How to Read Changing Lines in the I Ching: Zhu Xi's Seven Rules
Where the problem lies
A hexagram has one judgment and six line statements, and the resulting hexagram has seven texts of its own. Which one are you actually supposed to read after casting? The text of the Zhouyi itself does not say. The Zuozhuan ("Zuo Commentary") and the Guoyu ("Discourses of the States") record more than twenty yarrow-stalk divinations from the Spring and Autumn period, and their ways of choosing the text are not uniform.
Zhu Xi of the Southern Song drew on these recorded cases and, in the chapter "Examining the Changes in Divination" (Kao Bianzhan) of his Yixue Qimeng ("Introduction to the Study of the Changes"), laid down seven rules according to the number of changing lines. Most of the reading methods in common use since then follow them, and so does this site.
The seven rules
| Changing lines | What to read | Which governs |
|---|---|---|
| None | The judgment of the primary hexagram | — |
| One | The line statement of that changing line in the primary hexagram | — |
| Two | The line statements of the two changing lines in the primary hexagram | The upper of the two lines governs |
| Three | The judgment of the primary hexagram and the judgment of the resulting hexagram | The primary hexagram is zhen (贞, governing); the resulting hexagram is hui (悔, supporting) |
| Four | The line statements of the two unchanging lines in the resulting hexagram | The lower of the two lines governs |
| Five | The line statement of the one unchanging line in the resulting hexagram | — |
| Six | For Qian (Heaven), read "All nines" (用九); for Kun (Earth), read "All sixes" (用六); for every other hexagram, read the judgment of the resulting hexagram | For Qian and Kun, the judgment of the resulting hexagram supports |
The logic is the same throughout. With few changing lines, the matter is still within the situation of the primary hexagram, so read the primary hexagram. With more than half the lines changing, the situation has already moved over to the resulting hexagram, so read the resulting hexagram. With exactly three changing lines, it is half and half, so read both judgments together.
For three changing lines Zhu Xi makes a finer division still: with three lines changing, each hexagram can turn into twenty others, and in the order he arranged them, "the first ten give the lead to zhen, the last ten give the lead to hui". For the first ten, the judgment of the primary hexagram carries more weight; for the last ten, the judgment of the resulting hexagram does. This site keeps it simple: the primary hexagram always governs and the resulting hexagram supports.
Examples
Suppose you throw 6, 9, 6, 7, 7, 8 (from the bottom line to the top line). The first, second and third lines all change; the primary hexagram is Kun (Exhaustion) and the resulting hexagram is Ge (Revolution). With three changing lines, read the judgment of Kun (Exhaustion) as the governing text and the judgment of Ge (Revolution) in support. On this site the page for this cast is /g/696778.
Suppose instead you throw 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 7. Only one line changes, the Nine in the fifth place; the primary hexagram is Qian (Heaven) and the resulting hexagram is Dayou (Great Possession). Read just this one text: Nine in the fifth place of Qian (Heaven), "A dragon flying in the sky".
Other approaches
Zhu Xi's method is not the only one. The modern scholar Gao Heng worked out a separate calculation, based on the number of the Great Expansion, to find "the line that ought to change". The popular six-line najia method (the Huozhulin or "Fire Pearl Forest" method) does not rely mainly on the judgments and line statements at all; it attaches the stems and branches, the six relations, and the "self" and "response" lines to the hexagram and reads from those. Whichever school you use, settle on it first. Do not pick one after you have seen the result.
For what the primary, resulting and nuclear hexagrams each mean, see What are the primary, resulting and nuclear hexagrams?.