I Ching (Book of Changes)

notes

The I Ching (Yìjīng, "Book of Changes") is one of the oldest of the Chinese classics and one of the oldest extant texts in any language, with its core divination system dating to the Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1050–771 BCE) or earlier. It consists of 64 hexagrams — each a stack of six broken or unbroken lines — accompanied by textual judgments and commentaries. The system works by generating a hexagram through a randomising process (traditionally yarrow stalk divination, later coin tosses) and reading the associated text as oracular guidance. Unlike Western divination systems, the I Ching does not claim to predict a fixed future but to describe the current configuration of change (the meaning of yi/易) in a situation, suggesting how to respond wisely. The text exists in layers: the core hexagram names and judgments (guaci) are attributed to King Wen of Zhou (c. 1050 BCE); the line statements (yaoci) to the Duke of Zhou; and the Ten Wings (Shi Yi) — ten appendices of philosophical commentary — are traditionally attributed to Confucius, though modern scholarship dates them to the Warring States period (475–221 BCE). The I Ching profoundly influenced Chinese philosophy, cosmology, and statecraft for over three thousand years. It is the only text to have shaped both Confucian and Daoist thought equally. In the 17th century, Leibniz recognised in its binary system of broken and unbroken lines a precursor to binary arithmetic. Translation after James Legge, The Yi King (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 16, 1882). Public domain.