Well, talk about serendipity… I just found out, in a bit of news about a Maurice Sendak’s exhibition at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia that the museum houses a copy of the Yijing circa 900AD. That’s late Tang Dynasty! Pre-Zhuxi, pre-Cheng Yi, pre-Shao Yong, pre-Zhou Dunyi, pre-The biggest names in Neo-Confucianism, and it is sitting some 45 miles from home. I wonder if I could convince anybody there to make a copy or allow me to do so, white gloves and all.
Even in this hushed, climate-controlled space patrolled by docents and curators, home to incredibly rare books including a copy of the I Ching from about 900 A.D., Sendak’s characters reign, stomping by on walls, through pages and into hearts.