The I Ching or the Yi Jing 易經, also called ‘The Book of Changes’, is apocalyptic in the sense of revelation or divination; it defines the hexagram and outfits it with advice which prophesies fortune and misfortune, well-being and calamity; it dismisses people’s doubts, enlightens people’s wisdom and guides people to make correct decisions and to take correct action. During the past millennia in China, no matter if it was a king’s scheme to manage the country or an ordinary commoner’s concerns in respect to his household affairs, the I Ching provided instruction to all of them without discrimination.

The hexagram was originally used for divination; it is alleged that it was invented by Fu Xi 伏羲 (a legendary Chinese ruler credited with introduction of farming, fishing and animal husbandry). In the beginning, it existed only in the form of symbols and lasted for thousands of years. The hexagram mainly presents the various phenomena through the images displayed by those symbols and people are enlightened by virtue of these phenomena.

Actually the text of the I Ching known to us nowadays should be called Zhou Yi 周易: the Yi of Dynasty Zhou, before it was integrated with Confucius’s remarks and paraphrased in accordance with Confucian thought and code of conduct. Yi, the Chinese character 易 is a combination of the sun 日 and the moon 月; it is an association between the masculine and the feminine. It is alleged that the text of its 64-hexagram was defined in writing by Zhou Wen Wang 周文王* (a duke and the father of King Wu of Zhou 周武王 who was the founder of Dynasty Zhou approx. 1120 B.C. to 770 B.C.) when he was imprisoned by King Zhou 紂 at You Li 羑里, and the text of each line was defined in writing by Zhou Gong Dan 周公旦* (another son of Zhou Wen Wang) after the Zhou dynasty was established. Due Zhou Yi being accomplished in the era of turmoil, it is teeming with texts of cautioning mankind against impending disasters and advice of how to pursue fortune and evade misfortune. Apart from Zhou Yi, it is alleged that there were another two versions: Lian Shan Yi 連山易 and Gui Cang Yi 歸藏易, but both had been out of print**.

Confucius 孔子 (551 B.C. to 479 B.C.) started to study Zhou Yi after he was fifty years old. He engaged himself in exposition and argumentation till he passed away at the age of seventy-three. As Confucius put his thoughts into Zhou Yi, the I Ching thereafter became a kind of philosophy for life, i.e. a conduct code from self-cultivation to household management, from administering the government to pacifying the word. It has dominated the mode and the trend of the Chinese society till now.

The following commentaries were allegedly composed by Confucius*. They provide guidance for Chinese intellectuals in studying and using the I Ching. Totally there are seven commentaries expressed in ten parts, and they are called ten wings.

Xu Gua Zhuan 序卦傳 (the commentary on the sequence of 64-hexagram.): It is to explain the sequence of 64-hexagram and the cause behind one hexagram coming after another.

Tuan Zhuan 彖傳 (the commentary on the hexagram text): According to volume one and two of the I Ching’s text, it is divided into two sections. Tuan in Chinese signifies ‘to bite off’, in other words, ‘to clinch a deal’. It is to explain the name, the phenomenon and the text of each hexagram, it also includes some remarks made by Confucius.

Xiang Zhuan 象傳 (the commentary on the image): It is divided into two sections as well, and made individually for each hexagram and each line. The phenomenon advice of the hexagram is to give advice on how a person should behave himself in accordance with the images presented by the hexagram. The phenomenon advice of the line is mainly to explain the cause or result of the line in question according to its presenting characteristics.

Xi Ci Zhuan 繫詞傳 (the commentary on the text tagging): It is also divided into two sections: It explains the doctrine and the principles of the I Ching, and praises the profoundness and the great value of the I Ching.

Wen Yan 文言 (the additional remarks of the hexagram Chien and Kun): Chien and Kun are the threshold hexagrams, from which all the other 62 hexagrams evolve. Therefore additional remarks are given to these two hexagrams and each line.

Shuo Gua Zhuan 說卦傳 (the commentary on the trigram): The text stems from the images presented by the trigram and the characteristics possessed by the line. Shuo Gua Zhuan is the referential material, which describes the image of each trigram.

Za Gua Zhuan 雜卦傳 (the commentary on the coupled hexagrams): It manifests the hexagram feature by comparing two reversed or changed hexagrams.

The I Ching’s study in general is categorized into two major groups. One is to study its meaning and code of conduct, while the other is to study its images and characteristics (i.e. the virtue and the capability of the line, the interrelationship between the lines). They can be studied independently but most often they are used for counter proofs.

The I Ching is one of the nine books 四書五經 used by the imperial examination in ancient China. It had been particularly prevailing during the Ming dynasty (1368 A.C. to 1644 A.C.) due to the concept of loyalty to the king. The I Ching also reflects some traditional relationships between the male and the female in China, especially male superiority and female inferiority. While these aspects may be out of date, when we view the current social structure, i.e. the company and the individual, the gentleman and the villain, its norms can still be applied to our daily life.

It is alleged that in the time period of the Han dynasty (206 B.C. to 220 A.C.), the concept of the ‘five elements’ (i.e. metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) was adopted. Wen Wang Gua 文王卦 (the hexagram of Wen Wang) was thus developed afterward, and gradually other Chinese fortune-telling methods were created accordingly.

General speaking, the hexagrams nowadays used for divination are mainly divided into three systems, the two conventional ones are either to explain the divination in accordance with the text of the I Ching, or to explain based on the image of the trigram and the line characteristics; the third one is Wen Wang Gua which converts all the lines into the five elements and explains their mutual reactions.

In addition to the conduct code and the divination, the I Ching is also widely applied to Chinese daily life, from architecture to medicine etc. For instance, in the most famous Forbidden City in Beijing, all the roofs are in yellow while the book storing house is in black; this is because yellow is the color of the axle center, and the reason to use black for the book house is that black is the color of water, i.e. it protects the house from fire. With regard to medication, the method to deal with each organ is based on its inherent quality; for instance, the heart refers to fire, it is forbidden to take ginseng (a plant used to enhance health by warming the internal body system) for a person who has hypertension, and so forth.

There are many papers that discuss the I Ching or the hexagram, regarding its principles and applications. This e-book mainly aims to give the reader a basic but very clear understanding of what the I Ching means from the viewpoint of Confucianism, from the explanation of the image and the line characteristics, and from some relevant background stories in those particular times as well as reference materials of divination. By virtue of these, the reader is able to savor the immense wisdom of the I Ching.

Remarks*: To say it more precisely, Zhou Yi and ten wings are collective works; Zhou Wen Wang, Zhou Gong Dan and Confucius may be regarded as the representative features of these creations.

Remarks**: The inscription of the hexagrams at the bamboo slip unearthed from pre-Qin tomb at  WangJiaTai, Hubei Province, China, in 1993 has proved the existence of Cui Cang Yi.