King Wen
King Wen: Founder of the Zhou Dynasty (~1100 BC). Believed to have arranged the 64 hexagrams and written the judgment text for each.
Related Terms
Fu Xi
The mythological Chinese emperor who according to legend discovered the trigrams. Believed to have created the eight basic trigrams by observing patterns in nature.
Line Text
The texts containing individual interpretations of each of the six lines in a hexagram. Only the changing lines' texts are read, providing specific guidance.
Image Text
The text describing the nature image derived from each hexagram's two trigrams. Advises how the superior person (junzi) should behave in this situation.
Judgment Text
The text containing the main interpretation of each hexagram. These short paragraphs attributed to King Wen summarize the situation's general meaning and advice.
Art of Questioning
The practice of asking the right question to the I Ching. Open-ended questions like 'What do I need to be aware of?' are preferred over 'What should I do?'
Yarrow Stalk Method
The traditional I Ching consultation method using 50 yarrow stalks. A slower and more meditative process with different changing line probabilities.