What is the I Ching? The Book of Changes explained

Written by Orbitarot · Sources: listed at the end of this guide · Updated October 7, 2026

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Key finding: The core I Ching is 450 short texts (64 judgments + 384 line statements + 2 extra texts for hexagrams 1 and 2), about 14,650 words in Legge's 1882 English, of which about 13% are words Legge supplied in parentheses; everything else people call the I Ching is commentary.

What is the I Ching?

The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is an ancient Chinese divination manual built from 64 six-line figures called hexagrams. Each hexagram has a name, a short judgment and six line statements. Later commentaries, known as the Ten Wings, turned this manual into a work of philosophy and one of the Confucian classics.

That definition matters because most people meet the I Ching the other way round: as a book of wisdom that happens to be used for fortune telling. The oldest layer is the reverse. It is a set of short, often cryptic omen texts arranged so that a random procedure (originally yarrow stalks, later coins) points you to one of them. The philosophy came afterward, written by commentators trying to explain why those texts say what they say.

You can test the definition on the book itself. Below we count every part of it, quote the opening hexagram in James Legge's 1882 translation, and separate the core text from the commentary. If you would rather start with a reading, you can use our free tool to ask the I Ching and come back to this page afterward.

What does "I Ching" mean?

"I Ching" means "Classic of Changes." Yi (spelled I in the older Wade-Giles system) means change, and jing (ching) means classic or canonical book. In modern pinyin the title is written Yijing. The core text is also called the Zhou yi, the "Changes of Zhou," after the dynasty it comes from.

So "I Ching," "Yijing," "Yi King" and "Book of Changes" are all the same book. The spelling only tells you which romanization a writer follows. Legge, writing before either modern system was settled, titled his translation The Yi King. The "change" in the title refers to the lines of each figure, which can turn from solid to broken or broken to solid, and to the idea that every situation is already on its way to becoming another one.

How is the I Ching built? The structure in numbers

The whole book rests on two kinds of line: solid (yang) and broken (yin). Three lines make a trigram, and there are 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 of them. Two trigrams stacked make a hexagram, and there are 8 x 8 = 64. With six line statements per hexagram, the book holds 64 x 6 = 384.

Every figure in the book follows from that counting, and you can check each step:

The two counts for hexagrams, 8 x 8 and 2⁶, are the same number seen two ways. Stacking any of the 8 trigrams on any of the 8 gives 64 pairs, and filling six positions with solid or broken lines gives 64 patterns. No pattern is missing and none repeats. Our guide to the eight trigrams lays out that 8 by 8 table in full.

The two extra texts are a quirk worth knowing. Hexagram 1 is six solid lines and hexagram 2 is six broken lines, and each carries a seventh statement for the case where all six lines change at once. No other hexagram has one, which is why the line total is 386 and not 384.

One more count shows why readings rarely repeat. Any of the six lines in a cast hexagram may or may not be a changing line, which gives 2⁶ = 64 possible sets of changes for each hexagram. That makes 64 x 64 = 4,096 distinct outcomes from a single cast, each pointing to a particular mix of texts. How those changes create a second hexagram, and which texts to read, is covered in our guide to I Ching changing lines.

What does the I Ching actually say?

The core text is short, concrete and often strange. It speaks of dragons, wells, cauldrons, river crossings, marriages and hunts, and tags them with verdicts such as good fortune, danger or occasion for regret. The first hexagram shows the pattern: a one-line judgment, then six lines that follow a dragon from hiding to overreaching.

Here is the judgment of hexagram 1 exactly as Legge printed it:

"Khien (represents) what is great and originating, penetrating, advantageous, correct and firm." (James Legge, The I Ching, 1882, hexagram 1, judgment)

And two of its six lines, the first and the fifth:

"In the first (or lowest) NINE, undivided, (we see its subject as) the dragon lying hid (in the deep). It is not the time for active doing." (Legge, 1882, hexagram 1, line 1)

"In the fifth NINE, undivided, (we see its subject as) the dragon on the wing in the sky. It will be advantageous to meet with the great man." (Legge, 1882, hexagram 1, line 5)

Three things in those quotes are easy to check and worth noticing. First, "NINE" is a label, not a number in the story: it marks a solid line, because 9 is the value for an old yang line in the casting, while broken lines are labeled "SIX." Second, the words in parentheses are Legge's own additions, supplied to make the very terse Chinese read as English. Third, the line texts are images plus a verdict, not explanations. The book tells you that the dragon is lying hid and that it is not the time for active doing; it does not tell you why.

The rest of the book works the same way. We counted Legge's English for all 450 core texts in our copy of his translation: about 14,650 words in total, of which roughly 1,960 (about 13%) sit inside his parentheses, and 326 of the 450 texts contain at least one parenthesis. The judgments run from 9 words (hexagram 50, The Cauldron) to 79 words, an average of about 38. The core of the I Ching is shorter than many short novels. What makes the book feel vast is the commentary around it.

What are the Ten Wings?

The Ten Wings are ten commentaries attached to the core text in antiquity. They explain the judgments and images, describe the trigrams and their qualities, and set out a philosophy of change. Most of what people think of as "I Ching philosophy" comes from these commentaries, not from the omen texts themselves.

The ten are traditionally counted as follows:

• Tuan zhuan, commentary on the judgments (two parts).
• Xiang zhuan, commentary on the images of the hexagrams and lines (two parts).
• Wenyan, a commentary on hexagrams 1 and 2 only.
• Xici zhuan, the "Great Treatise," an essay on the whole book and on divination (two parts).
• Shuogua, a discussion of the eight trigrams.
• Xugua, an explanation of the order of the 64 hexagrams.
• Zagua, short notes on the hexagrams in contrasting pairs.

