易经

The Zhou Changes has two parts. The classic proper is the judgment and line statements of the sixty-four hexagrams, and is very old; the commentaries are ten later texts explaining it, known together as the Ten Wings. Almost every branch of Chinese metaphysics traces back here, but each draws on a different layer: the image-and-number school takes the hexagram figures and numerical structure, the meaning-and-principle school takes the philosophy.

This is the largest category in the library and the widest in range, from Han dynasty image-and-number scholarship through the Song diagram tradition to Qing evidential studies. The same line statement can land in completely different places depending on the commentator, and reading several side by side shows where the disagreements actually lie.

How to read this branch

If your interest is practical divination, start with the hexagram and line statements and the Shuo Gua account of the trigram images. If it is philosophical, start with the Great Treatise.

易经

How to read this branch

Charting guides