The Yi Jing is quite possibly the oldest book in the world. It happens to be a book of divination but one that has earned a central place in Asian culture. Confucius himself wrote commentaries about it and later Confucianists included it as one of the 13 works of the Confucian canon. Modern day researchers still puzzle over its mysteries and first-time users are often struck by the poignancy of the answers it gives.

Consulting the Yi Jing

The Yi Jing contains description and commentaries about 64 hexagrams, each of which is uniquely identified by a number and name. The basic process consists of formulating a question and then following a prescribed process to identify the hexagram (sometimes two) that provides the answer to the question. The two principal methods for determing the hexagram are by means of yarrow stalks or coin tosses.

Notes on the Translation

The complete text of the Yi Jing is presented here with side-by-side translation. The English text of the translation is derived from "Sacred Books of the East, Volume 16, The I Ching" by James Legge, 1899 (Source: Internet Sacred Text Archive). However, the organization of the text has been changed to match the Chinese version and the transliterated Chinese names have been from their original form to their pinyin form. In addition, we have adapted the hexagram names used in the Richard Wilhelm/Cary Baynes translation because they are so widely accepted.

See also