I Ching online reading
Consult the I Ching online: ask your question, cast six lines with three coins or the traditional yarrow stalks, and read your hexagram, its changing lines and where the situation is heading.
Each toss of three coins makes one line, from the bottom up. Heads count 3, tails 2.
Each line takes three divisions of the 49 stalks, simulated step by step.
Cast with your own coins or stalks? Enter the six numbers, bottom line first.
How to consult the I Ching
- Write down a clear question. "What should I understand about...?" works better than yes or no.
- Cast six lines, from the bottom up. Each line is yang (solid) or yin (broken), and some are changing.
- Read your hexagram: its judgment, and the text of any changing line.
- If lines changed, read the second hexagram: it shows where the situation is moving.
I Ching coin toss or yarrow stalks?
Three coins: each toss gives a line. Heads count 3 and tails 2, so the total is 6, 7, 8 or 9. 6 is old yin (changing), 7 young yang, 8 young yin and 9 old yang (changing).
Yarrow stalks: the older method. From 49 stalks you divide the bundle, count off by fours and set the remainders aside, three times per line. We simulate every division with a random split, as your hands would make it. Over 400,000 simulated lines the odds come out at about 0.8, 4.6, 7.2 and 3.4 in 16 (old yin, young yang, young yin, old yang), close to the traditional 1, 5, 7 and 3 in 16. The small gap comes from how the bundle splits, and our guide to consulting the I Ching shows the exact arithmetic. Some readers prefer yarrow for its slower ritual and its traditional odds.
Enter your own lines: if you cast with real coins or stalks, enter the six numbers and read the result here.
About the text
The judgment and line texts are from James Legge's translation, published in 1882 in The Sacred Books of the East and now in the public domain. Legge's English is old-fashioned, so every hexagram also has a plain-language reading written by us. Browse all 64 hexagrams, new to it? Start with what the I Ching is, or download a free I Ching PDF of Legge's full translation.
Another Chinese system reads a birth moment instead of a question: the BaZi calculator shows your Four Pillars, worked out from the solar terms.
Questions
How do you use the I Ching?
To use the I Ching, ask one clear question, then cast six lines from the bottom up with three coins or yarrow stalks. The lines form one of 64 hexagrams. Read its judgment first, then the text of any changing lines, then the second hexagram the changing lines lead to.
What is the I Ching?
The I Ching, or Book of Changes (Yijing), is a Chinese classic more than 2,500 years old. It describes 64 situations, each drawn as a hexagram of six lines, and has been used for divination and reflection ever since. Our guide explains what it is in full.
What are changing lines?
Lines that are about to turn into their opposite: an old yang line becomes yin, an old yin line becomes yang. They carry the most specific advice in a reading and produce the second hexagram.
Is the coin method less accurate than yarrow?
Both are random. They differ in the odds of changing lines: coins give old yin and old yang equally (1 in 8 each), yarrow gives old yang much more often than old yin (traditionally 3 in 16 against 1 in 16).
Do you store my question?
No. Your question and your reading stay in your browser. You can save a reading to your journal, which also lives only on your device.
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