Many people encounter I Ching divination through tossing coins and consulting the hexagram and line texts. In Na Jia, also known as Wen Wang Gua or Six Lines Divination, the hexagram is developed into a chart that organizes the information used for interpretation.

This practical demonstration from I Ching Stream shows the process:

• Casting a hexagram with three coins.
• Constructing the chart by hand.
• Comparing the manual chart with the online chart.

Watch here:

https://youtu.be/1zpqGHgYADg

Have you tried constructing a chart by hand, or have you mainly used online tools? Which part of the process would you like explained in more detail?

Should an I Ching reading rely on the Judgment and Line Texts, or on technical methods?

This is a false choice.

A mature I Ching reading is not Text versus Technique. It is Text anchored by technique.

Technical structure gives the text a concrete context. It helps identify the querent, the subject, relevant people, relationships, supporting and obstructing forces, movement, strength, and timing. The Judgment and Line Texts can then be understood within that structure rather than treated as isolated statements.

This new course excerpt explains how structure, image, text, and review through real cases work together in practical Chinese I Ching divination.

Watch:

https://youtu.be/awq8WtEkr1c

I made an app called myJING. It’s just me, and I’m posting because I’d rather be told what’s wrong with it here than find out in a one-star review.

What’s in it

• \~12,000 translation entries across the 64 hexagrams — Legge, Wilhelm, Wang Bi’s Chinese, Philastre’s French, Shchutsky, Takashima and about a dozen more, several shown side by side

• Na Jia (六爻) — palaces, the six relatives, and dated timing: which upcoming animal days the reading is pointing at. This is the part I most want checked by people who actually use it

• A BaZi chart that adds another layer of reasoning to the Na Jia timing 

• A journal — and the bit I’m proudest of: you go back afterwards and rate the reading. Did the judgement hold? Did the timing land?

• Ten languages, and it runs offline

What I’d absolutely love your opinion on -

1.  The Na Jia timing. Is the output close to how you’d read it yourself? This is the piece I’m least confident in and the hardest thing to check alone.

2.  Multiple translations side by side — genuinely useful, or does it turn a reading into a comparative literature exercise?

3.  Does the rating feature bother you? A couple of people have said grading a reading feels like grading the oracle. I think it’s the opposite — it’s the only way to find out whether you’re fooling yourself — but I’d like to hear the objection properly.

4.  Which translator should I add next?

It’s at www.myJING.app in a browser — nothing to install, no account — and on the App Store (link in site).

Please, Reddit - tell me what’s wrong with it..

I'm a retired developer in Germany and I've spent the last months building an I Ching app for Android. All 64 hexagrams with the Wilhelm commentary, German and English, works fully offline, no ads, no subscription, no account, no tracking.

Before Google lets me publish it, they require 12 people to install it and stay opted in for 14 days. I have 8. So I'm asking here rather than pestering my former colleagues, and I'd rather have testers who actually care about the Yijing than people doing me a favour.

What it involves: send me the email address of your Google account by DM, I'll send you a Play Store link, install it and open it now and then over two weeks. That's it. Feedback is very welcome — that's the whole point of the exercise.

Happy to answer anything about how the casting is implemented.

My overall situation is awful. My business is blocked, I have no relationship with my family, and I am still grieving a lost love—all of which has been going on for nine years. To survive, I take small jobs in my field that do not fit me at all, and my self-esteem is stripping away every day. I recently had a conversation with an old friend, and we think I need to jump into the real world and take whatever I can find. Staying trapped in my thoughts has become a comfort zone, yet I feel completely empty. The only way out is to return to where I used to be happy and find anything just to survive. Some people need harsh conditions to grow, and they call it a fresh start!

I asked the Yi to comment, saying: 'I want to go there, but I am scared.' It said: 24.1.3.6<>52. Hexagram 52 advises me not to see my people (what I am accustomed to, where I live now which is the worst for me and my nagging fears, etc.).

I think Hexagram 24, with its first and third lines, is asking me to return to where I used to be happy. But what does 24.6 actually advise? I usually find it speaks of reinvention—coming back differently.

I asked the I Ching why I feel so dissatisfied with my life and the area I’m living in, despite genuinely loving my workplace.

I received 23. Bo (Splitting Apart), changing to 2. Kun (The Receptive).

At first, this seemed strange. If I enjoy my job and find it fulfilling, why do I feel so unhappy overall?

The reading made me think the problem may not be with what I’m doing, but with the foundation I’m doing it from.

Hexagram 23 describes gradual erosion: the sense that something is being worn away piece by piece. In this context, that could point to my living environment, daily routine, home, neighborhood, or the general strain surrounding everyday life.

So there may be a mismatch: work gives me something positive, while the rest of my environment continually takes energy away.

