What is the Yi-Jing?

The Yi-Jing, also written I Ching or Yi King, is a very old Chinese book. Its title is usually translated as Book of Changes. More than a text to read, it is a method for examining a situation from an unexpected angle: you phrase a question, you cast six lines by hand, and you read the text that goes with the resulting hexagram. That text offers images, movements, nuances — it is up to you to find what speaks to your question.

This quiet guide covers what the Yi-Jing is, what it contains, how it has been transmitted, and why it remains a useful companion for anyone who wants to step back and think carefully about a decision or a situation.

A book, a method, a frame

The Yi-Jing is first a book: a body of short texts organised around sixty-four hexagrams. Each hexagram is a figure made of six lines, every line being either continuous or broken. This combinatorial yields sixty-four distinct figures, each paired with a name, a judgement, an image, and six commentaries corresponding to the six lines.

The Yi-Jing is also a method. When you consult it, you don’t leaf through the book at random: you phrase a question, cast six lines by hand — using coins or yarrow stalks —, obtain a hexagram, and read the associated text. This procedure isn’t a compulsory ritual: it is a way to slow down, sit with the question, and let a figure come.

The Yi-Jing is, finally, a frame. It doesn’t offer definitive answers but images and movements: mountain, lake, fire, water, thunder, wind, heaven, earth. These eight elementary figures combine two by two to form the sixty-four hexagrams. Each of them evokes a posture, an energy, a moment in a situation — never a prescription.

What the book contains

When you open an edition of the Yi-Jing, you find several layers of text for each hexagram.

The name of the hexagram is a Chinese word rendered in French or English: Qian (the creative), Kun (the receptive), Zhun (initial difficulty), and so on. The name sets the overall tone.

The judgement is a short, often dense phrase that summarises the situation the hexagram describes. You read it aloud, you come back to it, you let it work. In Legge’s translation, for instance, the judgement of the first hexagram reads:

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

The image is a metaphor that extends the judgement. It offers a landscape, a natural scene, a gesture. The image of the first hexagram evokes heaven in motion, the continuous cycle, the example set by one who stands upright.

The six lines are commented one by one. Each line corresponds to a stage, a position within the situation: the bottom line marks the beginning, the top line marks completion. When a line is changing — a specificity of the casting —, you also read the text of the second hexagram it draws, known as the resulting hexagram.

A very old method

The Yi-Jing is among the oldest books in the world that is still read. Its roots go back to the Zhou dynasty, more than three thousand years ago. The earliest commentaries date from the time of Confucius, around the sixth century BCE. Classical Chinese thought — both Confucian and Taoist — drew on its images, and it has kept a central place in Chinese culture down to the present day.

In the West, the Yi-Jing was first translated in the nineteenth century. James Legge published in 1882 an English translation that remains a reference. Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre published in 1885 a full French translation, together with the major classical commentaries. Charles de Harlez gave in 1889 another French version, more austere. These translations, now in the public domain, are the sources on which any serious work can rely.

In the twentieth century, the Yi-Jing attracted the attention of Western thinkers such as Carl Gustav Jung, who engaged with it as a tool for examining synchronicity and the meaning of situations. This recognition did not turn it into a passing trend: the book has remained sober, demanding, and rewards patience more than quick curiosity.

Why use it today

The Yi-Jing is not a book you read cover to cover. It is a companion. Those who use it return to it at specific moments: an important decision, a stubborn dilemma, a turning point in personal or professional life.

The point is not to receive an answer but to shift the question. By formulating what you want to examine, casting the six lines, and reading the resulting text, you find yourself facing a figure you didn’t choose. That figure offers an angle, an image, a movement that may not have been in your starting assumptions. This is where the work happens: not receiving an instruction, but listening to what the text makes resonate.

A few concrete examples of situations where the Yi-Jing can help you step back:

• Choosing between two professional options when the rational arguments balance each other.
• Examining the dynamic of a long-term relationship, without trying to decide it.
• Marking a threshold — a project beginning, a chapter closing — and reflecting on what it calls for.
• Clarifying your own motivations before committing to a decision you sense is important.

The Yi-Jing doesn’t replace your judgement, the advice of someone close to you, or professional help when it is needed. It is a frame for reflection, not a substitute.

How to go about it

Consulting the Yi-Jing takes three gestures: phrasing a question, casting the six lines, reading the hexagram.

Phrasing is often the hardest part. An open question — “What does this moment ask me to consider?” — works better than a closed, binary one. A good question is precise but not closed: it names the situation without dictating the shape of the answer.

The casting is done by hand. The two classical methods are tossing three coins six times, and sorting yarrow stalks, which is slower. The result is a figure of six lines, read from bottom to top.

The reading follows the text. You start with the name and the judgement of the hexagram obtained. You then look at the changing lines if any, and you also read the second hexagram they draw. You let the text work: you reread, you note what catches, you come back later.

The public-domain translations — Legge for English, Philastre for French — are solid foundations for anyone getting started. They demand some effort but they spare you the marketing language sometimes found elsewhere.

In practice

The Yi-Jing is something you live with over time. A first casting is not a revelation: it is a first reading. You come back, you compare situations, you note what the text made resonate — and sometimes, months later, a line you hadn’t noticed finds its meaning.

ask-yijing is a companion for this practice. We help you phrase your question, then read the hexagram you cast, in plain language grounded in the canonical text. If the subject speaks to you, join the waitlist — we will let you know at launch.