That is seven titles but ten wings, because three of them come in two parts. Legge translated the commentaries too and printed them as appendixes after the core text. Reading a hexagram on its own and then reading its commentary is the quickest way to see the two layers: the first is a terse oracle, the second is a teacher drawing moral lessons from it.

Where does the I Ching come from?

The core text, the Zhou yi, dates to the Western Zhou period; roughly 1000 to 750 BCE is the commonly cited range. Tradition credits King Wen of Zhou with the hexagram texts and the Duke of Zhou with the line texts, and Confucius with the Ten Wings, but none of these attributions is documented authorship.

The traditional story is old and widely repeated, so it helps to keep the two kinds of claim apart. What is well established: the omen texts are early, they were used for divination in the Zhou period, and the commentaries are later. What is tradition: the named authors. Modern scholars doubt that Confucius wrote the Ten Wings, which appear to come from several hands and periods. The book entered the canon of Confucian classics, which is how a divination manual became required reading for scholars and officials for many centuries.

The book reached Western readers mainly through two translations. James Legge's English version appeared in 1882 as volume 16 of the Sacred Books of the East. Richard Wilhelm's German translation followed in 1924, and Cary F. Baynes rendered Wilhelm's version into English in 1950, with a foreword by Carl Jung. Legge's text is in the public domain, which is why we quote it on every hexagram page, and you can read it whole in our free I Ching PDF of Legge's translation.

How does I Ching divination work?

I Ching divination means producing six lines by a random procedure, building a hexagram from the bottom up, and reading its text against a question you have in mind. Some lines may come out as changing lines, which point to a second hexagram. Coins and yarrow stalks are the two traditional methods.

The steps, the coin values and the exact odds of each line type are worked out in our guide on how to consult the I Ching, so we will not repeat them here. The short version is that the procedure only chooses a text; the meaning comes from how you read that text against your own situation. The book answers with an image and an attitude, not with a yes or a no, and it never fixes the future. Treat it as a prompt for reflection, and keep health, legal and money decisions with qualified people.

When you want to try it, our tool lets you ask the I Ching a question with virtual coins or a yarrow stalk simulation, then shows Legge's text beside a plain-language reading for each hexagram and line.

What is the difference between the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching?

They are two different books. The I Ching is a divination manual of 64 hexagrams with layered commentary, built up over centuries. The Tao Te Ching is a short philosophical text in 81 brief chapters, attributed to Laozi and central to Daoism. It contains no hexagrams and is not used to cast readings.

People mix them up because both are ancient Chinese classics about change and the right way to act, and both are often sold side by side. The differences are easy to check:

If you want guidance on a specific question, the I Ching is the book you consult. If you want a meditation on simplicity, softness and letting things be, the Tao Te Ching is the book you read.

Is the I Ching worth reading if you do not use it for divination?

Yes, but read it in layers. Start with one hexagram's judgment and lines, then its commentary, then a modern plain reading. The core text alone is hard going; with the commentaries it becomes a long reflection on timing, restraint and how situations turn into their opposites.

A practical way in is to read the hexagrams in pairs, since the traditional order mostly groups them two by two: hexagram 11, Peace, is followed by hexagram 12, Standstill, and hexagram 63, After Completion, by hexagram 64, Before Completion, which ends the book on an unfinished note. You can browse them all on the 64 hexagrams index, or use the full list of all 64 at the end of this page, where every name links to its own page.

What are the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching?

The 64 hexagrams, in the traditional King Wen order, run from 1, Creative Force (six solid lines), to 64, Before Completion. Each page gives the hexagram's figure and trigrams, Legge's 1882 judgment and line texts quoted exactly, and our plain-language reading of each part.

Whichever number you land on, the method is the same: read the judgment, read any changing lines, and ask what the image says about your situation. When you are ready, ask the I Ching your own question.

Questions

What is the I Ching in simple terms?

It is an ancient Chinese book of 64 six-line figures called hexagrams, each with a short text. You produce one by tossing coins or dividing yarrow stalks, then read its text as a prompt for reflection on your question.

What does I Ching mean?

I Ching means Classic of Changes. Yi means change and jing means classic; in modern pinyin it is spelled Yijing, and the core text is also called the Zhou yi.

Who wrote the I Ching?

No single documented author. Tradition credits King Wen and the Duke of Zhou with the core texts and Confucius with the Ten Wings, but these are traditions, and modern scholars doubt that Confucius wrote the commentaries.

Is the I Ching the same as the Tao Te Ching?

No. The I Ching is a divination manual of 64 hexagrams with commentaries; the Tao Te Ching is a short philosophical text in 81 chapters attributed to Laozi, and it has no hexagrams.

How many hexagrams and lines are in the I Ching?

There are 64 hexagrams and 384 line statements (64 x 6), plus one extra text each for hexagrams 1 and 2, for 386 line texts in all.

Sources

• James Legge, The I Ching (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16), 1882: James Legge, trans., The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Confucianism, Part II, The Yi King, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882 (public domain)
• Structure counts: Computed by us from the King Wen table and Legge's text: 2^3 = 8 trigrams, 8 x 8 = 2^6 = 64 hexagrams, 64 x 6 = 384 lines, + 2 = 386, + 64 judgments = 450
• Word counts of Legge's text: Our own count, October 2026: all 450 core texts of Legge's 1882 translation as stored on this site, words split on spaces, parenthesized words counted separately
• Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baynes: Richard Wilhelm, I Ging: Das Buch der Wandlungen, 1924; English rendering by Cary F. Baynes, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950

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