What Is the Ten Wings? The Ten Commentaries on the I Ching, What Each One Does, and Who Wrote Them

What is the Ten Wings and why is it called "ten wings"?

The Ten Wings (Thập Dực, 十翼, Shí Yì) are ten commentaries on the I Ching, called "truyện" (傳, zhuàn) in Chinese to distinguish them from the "kinh" (經, jīng), the original text. The word "dực" means a bird's wing, implying that these ten wings support and expand the meaning of the I Ching as wings lift a bird's body in flight. According to Wikipedia, these are the earliest known interpretations of the Chu Dịch, the Bronze Age divination text that underlies the I Ching as known today. By introducing layers of philosophical and ethical meaning, the Ten Wings turned the I Ching from a practical divination handbook into a profound treatise on metaphysics, ethics, and cosmology.

Two textual layers must be distinguished. The "kinh" consists of the 64 hexagrams with their quái từ (hexagram statements) and hào từ (line statements), attributed to Văn Vương and Chu Công. The "truyện" consists of the ten wings below, which serve as commentary, exposition, and systematization. Not every printed edition of the I Ching places the Ten Wings alongside the classic, and depending on the edition, the Thoán truyện may be placed right after each quái từ or gathered separately into one volume.

Table of the ten wings: name, Chinese characters, content, and famous lines

The two Hệ Từ wings are also collectively called Đại Truyện (大傳, Dà Zhuàn) to emphasize their importance. Wikipedia notes clearly: Hệ Từ thượng and Hệ Từ hạ are sometimes grouped under the name Đại Truyện.

What does each wing of the Ten Wings actually do?

Thoán truyện and Tượng truyện: the two commentary layers closest to the classic text

Thoán truyện (彖傳) is the first commentary layer and the closest to the quái từ. It explains hexagram names, the yin-yang structure of the six lines, and the overall meaning of the hexagram in the context of the quái từ. For example, when the quái từ says "Càn: nguyên, hanh, lợi, trinh," the Thoán truyện expands those four words into a body of cosmic and ethical meaning. Thoán truyện is divided into thượng and hạ, each covering half of the hexagrams.

Tượng truyện (象傳) has two layers. Đại Tượng (大象) states the overall image of the hexagram, for instance the Càn hexagram as heaven moving with strength, from which a lesson for the junzi is drawn. Tiểu Tượng (小象) discusses each line separately, usually in a single short sentence stating the meaning of the line's position. In many editions, the Tượng truyện is placed right after each hào từ, which easily confuses readers. According to Wikipedia, Tượng thượng is sometimes called Đại Tượng, and Tượng hạ is sometimes called Tiểu Tượng.

Hệ Từ truyện: the most important wing on cosmology

Hệ Từ truyện (繫辭傳) is the longest and most important wing of the Ten Wings. It does not comment on individual hexagrams but discusses the nature of the I Ching: where the Dịch comes from, what the sages created it for, and how the Dịch relates to heaven, earth, and all things. This is the main source for early Chinese cosmology, according to Roger T. Ames's article in International Communication of Chinese Culture, cited on Wikipedia.

The most famous line of the Hệ Từ is: "Dịch hữu thái cực, thị sinh lưỡng nghi, lưỡng nghi sinh tứ tượng, tứ tượng sinh bát quái." This means that within the Dịch there is the Thái Cực, which produces the two nghi (yin and yang), which produce the four tượng, which produce the eight trigrams. This is the most quoted line when discussing the origin of the cosmos according to the I Ching.

The Hệ Từ also contains a passage on the đại diễn method, the way of forming hexagrams with yarrow stalks. That passage gives the number 50 and says that 49 stalks are used, with one set aside. This is the basis for the entire classical hexagram-forming technique. The step-by-step details of the đại diễn method belong to a separate article on hexagram formation; here it suffices to note that the Hệ Từ is the original text describing that method.

The Hệ Từ also mentions Phục Hy, the mythical king, as one of the founders of the I Ching. This shows that the wing tied the I Ching to a tradition of sage-inventors, not merely to a folk divination book.

Văn Ngôn, Tự Quái, Thuyết Quái, Tạp Quái: four specialized wings

Văn Ngôn truyện (文言傳) comments only on the two hexagrams Càn and Khôn. It is a short wing, focused on the way of heaven and the way of earth, and on the character of the junzi. Many scholars hold that Văn Ngôn is a later commentary layer, added after Thoán and Tượng had taken shape.

Tự Quái truyện (序卦傳) explains the order of the 64 hexagrams. It explains why one hexagram follows another in a logical sequence. For example, after the Lý hexagram (履, treading, ritual) comes the Thái hexagram (泰, prosperity), because only with ritual propriety can there be prosperity. Last is the Vị Tế hexagram (未濟, not yet complete), because all things never end, they always continue. This is an important wing for anyone wanting to understand why the 64 hexagrams are arranged in the current order.

