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The I Ching: The Method

A working manual. How to build a hexagram, how to consult the oracle by yarrow stalks or by coins, how to read what you get, and how to find the second hexagram when lines move.

1. The Lines

There are two kinds of line.

Yang — a single unbroken line: ⚊
Yin — a broken line, two segments with a gap: ⚋

A line is also marked as moving (changing) or stable (resting), depending on how it was cast. A moving line is in the act of turning into its opposite.

Old yang — moving yang. Drawn as a circle on a solid line: ⚊ with ●. Becomes yin.
Old yin — moving yin. Drawn as a cross on a broken line: ⚋ with ✕. Becomes yang.
Young yang — stable yang. Stays unbroken.
Young yin — stable yin. Stays broken.

Old lines move. Young lines do not.

2. The Trigrams (Bagua)

Stack three lines and you have a trigram. Three positions, each yin or yang, gives eight trigrams. Each has a name, an image, and attributes.

Trigram	Lines (bottom→top)	Name	Image	Attribute
☰	yang yang yang	Qian	Heaven	strong, creative
☷	yin yin yin	Kun	Earth	yielding, receptive
☳	yang yin yin	Zhen	Thunder	arousing, movement
☵	yin yang yin	Kan	Water	dangerous, the abysmal
☶	yin yin yang	Gen	Mountain	stillness, keeping still
☴	yin yang yang	Xun	Wind/Wood	gentle, penetrating
☲	yang yin yang	Li	Fire	clinging, light
☱	yang yang yin	Dui	Lake	joyous, open

(Read each trigram from the bottom line up.)

3. The Hexagrams

Stack two trigrams — a lower (inner) trigram and an upper (outer) trigram — and you have a hexagram: six lines. Eight trigrams below times eight above gives 64 hexagrams. Each is a pair of trigrams and has a number, a name, and a text (the Judgment, the Image, and a line-statement for each of the six lines).

4. Building a Hexagram

Always build from the bottom up. The first line you cast is line 1, the bottom line. The sixth line you cast is line 6, the top line. Lines are numbered 1 through 6 from bottom to top. Lines 1–3 form the lower trigram; lines 4–6 form the upper trigram.

You cast six times, once per line, in order.

5. The Yarrow-Stalk Method

Use 50 stalks. Set one aside; it takes no further part. Work with the remaining 49. Each line requires three rounds of counting.

For each round:

Divide the bundle into two heaps, left and right, at random.
Take one stalk from the right heap and place it between the little finger and ring finger of the left hand.
Count off the left heap in fours until four or fewer remain; place that remainder between ring and middle fingers.
Count off the right heap in fours until four or fewer remain; place that remainder between middle and index fingers.
The stalks now held between the fingers total either 9 or 5 in the first round; either 8 or 4 in the second and third rounds.
Set those held stalks aside and gather the counted-off fours back into a bundle for the next round.

After three rounds you have set aside three batches. Score them: the first round's batch counts 3 if it was the larger (9), 2 if the smaller (5); the second and third rounds' batches count 2 if larger (8), 3 if smaller (4). Sum the three scores. The sum is 6, 7, 8, or 9.

6 = old yin (moving) — broken, changing
7 = young yang (stable) — unbroken
8 = young yin (stable) — broken
9 = old yang (moving) — unbroken, changing

Record the line. Repeat the whole three-round process six times, building upward, to fill all six lines.

6. The Three-Coin Method

Faster. Use three coins. Assign one face value 3 and the other value 2. Toss all three together, once per line.

Add the three values. The sum is 6, 7, 8, or 9:

6 (2+2+2) = old yin — moving
7 (3+2+2) = young yang — stable
8 (3+3+2) = young yin — stable
9 (3+3+3) = old yang — moving

Record the line. Toss six times, building from line 1 at the bottom to line 6 at the top.

(Note: the coin method and the yarrow method give the same four outcomes, but at different odds. With coins, old yin and old yang are equally likely. With yarrow, old yin is rarer than old yang. The numbers 6/7/8/9 mean the same thing in both.)

7. Moving Lines and the Second Hexagram

The hexagram you have just built is the first hexagram — the present situation.

Look at which lines are moving (the 6s and 9s, the old yin and old yang). If no line moves, there is only one hexagram; the reading rests there.

If one or more lines move, change each moving line into its opposite:

old yin (6, broken) becomes yang (unbroken)
old yang (9, unbroken) becomes yin (broken)

Young lines (7s and 8s) do not change. Redraw the hexagram with the moving lines flipped. This is the second hexagram (the resultant, or related, hexagram) — where the situation is tending.

8. Taking the Reading

Identify the first hexagram by its upper and lower trigrams; find its number, name, and text. Read its Judgment and Image.
Read the line-statement for each moving line, in order from bottom to top. These speak to what is in motion.
If lines move, read the second hexagram's Judgment and Image as the direction of change — what is coming to be.

Common guidance on emphasis:

No moving lines: read the first hexagram only.
One moving line: that line's statement carries the answer.
Several moving lines: read each, bottom to top; weigh the second hexagram more heavily as their number grows.
All six lines moving: read the second hexagram chiefly (with the special all-moving texts given for Hexagrams 1 and 2).

That is the procedure. Frame the question, cast six lines from the bottom up, note which lines move, derive the second hexagram, and read.