Casting the Yi-Jing is done by hand, in a few minutes, starting from a question you put to yourself. Two classical methods are attested in the Chinese canonical texts: sorting yarrow stalks, the oldest ; and tossing three coins, which is faster and has become the most common. Both produce a hexagram — a figure of six lines — that you then read in the canonical text.

This guide describes the procedure step by step, from phrasing the question to interpreting the changing lines. It refers systematically to the public-domain translations (Legge 1882, Philastre 1885, de Harlez 1889) on which it relies.

A gesture that cannot be delegated

Before entering the method, an important note on ask-yijing’s position : we do not cast on your behalf. No random generator, no digital coin or stalk simulator will replace the manual gesture — not on this service, and in our view not anywhere else either.

This is not a gratuitous stance. Casting by hand has two functions that are lost in an automated version :

  • It creates time. A few minutes spent tossing coins or sorting stalks force you to stay with the question you have asked. In that time, the question sharpens, sometimes rephrases itself, sometimes dissolves.
  • It engages the body. A result obtained by a click does not have the same density as a result obtained through a gesture you made yourself. The reading that follows does not receive the same attention.

ask-yijing supports you upstream (help phrasing the question) and downstream (help reading the resulting hexagram). The act of casting itself remains in your hands.

Phrasing the question

The quality of a reading depends first on the quality of the question. A closed question — “should I accept this offer ?” — rarely gets a useful answer from the Yi-Jing, because the text never says yes or no. An open question — “what does this decision ask me to consider ?” — leaves room for the text to illuminate the situation from an angle you hadn’t anticipated.

This requirement is not a modern addition. The classical commentaries included in Philastre’s translation, notably those of Cheng Yi (11th century) and Zhu Xi (12th century), insist that the reading responds to the posture of the one who asks. What matters is what the question makes legible, not what it hopes to hear.

Before casting, write the question on a sheet of paper, in the first person, in a single sentence. Read it back. If it calls for a binary answer, rephrase it.

The yarrow stalks method

This is the oldest method, described in the “Great Appendix” — also called Xici or Da Zhuan, one of the classical commentaries (the “Ten Wings”) included in Philastre and Legge. It uses fifty yarrow stalks, one of which is set aside before each casting.

The full procedure requires eighteen successive manipulations of sorting and dividing, to produce the six lines of the hexagram. It is slow — about fifteen minutes in practice — and that slowness is part of the method : it forces you to stay with the question throughout the sorting.

The full protocol is given in Legge, Appendix III, Section II, §49-52 (The Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XVI, Oxford, 1882), and in Philastre in the introduction to part two. Both editions agree on the principle : each line is obtained by counting the successive remainders of divisions by four.

In practice, few contemporary practitioners use the stalks. The coins method, faster, produces comparable results.

The three-coins method

It consists of tossing three identical coins, six times in a row. Each toss gives one line ; the six lines, read from bottom to top, form the hexagram.

A value is attributed to each side :

  • Tails (yin) : 2
  • Heads (yang) : 3

You add the three coins after each toss. Possible sums are 6, 7, 8 or 9 :

  • 6 : changing yin line (will become yang in the derived hexagram)
  • 7 : stable yang line
  • 8 : stable yin line
  • 9 : changing yang line (will become yin in the derived hexagram)

You note the result of each toss, from bottom to top. After six tosses, you have the obtained hexagram. If there are changing lines, you also draw the derived hexagram by inverting the 6s and 9s.

The principle of this encoding is documented in Legge, Appendix III, and picked up in Philastre’s commentaries.

Building the hexagram

A hexagram is a figure formed by six stacked lines. Each line can be :

  • Continuous (yang, ⚊), drawn as a solid line
  • Broken (yin, ⚋), drawn as a line broken in the middle

Lines are read from bottom to top. The bottom line is called the “initial line” (chou in Philastre, first line in Legge) ; the top line is the “upper line” (cheang / top line). Between them, positions 2, 3, 4, 5 are numbered in order.

Once the six lines are drawn, you look in a correspondence table to find which hexagram matches the combination. The 64 hexagrams are arranged in a traditional order, called the “King Wen order”, given identically in Philastre and Legge.

Reading the judgement and the image

Each hexagram is accompanied by several layers of text :

  1. A name (e.g. Qian for the 1st hexagram in Legge, Kien in Philastre)
  2. A judgement (tuan) — a short sentence that summarises the situation
  3. An image (xiang) — a natural metaphor that extends the judgement
  4. Commentaries on each line

The judgement of the first hexagram in Legge :

“Qian (represents) what is great and originating, penetrating, advantageous, correct and firm.” — Legge, The I Ching (1882), hexagram 1.

The same passage in Philastre :

« Kien : origine, pénétration, convenance, perfection. » — Philastre, Le Yi King (1885), hexagram 1.

You read the judgement first, then the image. You let both work. You reread.

Changing lines and the derived hexagram

If there are one or more changing lines in the obtained hexagram, you also read the commentary on each changing line — this is where the Yi-Jing becomes precise about the movement of a situation.

You then draw the derived hexagram by inverting the changing lines (6 becomes a solid yang line, 9 becomes a broken yin line). This second hexagram is not a “future” : it is another facet of the same moment, the tendency the situation is sketching as current tensions resolve.

The reading then follows three steps :

  • Judgement and image of the obtained hexagram
  • Commentaries on the changing lines
  • Judgement of the derived hexagram

If there are no changing lines, only the obtained hexagram is read, with its judgement and image.

Coming back to the reading

A reading is not closed on first reading. The classical commentaries encourage going back to the text several days, even weeks later. What seemed opaque can clear up as the situation evolves ; conversely, a sentence that had seemed obvious may take on another relief.

Noting the reading — hexagram, changing lines, context of the question, phrases that resonate — is a practice supported by the tradition. Philastre notes that consultation of the Yi-Jing was historically archived by Chinese scholars for rereading.

To go further

If you are starting out, begin with the coins method. It is fast, precise enough, and it lets you get familiar with the structure of the texts. The stalks method remains an exercise in patience that you can approach later.

For an introduction to the Yi-Jing itself, see our article What is the Yi-Jing?. For editions and translations, see Editions of the Yi-Jing.

ask-yijing helps you phrase your question and read the hexagram you cast. Join the waitlist — we’ll let you know at launch.

Sources

All cited sources are in the public domain and freely available online.

  • Legge, James (1882) — The Yî King (The Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XVI), Oxford University Press. Original scan on Internet Archive · HTML version on Sacred-Texts.
  • Philastre, Paul-Louis-Félix (1885-1893) — Le Yi-King ou Livre des changements de la dynastie des Tsheou, Ernest Leroux, Paris. Full PDF.
  • de Harlez, Charles (1889) — Le Yih-king, traduit d’après les interprètes chinois, Mémoires de l’Académie royale de Belgique. Facsimile on Gallica BnF.