# Text, interpretation, and editorial method

Content prepared 22 September 2026. This is an English reflection experience grounded in the received Zhouyi / I Ching. Its English titles, judgments, suggested actions, and changing-line readings are original contemporary interpretations, **not literal translations**, a critical edition, or evidence of predictive accuracy. The classical Chinese excerpts make the basis of a reading available for comparison.

## Primary text

- [易經, Project Gutenberg ebook 25501](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25501), anonymous ancient text, transcription credited to Winnie Zhou. Released 17 May 2008; listed update 1 July 2021. The catalog identifies the work as public domain in the USA. [UTF-8 text used](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/25501/pg25501.txt).
- [James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East 16, 1899 edition: Hexagram 1 and its notes](https://sacred-texts.com/ich/ic01.htm). This public-domain translation was consulted for line-order conventions, yin/yang line numbers, the distinction between the whole figure and individual lines, and the extra statements for Qian and Kun. [Edition contents](https://sacred-texts.com/ich/).
- [Legge comparison edition, Baharna](https://baharna.com/iching/legge/) and its [hexagram / trigram reference](https://baharna.com/iching/legge/HexagramsQuickReference.htm) were consulted for the sequence and symbolic framework. This site also displays copyrighted modern translations; those translations and the editor's modern apparatus are **not reproduced in this project**.

The primary Chinese text contains all 64 figures and all 384 numbered line statements in the received King Wen order. All English line interpretations were composed with the corresponding Chinese statement in view. This is a source-grounded editorial treatment, not a claim that every ambiguous ancient expression has one settled meaning.

## Chinese excerpts and recorded corrections

`data/classical.mjs` contains each hexagram's 卦辭, its six 爻辭 in bottom-to-top order, and 用九 / 用六 for Qian / Kun. It is a local data file, with no runtime fetch or external AI request. The full source edition is linked above; the data file reproduces the relevant ancient excerpts only.

Four evident transcription problems in Gutenberg were corrected by comparison with the ancient text presented at Wikisource:

| Location | Gutenberg transcription | Reading used | Comparison |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 4, judgment | 初噬告 | 初筮告 | [周易 / 蒙](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/周易/蒙) |
| 18, line 3 | 幹父小有晦 | 幹父之蠱，小有悔 | [周易 / 蠱](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/周易/蠱) |
| 48, line 3 | 為我民惻 | 為我心惻 | [周易 / 井](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/周易/井) |
| 48, line 6 | 有孚無吉 | 有孚元吉 | [周易 / 井](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/周易/井) |

Punctuation is editorial, not part of the earliest text. Two punctuation adjustments prevent misleading divisions: 3 keeps 勿用有攸往 together; 41 puts the question mark after 曷之用. Other wording and character variants follow the Gutenberg witness. These excerpts should not be described as a new critical edition or a facsimile of an original manuscript.

## Names and encoding

- `number` uses the received King Wen sequence, 1–64.
- `name` uses traditional Chinese names. `pinyin` gives the standard Mandarin reading with tone marks; it is not a reconstruction of ancient pronunciation.
- 畜 in 小畜 / 大畜 means accumulation or restraint and is read **xù**. Pronunciation was checked against the Taiwan Ministry of Education's dictionary: [小畜](https://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/dictView.jsp?ID=106936&la=0&powerMode=0) and [畜, xù entry citing 大畜](https://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/dictView.jsp?ID=7326&la=0&powerMode=0).
- `bits` is a six-character **bottom-to-top** string: `1` is a solid yang line; `0` is a broken yin line. It is not a top-to-bottom printed binary integer.
- `lines[0]` / `classicalLines[0]` refer to the bottom line. Index 5 refers to the top line.
- The 六 / 九 labels of the Chinese excerpts independently determine each bit pattern. For example 3 is `100010`, 11 is `111000`, 12 is `000111`, 63 is `101010`, and 64 is `010101`.
- `allChanging` and `classicalAllChanging` exist only on hexagrams 1 and 2. They represent the traditional additional 用九 / 用六 passages, not seventh physical lines.

## Interpretive choices

Each English reading preserves a distinctive image, relationship, or action from its own classical line and then offers a practical way to reflect on it. There is no reused six-position template. For especially brief statements, the reading develops their immediate hexagram context. Titles are original editorial titles chosen for accessible meaning, not quotations from a modern translator.

The main judgment combines the hexagram's central situation with its received symbolic context. The `action` is explicitly a modern practical suggestion, not an additional ancient saying. Across the dataset, judgments contain 23–29 words, actions 17–22, and lines 17–23 at initial verification.

Ancient military, court, marriage, sacrifice, and family imagery is treated as historical metaphor. The modern guidance does not endorse coercive punishment, fixed gender hierarchy, medical non-treatment, or supernatural guarantees. In particular, 25.5 is framed as a metaphor about unnecessary intervention, not advice to avoid treatment. Ancient time periods are not converted into promises that events will occur after a particular number of days or years.

The experience can support reflection and deliberation; a random cast is not empirical evidence about another person's motives, a diagnosis, or a verified forecast. Users remain responsible for decisions and can disagree with a reading.

## Verification

Run from the workspace root:

```sh
node --test site/iching/tests/content.test.mjs
```

Checks cover all 64 sequential identifiers, all 64 unique six-bit patterns, the complete known sequence, six distinct original English lines per entry (384 globally distinct), substantive word-count bounds, full classical fields, agreement between every bit and its classical 六 / 九 label, and the two special all-changing passages. Automated structural checks supplement, rather than replace, editorial reading of the text.

## Three-coin mechanics

The casting interface follows the [three-coin casting and building explanation from UAYA](https://uaya.org/learn/iching/using-the-oracle/casting-techniques/three-coins/casting-and-building/): six casts, recorded bottom to top, with 6/9 as changing lines. The convention used here assigns yin = 2 and yang = 3. Enumerating the eight equally likely three-coin outcomes gives probabilities 1/8, 3/8, 3/8, 1/8 for totals 6, 7, 8, 9. These probabilities are mathematical properties of the implemented coin method, not a prediction-success measure.

Our displayed reading order is primary hexagram, all changing lines bottom to top, then relating hexagram as context. Multiple-line reading conventions differ. We disclose this editorial choice and do not label it the only orthodox selection method. With all six lines changing in Qian or Kun, we additionally show the traditional 用九 or 用六 passage.

## Additional contextual layer — 22 September 2026

`data/contexts.mjs` adds384original English interpretations:64hexagrams, each with six explicitly selected focuses (decision, work, connection, change, timing, self). These are authored from the existing classical-grounded hexagram meanings, not copied from competitor interpretations. Each answers a different practical focus; the original judgment and changing-line statements remain visible as its basis and conditions. This contextual layer is editorial application, not an additional ancient text or a claim to understand all details in a typed question.

The interface uses the visitor’s selected focus, never a hidden inferred diagnosis or private fact. A single changing line is shown beside the opening guidance; multiple changing lines are explicitly signposted there and all are displayed below. This identifies conditions without claiming a new universal rule for synthesizing multiple lines. Structural tests verify384entries and representative caution cases; a second reader sampled66entries from11hexagrams.