The Book of Changes
Consult the I Ching
Six coin throws build a hexagram. Ask once, sincerely — the oracle dislikes being tested.
Your Question
In short
Throw the coins and receive one of the sixty-four I Ching hexagrams, with moving lines and the transformed hexagram it becomes.
- Read the image before the judgement. The image is where the practical instruction usually lives.
- If there are no changing lines, the situation is stable; sit with the primary hexagram alone.
- Four or more changing lines usually means the question is too broad. Narrow it and cast again another day.
- Keep a casting log with the date, question and hexagram. The Yijing repeats itself for a reason.
64
Hexagrams
6
Lines each
384
Line texts
~3,000y
In continuous use
The Yijing is among the oldest books in continuous use anywhere. Its sixty-four hexagrams — every combination of six broken or unbroken lines — carry a core text from the early Zhou period, roughly the ninth century BCE, with the Ten Wings commentaries added over the following centuries.
It was consulted as an oracle and studied as philosophy simultaneously, and both uses survive. The hexagrams describe situations in motion, which is why the changing lines matter as much as the figure itself: the oracle rarely tells you what is, only what is turning into what.
Questions Readers Ask
How many hexagrams are there?
Sixty-four — every possible arrangement of six lines that are each either broken or unbroken.
What are changing lines?
Lines cast as old yin or old yang, which transform into their opposite and generate a second hexagram showing where the situation is heading.
Which translation should I read?
Wilhelm-Baynes is the classic English text; Rutt and Lynn are closer to the historical layers. Reading two side by side is standard practice.