How to keep an I Ching journal (with a template)

An I Ching journal is a written record of every cast: the question, the date, the hexagram and its moving lines, what you made of it at the time, and what actually happened. Keeping one is the single most effective way to get better at reading the book, because it lets you compare your interpretation with the way the situation unfolded. All you need is a notebook or a text file and a few minutes after each reading.

Why write readings down at all

The Great Treatise (繫辭傳) describes two ways of living with the book: 「君子居則觀其象而玩其辭，動則觀其變而玩其占」 — at rest, the superior person contemplates the images and turns over the words; in action, watches the changes and turns over the oracle. A journal serves both. When you cast, it fixes the question and the answer before memory starts tidying them. When you are not casting, it gives you something to "turn over": your own past readings, in your own situations.

There are three practical gains:

• Honesty. Memory edits. A month later most people remember the reading that fitted and forget the one that did not. A dated entry cannot be edited by hindsight.
• Better questions. Seeing your questions in a row shows how often they were vague, double-barrelled or really about someone else. That is the fastest route to asking better questions.
• A personal commentary. Over time you collect your own notes on Hexagram 29, Kan or Hexagram 52, Gen: not what a translator says, but what those situations looked like in your life.

What to record

Write the entry before you look anything up, then complete it as you read. Keep the fields the same every time so entries can be compared.

• Date and time. Also note anything that frames the moment: before a meeting, after an argument, late at night.
• The question, word for word. Exactly as you held it while casting. If you rephrased it halfway through, write both versions.
• Background in two or three sentences. What is going on, what you hope for, what you fear. This is the part you will most want later.
• Method. Coins, yarrow stalks or an online cast. If you use three coins, record the six numbers bottom to top (for example 7, 8, 9, 7, 8, 8), not just the hexagram. The numbers are the raw data.
• Primary hexagram, moving lines, changed hexagram. Number and name of each, and which lines moved.
• Which text you treated as the answer. The Judgment, a particular line, the changed hexagram. If you follow Zhu Xi's rules for several moving lines, note which rule applied (the changing lines guide sets them out).
• Your reading. In your own words, in a few sentences: what the cast seems to say about the situation and about your conduct in it. Avoid copying the translation; paraphrase forces you to commit to a meaning.
• One action or attitude. What, if anything, you intend to do differently.
• Outcome (filled in later). Leave space. Come back in a week, a month, or when the matter resolves, and write what happened and how the reading looks now.

A template you can copy

Paste this at the top of each entry:

• Date / time:
• Question (exact words):
• Background:
• Method and line values (bottom to top):
• Primary hexagram and moving lines:
• Changed hexagram:
• Text I read as the answer:
• My reading:
• What I will do or keep in mind:
• Review date:
• Outcome and second look:

A filled-in example (the situation is invented): a Tuesday evening after overtime; the question "Should I take on a third project?"; background, two projects already, a manager asking, tiredness; coins giving 8, 8, 7, 8, 8, 7, which is Hexagram 52, Gen with no moving lines; the text taken as the answer is the Great Image, 「兼山，艮；君子以思不出其位」, the superior person does not let their thoughts go beyond their position; the reading, stop where stopping is due and do the work already in hand well; the action, discuss the current workload with the manager before deciding; review in a month.

Keep the "Outcome" field honest and short. "Nothing much happened" is a valid outcome; so is "I misread line 4 as about money when it was about pride".

How to review it

A journal only teaches you if you read it again. A light routine works better than an ambitious one.

• When a matter resolves, go back to its entry and fill in the outcome the same day.
• Once a month, read the month's entries in one sitting. Note which readings you would now interpret differently and why.
• Once or twice a year, look for patterns across many entries: which hexagrams recur, which kinds of question you ask most, where your first interpretation tended to be too hopeful or too gloomy.

When you re-read, read the original text again too, not just your notes. A line that seemed obscure in the moment often becomes plain once you know what followed, and that is exactly how the classical commentators built up their understanding: by reading a situation alongside the words.

What the patterns teach you

Readers who keep journals tend to notice the same things.

• Your habits of interpretation. Some people consistently read warnings as catastrophes; others read every 吉 (good fortune) as a promise. Seeing ten entries side by side makes the bias visible.
• What kind of answer the book gives. It describes situations and the conduct that suits them far more often than it names outcomes. A journal shows this quickly, which is why it is a good antidote to treating the book as a prediction machine.
• Recurring hexagrams. If the same figure keeps returning, the journal lets you check whether the situations really are alike before reading meaning into it. See when the same hexagram keeps appearing.
• How often you consult. A page full of casts on one matter in one week is a signal in itself. The Judgment of Hexagram 4, Meng says 「初筮告，再三瀆，瀆則不告」: the first consultation informs; asking again and again is importunate, and the importunate are not told. The journal makes repeat asking easy to spot (more in asking the same question twice and how often to consult).

Practical tips

• Keep it in one place. A single notebook or one file beats scattered notes. Whatever tool you cast with, a note in your own words is worth writing.
• Date the outcome separately from the original entry, so you always know what you knew when.
• Record readings that felt wrong. These are often the most instructive entries a year later.
• Keep it private. Entries are candid when no one else will read them, and candour is what makes them useful.

Using this with your next cast

Before your next reading, open a new entry and write the date, the question and the background. Cast, record the line values, then read the primary hexagram, the moving lines and the changed hexagram. Write your reading in three sentences and one intended action. Set a review date. When it arrives, read the entry and the original text again, and write down what you see now. After a dozen entries you will be reading the book more steadily, and more like yourself.