DOI: 10.1515/cwl-2024-2010 ISSN: 2943-0917

Abyss and Oppression: I Ching Symbolisms in Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle

John T. P. Lai

Abstract

Being one of the most influential science fiction writers of the 20th century, Philip K. Dick (1928–82) was acclaimed as the “most brilliant Sci-Fi mind on any planet.” Thanks to the influential English translation by Richard Wilhelm (1873–1930) and Cary F. Baynes (1883–1977) published in 1950, the I Ching (or Yijing; Book of Changes), the ancient Chinese philosophical/religious classic and divinatory text, has transcended cultural borders, leaving a lasting impact on Western society against the backdrop of the counterculture hippy movement of the 1960s. With an extraordinary enthusiasm for the I Ching, Dick experimented creative use of the I Ching in the process of writing his best-selling novel The Man in the High Castle (1962), marking its debut in American fiction. Through a critical textual analysis of the novel, this paper attempts to unearth deeper levels of motifs by discovering the underlying symbolisms of the I Ching incorporated in the narrative, with special references to two related Hexagrams Kan (䷜ Abyss) and Kun (䷮ Oppression). Dick took full advantage of the multifaceted dimensions of their symbolisms to develop characterization and fictional plots, particularly foregrounding the core themes of universal anxiety and oppression.

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