Download i-ching-10.hqx (509,536 KB)
From: dcoshel@pobox.com
Subject: I Ching 1.0
I am releasing a version of this program again, because nobody sings the
simple songs any more.
This is a REFERENCE EDITION of the elementary three-coin I Ching toss.
This is not my personal algorithm; it is the method explicitly detailed by
James Legge -- provided you can follow his tortured evasions as a Christian
missionary describing heathen ritual as obscurely as possible. Doubters
may find exactly the same method presented more clearly in the
Wilhelm/Baynes translation published by Princeton University Press. John
Blofeld's method is acceptable, but strictly speaking incorrect (he
reverses the values of heads and tails tosses).
This I Ching contains no graphics, and none of the explanatory text (to
avoid copyright problems). Use it with any copy of the book. I use
Wilhelm/Baynes' translation of the hexagram names.
The program fairly represents the 3-coins method of consulting the I Ching.
The random number generator is quite good -- keyboard latency ensures the
coins are "flipped" by user interaction! -- and the algorithm which records
the coin tosses is spot-on correct: Three coins decide a line: Heads is 3,
tails is 2, and you add them up.
A toss of 8 is a broken, YIN line, -- --.
A toss of 7 is a solid, YANG line, -----.
A toss of 9 is a CHANGING YANG line, --o--.
A toss of 6 is a CHANGING YIN line, --x--.
The tosses decide a hexagram from the lowest line upwards to the sixth.
This is how it's done. No kidding.
The fully-determined and decided hexagram is then drawn from the top down.