Online I Ching
Online I Ching
About Online I Ching
How three coins become one line
In the traditional three-coin method each coin counts three for its yang face and two for its yin face, so one throw totals six, seven, eight, or nine. Six and eight give a yin line, seven and nine give a yang line. Six throws stack from the bottom up into the six lines of a hexagram, which is why the first throw sits at the bottom of the figure rather than the top.
Why there are exactly sixty-four hexagrams
Each of the six lines is either yin or yang, which gives two to the sixth power, or sixty-four, possible figures. Every hexagram is also read as two trigrams stacked together, with the lower three lines below and the upper three above, which is where names such as Water over Thunder come from. The set is fixed and public: this tool draws from it rather than writing anything new.
What the result does and does not say
The result shows the hexagram figure, its traditional name, and one sentence describing what that hexagram has long been taken to stand for. The sentence is about the hexagram, not about you: it does not judge your situation, weigh your options, or tell you what to do. That is a deliberate boundary, and it is the same one used for the fortune-slip and moon-block tools here.
Your question stays on this page
The optional question is a private note shown while the page is open. It is not written to browser storage, sent to a server, added to analytics, or placed on a share card. Reloading the page clears it, and nothing about the cast is kept after you leave.
FAQ
Common questions and answers about this topic.
How does online I Ching work here?
You cast three coins six times. Each throw produces one line, and the six lines stack from the bottom up into a hexagram. The tool then shows which of the sixty-four hexagrams you built, along with its name and one sentence on what it traditionally stands for.
Why six throws, and what is a line?
A line is one horizontal stroke in the figure: unbroken for yang, broken for yin. A hexagram is made of six of them, so it takes six throws. They are counted from the bottom, so the first throw becomes the bottom line and the sixth becomes the top.
Does this tool handle changing lines and a second hexagram?
No. In the full traditional method, throws totalling six or nine are old lines that flip and produce a second hexagram, so one reading yields two figures. This tool deliberately stops at the first hexagram and says so rather than quietly leaving it out. If you follow the changing-line practice, the coin totals shown for each throw are enough to work it out yourself.
Where does the randomness come from?
Each throw is drawn on your device from the browser's cryptographic random number generator, choosing one of the eight equally likely coin combinations. Those eight give the traditional split of one in eight for six, three in eight for seven, three in eight for eight, and one in eight for nine, so yin and yang lines each come up half the time. If secure randomness is unavailable the tool reports an error rather than falling back to a weaker source.
Is my question stored or uploaded?
No. It stays only in the memory of the open page, and is excluded from browser storage, servers, analytics, and share cards. Reloading clears it.
How is this different from the moon blocks and fortune slip tools?
Moon blocks answer a yes-or-no question in a single cast with three possible results. The fortune slip draws one of seven fortune levels for the day and has nothing specific to ask about. This tool takes six throws to build one figure out of a fixed set of sixty-four, and gives back a hexagram rather than a yes, a no, or a fortune level.