I Ching Reference
The 64 Hexagrams
Every hexagram in the Book of Changes — from The Creative (1) to Before Completion (64). Click any hexagram for its judgment, six lines, and modern interpretations for love, career and decisions.
The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is built on exactly sixty-four hexagrams — every possible six-line figure made from yang and yin. Each hexagram is assembled from two three-line trigrams, so its meaning grows out of the interaction between an upper and a lower force: heaven over earth, thunder over wind, water over fire. This page gathers all sixty-four in the classical King Wen sequence, the order Confucian tradition has used for more than two thousand years, beginning with Qian, The Creative, and closing with Wei Ji, Before Completion.
Every hexagram below opens into a full reading. You get the original Chinese judgment and its modern English interpretation, the six individual line texts, and any changing lines that arise from your coin toss. Changing lines are the heart of a moving reading: they mark the exact lines shifting from yang to yin or the reverse, and they transform your primary hexagram into a second one, showing where the situation is heading as well as where it stands.
Whether you are studying the sequence, comparing related pairs, or looking up a reading you have just cast, start here and follow any hexagram to its full interpretation.
How the 64 Hexagrams Are Organized
The hexagrams follow the King Wen sequence, the traditional order established in the early Zhou dynasty. Each hexagram is built from two trigrams — a lower and an upper — each representing one of the eight natural forces (heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain, lake). Together they describe the energy of a situation.
The sequence runs 1 to 64 and is worth reading as a narrative rather than a lookup table. It opens with pure creative force (1 Qian) and pure receptivity (2 Kun), works through difficulty, instruction, conflict and harmony, and reaches a middle section concerned with family, structure and social position. The last eight hexagrams turn inward. They end with 63 Ji Ji, After Completion, and 64 Wei Ji, Before Completion — a deliberate pair that closes the book mid-sentence, warning that a sincere person can still overshoot by one step.
Each hexagram page here gives you the original Chinese judgment, a modern English interpretation, all six lines read individually, a translation note explaining where common English renderings go wrong, readings for love, career, decision and health, and the hexagram each changing line transforms into.
If you are new to the book, start with how to read the I Ching — the coin method, what changing lines mean, and the eight trigrams.
Hexagrams by Position in the Sequence
The King Wen order is a reading path, and knowing where a hexagram sits helps you anticipate its register. The first thirty-two are the becoming half of the book.
Beginnings and Formation
The Creative, The Receptive, Difficulty, Youthful Folly, Waiting, Conflict, The Army, Holding Together, Small Taming, Treading, Peace, Standstill, Fellowship, Progress and Moderation. This is where things get started, held back, negotiated and stabilised.
Influence and Duration
Following, Guiding, Deduction, Oppression, Grace, Splitting Apart, The Abysmal, The Gentle, The Joyous and Dissolving. Position, teaching, influence, and whether any of it lasts.
Retreat and Power
Retreating, The Power of the Great, Progression, Darkening of the Light, The Family, Opposition, Limitation, Inner Truth, Preponderance of the Great, Discernment and Innocence. Withdrawal, authority, and the discipline of holding a line.
Reshaping and Completion
The Cauldron, The Arousing, Keeping Still, Development, The Marrying Maiden, Abundance, The Wanderer, The Gentle, Joy, Dissolving, The Clinging and Completion. Breaking something open in order to build it properly, and the warnings that follow.
Start by casting your own hexagram for free, or browse the list above to study a specific one.