易经
Book of Changes
Ask a question and toss the coins six times — China's oldest book answers with an image.
Your question stays on your device and is never stored.
Focus on your question and toss the coins six times — the hexagram builds from the bottom up.
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Methodology
What is the 易经 (I Ching, Book of Changes)?
易经
The I Ching is one of China’s oldest texts and one of the Five Confucian Classics. It began as a divination manual and over three millennia became a philosophical treatise on change, choice and timing.
A short history of the Book of Changes
The core of the text is 64 hexagrams, figures of six solid (yang) or broken (yin) lines, traditionally linked to Fu Xi, King Wen and the Duke of Zhou. The order we use is the King Wen sequence, which opens with 乾 (The Creative) and 坤 (The Receptive) and closes with 既济 and 未济, “After Completion” and “Before Completion”. The commentaries known as the Ten Wings, attributed to Confucius, turned a divination book into a philosophical classic. The I Ching shaped Daoism and Neo-Confucianism and even caught the attention of Leibniz and his binary system.
How the three-coin method works
You ask a question and toss three coins six times: heads count as 3, tails as 2, so each toss totals 6, 7, 8 or 9. Seven is young yang (a solid line), eight is young yin (a broken line), nine is old yang and six is old yin; the “old” lines are changing lines. The hexagram is built from the bottom up, from the first line to the sixth. Changing lines flip into their opposites and produce a second, resulting hexagram that shows where the situation is heading.
How our reading works
We reproduce the classical three-coin method: every toss is random, and the probabilities of 6, 7, 8 and 9 match those of real coins. For each hexagram we show the characters, its number in the King Wen sequence, a translation of its name and a modern-language interpretation. Changing lines are shown separately because the tradition gives them special weight. We wrote the interpretations ourselves, drawing on the classical commentaries and trying to keep the imagery of the original.
How to use the answer
Ask open questions: not “will I win the contract?” but “how should I approach these negotiations?”. The I Ching does not predict the future; it offers an image through which you can look at your situation differently. That is how many Chinese scholars used it — as a mirror for reflection rather than an oracle. Avoid asking the same question over and over; the tradition considers it disrespectful to the book and, in effect, a way of fooling yourself.
Questions
Can you consult the I Ching online?+
Yes, as long as the method keeps the classical probabilities. Our generator replicates the three-coin toss, and the value of the I Ching has always lain in reflecting on the text, not in the toss itself.
What are changing lines?+
They are lines that come up as 6 or 9, “old yin” and “old yang”. They turn into their opposites and form a second hexagram that shows how the situation develops.
Why are there exactly 64 hexagrams?+
Each of the six lines can be yin or yang, and two to the sixth power is 64. A hexagram can also be read as two trigrams: the lower one describes the inner situation, the upper one the outer.
Does the I Ching actually come true?+
We do not claim the book predicts events. It is a cultural monument and a tool for thinking; the value of an answer lies in the questions it helps you ask yourself.