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The Emergence of Technical Communication in China—Yi Jing (I Ching)

The Budding of a Tradition

Ferris State University dingd{at}ferris.edu

To promote intercultural understanding in technical communication, this article studies Yi Jing as a technical instructions manual, the first technical communication book in China. After examining the information in Yi Jing and its organization as well as a modern Chinese instructional manual, the author claims that Yi Jing developed the theory that context and individual objects should be seen as a unity and thus established a tradition that Chinese instructional manuals observe: focusing on contextual information instead of action-oriented instructions for task performance. The author compares the Chinese manual and an American one to support his claim that Yi Jing's philosophy helps us uncover a pattern of meaning in modern Chinese instructional manuals.

Key Words: Yi Jing • I Ching • China • instructions • manuals • highly contextual • culture • technical communication

Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Vol. 17, No. 3, 319-345 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1050651903017003003


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