金钱课 · jīn qián kè
Coin Oracle
Six throws of three coins build one of the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching. Some lines are old and turn into their opposite — those turns produce a second hexagram, which is where the situation is heading. Everything runs in your browser.
New to the I Ching? All sixty-four hexagrams, in order, each with a one-line reading. The throws themselves are explained step by step in how to cast the coin oracle.
What the four numbers mean
Coins first, reading secondEach coin is worth three for heads and two for tails. Three coins therefore add up to one of four values, and each value draws one line of the hexagram.
Chinese sources name the two sides the other way round: the blank side (背) counts three and the inscribed side (字) counts two. It is the same scheme — three of the three-value side is an old yang line — so if you compare this page with a Chinese text, expect heads and 背 to line up, not heads and 字. We say heads and tails because that is what a coin in your pocket actually has.
- 6 — three tails. Old yin: a broken line that changes into a solid one.
- 7 — one head, two tails. Young yang: a solid line that stays as it is.
- 8 — two heads, one tail. Young yin: a broken line that stays as it is.
- 9 — three heads. Old yang: a solid line that changes into a broken one.
Old lines are a one-in-eight chance each, so any single line is old one time in four — and a cast of six lines therefore has no changing lines at all only about one time in six. When there are none, the hexagram is the whole answer. When there are some, the second hexagram shows where it is going. The full arithmetic is in how to cast the coin oracle.