higher power?
I don’t believe in fate. The world seems to me to be too messy and chaotic for things to be preordained. So one of the reasons that I like the I Ching is that it encourages me to think about change, uncertainty and mess. One of the biggest problems, perhaps, is that we suffer from too much certainty. The I Ching sows confusion in a very usefu l fashion. As for other powers, whilst I don’t think that the I Ching reflects a higher power, I think that it is a curiously cunning book. You have to be cunning (or else very stubborn) to survive that long.
How do the stories link to the I Ching?
Sometimes the links are very direct, sometimes they are more oblique and obscure. I wanted all the stories to be linked organically to the hexagrams of the I Ching, rather than being imposed upon them.
Some stories came quickly, some I had to wait for a year, two years, or five years before they started to work.
What do I get as a reader from reading this?
Because I’m interested in uncertainty, I hope that readers will get things out of the book that I hadn’t even anticipated. When I was writing the book, I wanted it to be entertaining and intriguing. I take the I
Ching seriously, but I don’t think seriousness is opposed to lightness and playfulness. So I didn’t want to write a heavy book. One of my early readers said to me that they were afraid that the book would be like Ulysses, but when she read it, she found herself laughing out loud. This was encouraging.
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About the Author:
Will Buckingham is a novelist, philosopher and children's writer. He was brought up in Norfolk,
England, and went on to study Fine Arts, Anthropology and Philosophy, taking a PhD in continental

philosophy. His work cuts between story-like philosophy and philosophically-inclined storytelling. He has particular interests in how the philosophies that we weave may shape and reshape the way we go about our lives. His philosophical interests are broad -- from recent Continental philosophy, to the philosophical traditions of Buddhism and of China. In terms of fiction, he is interested in stories that might suggest new possibilities for how we might see the world, or think about the world, or relate to each other. His published works include 'Cargo Fever' (2007) and 'Finding Our Sea-Legs' (2009). He is
Reader in Writing and Creativity at De Montfort University, Leicester
.
In 2010 he was awarded British
Academy funding to undertake research for his book Sixty-four Chance Pieces in China.
Praise for William’s last novel, The Descent of the Lyre.
“Blends history and myth… lyrical and well-written.” The Bookseller
“This is a book that is memorable for all the right reasons. The story is gripping and highly original, and it is beautifully written” Louis de Bernières.
“Do not mistake this for a mere retelling. This is masterful storytelling.” Historical Novel Review.
“A unique, timeless and enjoyable work of literature.” Left Lion Magazine
“Seasoned with knowledge of philosophy and storytelling as well as a deft touch and lyrical beauty… it feels totally original.” TheBookBag.co.uk
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About Earnshaw Books:
Earnshaw Books, founded in 2007, is a leading English-language publisher of titles about China.
Earnshaw Books aims to promote greater cross-cultural understanding between China and the larger global-community through a range of works covering several categories, including history, travel, arts and literature. Based in Hong Kong, Earnshaw Books has distribution throughout Asia, North America and Europe. For more information, please visit our website at http://earnshawbooks.com
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Sixty-four Chance Pieces: A Book of Changes
Published by Earnshaw Books (Hong Kong) Ltd
US$19.95; paperback; 356pp.; ISBN: 978-988-82730-2-7
Publication Date: April 4, 2015
Distributed in the US and Canada by the Independent Publisher’s Group (IPG)
Contact: Graham Earnshaw
T: +86 139 016 68748
E: graham@earnshawbooks.com