TL;DR: Tradition credits Fu Xi with drawing the eight trigrams, King Wen and the Duke of Zhou with the judgments and line texts, and Confucius with the Ten Wings. This is an authorship tradition, level C evidence, not a proven event. Modern scholarship at level A holds that the classic Zhouyi was compiled in the late Western Zhou, not by one sage, and excavated manuscripts such as Shangbo, Fuyang and Wangjiatai show the text circulated in multiple variants before it stabilized.
Short answer: an authorship tradition, not a chronicle
The question "who wrote the I Ching" has two different answers, and both are correct in their own way. Chinese tradition credits Fu Xi with drawing the eight trigrams, King Wen and the Duke of Zhou with the judgments and line texts, and Confucius with the Ten Wings. This is historical material about what people believed, level C under the evidence classification. Modern linguistic and archaeological research, at level A, holds that the classic Zhouyi was compiled in the late Western Zhou, not written by one sage, and that the text passed through centuries of transmission before it stabilized.
What does tradition say about the authorship of the I Ching?
Tradition assigns authorship layer by layer. James Legge, in his translation The Sacred Books of the East, volume 16, recorded this traditional view when he rendered the I Ching into English. By tradition, the first layer is the eight single trigrams and the sixty-four doubled hexagrams, created by Fu Xi. The second layer is the judgments and line texts, composed by King Wen and his son the Duke of Zhou in the eleventh century BCE. The third layer is seven writings from the fifth to the second century BCE, divided into ten parts and therefore called the Ten Wings, which tradition attributes to Confucius.
Tze-Ki Hon, in his overview in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, states that tradition credits Fu Xi with creating the eight trigrams and the sixty-four doubled hexagrams, King Wen and the Duke of Zhou with composing the judgments and line texts in the eleventh century BCE, and the seven writings from the fifth to the second century BCE, divided into ten parts, as the Ten Wings[1]. Hon also notes that by 135 BCE the classic and the Ten Wings were combined into the complete text as we know it today[1].
A clear distinction is needed: an authorship tradition is a kind of historical material about the beliefs and conventions of a culture. It is not evidence that those people actually wrote those parts. Modern scholarship does not treat the chain Fu Xi, King Wen, the Duke of Zhou, Confucius as proven. Even so, it should not be called a "false myth". It is an authorship tradition with important cultural and religious functions in Chinese history.
What do language and bronze-script evidence say?
Edward L. Shaughnessy, in his 1983 doctoral dissertation at Stanford University, analyzed the language of the classic Zhouyi and concluded that the text was compiled in the late Western Zhou, not written by a sage author. The linguistic analysis shows that the style and vocabulary of the classic match the late Western Zhou period, not the legendary eras of Fu Xi or King Wen.
Richard Rutt, in his 1996 translation The Book of Changes (Zhouyi): A Bronze Age Document, reads the classic as a Bronze Age document. Rutt separates the original text layer from later commentary layers, and shows that the judgments and line texts carry the features of Bronze Age divination texts, not of a philosophical work written by a sage at a single moment.
These analyses do not deny the value of the I Ching as a philosophical text. They only show that the classic, the oldest textual layer, originates in Western Zhou divination practice and was compiled over generations rather than within one lifetime.
What do the excavated manuscripts show about the I Ching?
Edward L. Shaughnessy, in his 2014 book Unearthing the Changes: Recently Discovered Manuscripts of the Yi Jing (I Ching) and Related Texts, presents the major excavated manuscripts of the I Ching and related texts. Three notable excavated manuscripts are the Shangbo, Fuyang and Wangjiatai versions. These differ from the received text in many points of hexagram order, the writing of hexagram names, and the content of the line texts.
Hon also mentions these excavated manuscripts when presenting the divinatory origin of the I Ching[1]. The important point is that the excavated manuscripts show the I Ching text circulated in multiple variants for centuries before stabilizing into the received text we know today. If the I Ching had been written by one sage at one moment, it would be hard to explain why so many different variants exist.
The table below summarizes the main excavated manuscripts and their features.
| Excavated manuscript | Main features | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shangbo | Differs from the received text in hexagram order and the writing of hexagram names | Presented in Shaughnessy 2014 |
| Fuyang | Differs from the received text in the content of the line texts | Presented in Shaughnessy 2014 |
| Wangjiatai | Differs from the received text in hexagram order | Presented in Shaughnessy 2014 |
From divination book to philosophical classic: the image-number and meaning-principle lines
Hon states that the I Ching has three main approaches in the history of commentary: the cosmological approach, the humanistic rational approach, and the divinatory approach[1]. The cosmological approach, typified by Han commentators such as Jing Fang (77 to 37 BCE), reorganized hexagram order to match cosmic rhythms, producing the Eight Palaces arrangement[1]. The humanistic rational approach, typified by Wang Bi (226 to 249), treated each hexagram as a distinct situation and paid no attention to hexagram order[1]. The divinatory approach, typified by Zhu Xi (1130 to 1200), emphasized divination and the symbols of the sixty-four hexagrams, turning the I Ching into a "book of life" for ordinary people[1].
Richard J. Smith, in his 2008 book Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching, or Classic of Changes) and Its Evolution in China, presents the intellectual history of the I Ching and its commentary lines. Smith shows that the I Ching underwent a transformation from divination book to philosophical classic, and that this process unfolded over centuries with contributions from many generations of scholars.
What does this mean for someone casting a hexagram today?
For someone casting a hexagram today, distinguishing the textual layers matters. The original words, the judgments and line texts, are the oldest text and are divinatory in character. The commentaries of earlier scholars such as Wang Bi, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi are their readings in their own historical contexts. Our interpretation today is the third layer, and it should be clearly marked as our own interpretation.
Gợi ý của Nhật Nguyệt: when casting a hexagram, keep these three layers apart. Read the judgments and line texts as an ancient text. Read the commentaries of earlier scholars as historical material about how one era understood it. And when giving advice to yourself, recognize that it is your own interpretation, not what the I Ching advises.
Why distinguish authorship tradition from research findings?
This distinction is not meant to belittle tradition. An authorship tradition has its own cultural and religious value. It shows how a culture tells the story of its own origins. But when speaking of textual history, one must rely on linguistic, archaeological and philological evidence.
Modern scholarship at level A, with authors such as Shaughnessy 1983, Rutt 1996, Smith 2008 and Shaughnessy 2014, shows that the classic Zhouyi was compiled in the late Western Zhou, not written by one sage, and circulated in multiple variants before stabilizing. This is a research finding, not a personal opinion.
As for how the I Ching entered Vietnam, there is currently no source in the bibliography apart from a short chapter in Smith 2012. This is where evidence is still lacking and should be stated clearly in the article. Readers who want to study the history of the I Ching in Vietnam in more depth should consult other specialized studies.
To learn more about the origins and the philosophy of yin yang and the eight trigrams, see the article What is the I Ching: origins and the philosophy of Yin-Yang and the Eight Trigrams.
