Like many others, I was first introduced to the I Ching in the 1960s by Alan Watts and the Wilhelm/Baynes translation of the world’s oldest book with the well known foreword by Carl Jung.

I used to carry the huge hardback around to coffee houses, open it over espresso, attempt to penetrate the text and the commentaries, but not get much further than that.

In 1985 I spent some time shooting a documentary series about various martial art forms in mainland China. Over lunch one day at a Buddhist temple restaurant in Shanghai, the 80 year old Tai Chi master I was sitting next to demonstrated his mastery of chi by showing me how he could make the hairs of his arm stand on end at will.

He then told me that he was going to give me an I Ching reading, and without yarrow stalks or coins, produced a hexagram in the form of six pinkish raised lines on his outstretched forearm. Needless to say, this demonstration got my attention and the attention of others in the group.