What is Yi Jing?

Yi Jing (易经) - the Book of Changes - has been consulted continuously for more than three thousand years. It is the oldest of the Chinese classics and the foundation text of both Confucian and Taoist thought. Long before any modern decision framework, this was how serious people made hard decisions.

A hexagram is six stacked lines - each line either Yin (broken) or Yang (solid). Six binary lines yield 64 possible hexagrams, and each hexagram has a name, an image (the natural phenomenon it represents), a judgment (the dominant guidance), and six individual line texts.

The 64 hexagrams are not 64 random scenarios - they are the canonical map of dynamic situations. Hexagram 1 (Heaven, all Yang) is creative force; Hexagram 2 (Earth, all Yin) is receptive form; the 62 between them are the human situations woven from those two principles.

When you generate a hexagram, some lines may be "changing" - meaning they will flip to their opposite, producing a second hexagram. The changing lines themselves carry the most pointed advice. The original hexagram describes your present situation; the resulting hexagram describes where it is moving.

A good Yi Jing question is specific, sincere, and singular. "Should I accept this offer?" works. "Tell me about my life" does not. The oracle responds in proportion to the seriousness and clarity of the question.