I Ching
The ancient Chinese divination classic. Tradition credits legendary figures such as Fuxi and King Wen; its actual formation was gradual and its authors are unknown.
- Original byline
- Anonymous
- Published
- Date not recorded
- Form
- Other works
- Authorship
- Still unknown
- Reason for anonymity
- Unrecorded
- Copyright
- Public domain
- Reference
- Wikipedia · Wikidata
The authorship story
The I Ching, or Book of Changes, grew from Western Zhou divination practice into the foundational classic of Chinese cosmology, read and commented on continuously for some three thousand years. Tradition assigns its layers to culture heroes: the trigrams to Fuxi, the hexagram texts to King Wen and the Duke of Zhou, the commentaries to Confucius. These are traditional attributions to legendary or semi-legendary figures, not documented authorship, and modern scholarship treats the text as the cumulative product of unnamed diviners and scribes across centuries. The most consulted book of Chinese antiquity has no author anyone can name.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote I Ching?
Nobody knows. No author for I Ching has been identified in the documented record.
Can I read I Ching for free?
Yes. I Ching is in the public domain and the full text is free to read at the Internet Archive.
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- Still unknown
Book of Caverns
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Book of the Dead
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- Still unknown
Book of the Earth
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