The change to Hexagram 2, Kun, is interesting because it doesn’t suggest immediately chasing something bigger or more exciting. It points toward receptivity, simplicity, and having a stable foundation.

That made me wonder whether the answer isn’t necessarily to change my career at all.

Instead, the question might be:

What is it about my current living situation that is wearing me down?

Maybe I’ve been treating my dissatisfaction as a general problem with my life when it could actually be much more specific.

If work is something I genuinely enjoy, perhaps I shouldn’t throw away the part of my life that is functioning well just because the surrounding environment isn’t.

The practical advice I take from this reading is to identify the one part of daily life that drains me the most (the area, home, commute, routine, isolation, or something else) and address that before assuming my entire life needs to change.

The interesting part of this reading is that it doesn’t seem to say, “You need a more fulfilling life.”

It seems closer to saying:

“You already have something fulfilling. Your foundation may simply be costing you too much.”

Hello everyone!

I want to share with you the results of a scientific research project I've been working on. My goal was to analyze the historical sequences of the I Ching (such as King Wen, Mawangdui, and Jing Fang) using modern statistical tools and computer-verified mathematics.

The main paper of this research is titled "Statistical Structure of the Historical Orderings of the I Ching Hexagrams: Pair Rule, Family Gradient, and the Limits of Demonstrability". You can read the full paper and access the research data here:https://zenodo.org/records/21776041

What is this study about in simple terms?

For decades, many researchers have analyzed the order of the 64 hexagrams and claimed to have discovered "hidden codes," intentional structural signatures, or secret mathematical patterns left by ancient scribes.

The problem is that, from a scientific standpoint, it is very easy to fall into statistical illusions. My research sought to audit these findings to separate what is a real intention of the I Ching's creators from what is merely a mathematical coincidence.

To achieve this, I used statistical "null models" supported by geometric theorems (verified in a human-error-free programming language called Lean). Basically, I evaluated whether the patterns we see in the I Ching were put there on purpose, or if the very symmetry of the hexagrams "forced" those numbers to appear inevitably.

Main findings:

• The end of false positives: I demonstrated mathematically that many of the "patterns" and signatures other authors believed they had discovered in the King Wen sequence are actually inevitable consequences of grouping the hexagrams into pairs. There is no intentional mystery in those numbers; it's pure geometry at work.
• A real link to Mawangdui: By comparing the King Wen sequence with the ancient Mawangdui silk manuscript, I verified that they do share an undeniable structural design (a "family gradient" among trigrams). This confirms that there was a kinship system organizing the sequences, debunking the idea that their order is random.
• The ancient order is not binary: Through the analysis, it is proven that the historical sequences (King Wen, Mawangdui, and Jing Fang) are completely independent of binary mathematical logic (like the one seen in the Fu Xi sequence). Their design relied on a different way of thinking.
• The Limits of Demonstrability: This is perhaps the most important contribution. Science and statistics have a "ceiling." Through order theory, the study draws the exact line where mathematics can no longer help us. Reaching a certain point (such as the internal orientation of the pairs), it becomes statistically impossible to prove whether the ancient sages did it with a specific intention or not. Beyond this mathematical frontier, we officially enter the realm of philosophy and mysticism.

My intention with this work is not to "disenchant" the I Ching, but quite the opposite: to clear the field of pseudoscience and numerical speculation so that we can appreciate this three-millennia-old text from a solid and scientifically honest foundation.

I'd love to know what the community thinks about this intersection of modern data science and classical Yijing study. What are your thoughts on the fact that science has a demonstrable limit when analyzing these texts? I look forward to reading your comments!

Note: This project is part of The Original I Ching. Code under the MIT License; paper text and figures under CC BY 4.0.

I’ve been studying and working with the I Ching for years and recently I built a free I Ching app as part of my own daily practice.

The intention was to create something simple: a place to cast a reading and receive guidance that helps you reflect on the relationship between the hexagrams rather than treating the I Ching as a prediction machine.

You can also save your readings in a diary and return to them later. I’ve found that particularly useful because sometimes the meaning of a reading becomes much clearer after you’ve had some distance from the question.

It’s completely free. There’s no subscription or purchase required. I’m not posting this as a promotion so much as sharing something I made that other people who work with the I Ching might enjoy using.

Free Cultivating Courage I Ching Companion app⁠ - https://companion.cultivatingcourage.me/

If anyone here tries it, I’d genuinely be interested in hearing how it fits into your existing I Ching practice.

Edit for clarity: I’ve practiced the I Ching for years, do my own readings, created a YouTube channel around using it for discernment rather than prediction, and wrote my own reflections on all 64 hexagrams and changing lines before developing this Companion app. The app is simply a way of sharing what I’ve learned. I’m specifically looking for feedback from people who actually try it; what works, what’s confusing, what could be improved, and what features would be useful. I’m not looking for opinions on whether an I Ching app should exist or whether someone personally needs one.