Hexagram 1, Qian, the image
Translation，。
Hover, focus, or tap a character for its reading and sense.
Heaven, in its motion, gives the idea of strength. The superior man, in accordance with this, nerves himself to ceaseless activity.
The I Ching
易經
Anonymous, Zhou dynasty · c. 9th century BCE
The oldest of the classics: a philosophy of flux.
A system of 64 hexagrams mapping how every situation changes into the next.
What it is really about
Each hexagram is six lines, broken or unbroken, that together describe a situation and its tendency to change. Consulting the I Ching is less about predicting the future than about seeing the present clearly as a moment in motion.
Where it came from
Its core goes back to Western Zhou divination around 1000 to 750 BCE. The Ten Wings commentaries, later attributed to Confucius, turned it into philosophy. Leibniz saw binary arithmetic in its broken and unbroken lines.
The concepts to carry with you
Yin and yang
Complementary forces whose balance is always shifting.
Trigram
Three lines; eight trigrams for heaven, earth, thunder, water, mountain, wind, fire, and lake.
Change
The only constant. Every line, pushed far enough, becomes its opposite.
- Yin, yang, and the logic of constant change
- How an ancient oracle became a book of wisdom
Cast a hexagram
Three coins, six tosses. Sums of six and nine are old lines that change into their opposites, giving a second hexagram that shows where the situation is heading.
Hold a question in mind. Toss three coins six times; each toss builds one line, from the bottom up.
開元通寶開元通寶開元通寶
Heads count three, tails two.
Sixty-four situations, each changing into the next.
The I Ching was read less as fortune-telling than as a mirror for seeing the present clearly, as a moment in motion.
Read it in the original
Each passage is cited and credited. Classical lines open character by character: the reading, the sense, and what is hiding inside a single character. Paraphrases are marked where the best translations are still under copyright.
01 02 Hexagram 2, Kun, the image
Translation，。
Hover, focus, or tap a character for its reading and sense.
The capacity and sustaining power of the earth is what is denoted by Kun. The superior man, in accordance with this, with his large virtue supports men and things.
03 Great Appendix, II.2
Translation，，。
Hover, focus, or tap a character for its reading and sense.
When a series of changes has run all its course, another change ensues. When it obtains free course, it will continue long.
04 Great Appendix, I.11
Translation，，，。
Hover, focus, or tap a character for its reading and sense.
In the system of the Yi there is the Grand Terminus, which produced the two elementary Forms. Those two Forms produced the Four emblematic Symbols, which again produced the eight Trigrams.
A modern translation
Why it still matters
A three-thousand-year-old reminder that no situation is permanent, and that the right move depends on where you are in the cycle.
Map it onto your own decision