Thuyết Quái truyện (說卦傳) explains the eight trigrams. It assigns each trigram to nature (heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain, marsh), to family (father, mother, eldest son, eldest daughter, middle son, middle daughter, youngest son, youngest daughter), to directions, colors, and animals. This is the foundation for the I Ching's system of images and numbers. Có cách luận cho rằng Thuyết Quái truyện là chìa khóa để hiểu hệ tư tưởng của Kinh Dịch, vì nó giải thích nguồn gốc và ý nghĩa của tám quẻ cũng như phác họa các quan hệ biến hóa giữa chúng.

Tạp Quái truyện (雜卦傳) briefly comments on each hexagram, but not in the order of the 64 hexagrams in the classic. It arranges hexagrams into opposing pairs, each pair with one short sentence. For example, "Càn cương Khôn nhu" is the opening line. Tạp Quái is the shortest wing and the least commented upon in the Ten Wings.

Who wrote the Ten Wings? Tradition and a debate lasting over a thousand years

Tradition attributes the Ten Wings to Khổng Tử (Confucius). In this account, Khổng Tử read the I Ching, recognized its deep meaning, and wrote the ten wings to explain it. Sử ký by Tư Mã Thiên also helped reinforce that tradition. For many centuries, students of the I Ching took the Ten Wings to be the words of Khổng Tử.

But doubts appeared as early as the Northern Song. Âu Dương Tu (1007-1072) and Tư Mã Quang (1019-1086) were the first to publicly raise the question of authorship. Wikipedia states clearly: "Doubts concerning Confucius' authorship of the Wings were expressed by Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072) and Sima Guang (1019-1086) during the Northern Song dynasty." In the Qing dynasty, Diêu Tế Hằng (1647-1715) and Khang Hữu Vi (1858-1927) further reinforced those doubts.

Twentieth-century scholarship rejected the attribution to Khổng Tử. Richard Rutt, in The Book of Changes (Zhouyi) published in 1996, gathered the arguments and held that the Ten Wings were written by many different authors over many generations. Wikipedia cites Rutt on pages 41-43. Also according to Wikipedia, the Ten Wings "were likely composed by later scholars," that is, possibly composed by scholars of later generations, not by Khổng Tử.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), in its entry "Chinese Philosophy of Change (Yijing)," dates the Ten Wings to roughly the 5th to 2nd century BCE. This span covers the late Spring and Autumn period, the Warring States period, and the early Han, so it cannot have been written by one person. SEP also stresses that the I Ching is a multi-layered text, with many authors and many layers of text stacked upon one another.

An important archaeological piece of evidence is the silk manuscript of the Hệ Từ found at Mã Vương Đôi (馬王堆) in Trường Sa in 1973. This silk manuscript dates to about 168 BCE, in the reign of Han Emperor Wen. Wikipedia (article Xici) states clearly: "A silk manuscript version of it dating from 168 BCE was found at the Mawangdui site in Changsha in 1973." The Mã Vương Đôi silk manuscript shows that the Hệ Từ existed in the early Han, and that text differs in places from the received version. This further supports the view that the Ten Wings are the product of many generations, not of a single author.

Why does the authorship debate matter?

The question of who wrote the Ten Wings is not merely dry scholarship. If the Ten Wings are the words of Khổng Tử, they carry near-canonical authority, and the I Ching is read as an orthodox Confucian book. If the Ten Wings are the product of many generations of scholars, then the I Ching must be read as a multi-layered text in which the ancient divination layer and the later philosophical layer coexist, and readers must distinguish them.

SEP stresses that the I Ching focuses on one question: when we do not fully know ourselves and the world around us because everything is always changing, how do we live meaningfully and responsibly? That question is not a purely divinatory one; it is a philosophical one. The Ten Wings, especially the Hệ Từ, are precisely the textual layer that turned the I Ching from divination into philosophy.

Where do the schools disagree?

There are at least three points on which scholars disagree. The first is authorship: Confucian tradition attributes the wings to Khổng Tử, modern scholarship rejects this, but some still hold that Khổng Tử at least edited or transmitted part of them. The second is dating: some scholars place the Ten Wings in the Warring States period (roughly the 5th to 3rd century BCE), others in the early Han (roughly the 2nd century BCE), and SEP covers the whole span from the 5th to the 2nd century BCE. The third is the order of formation: some hold that Thoán and Tượng are the earliest layer, Hệ Từ and Văn Ngôn later, and Tạp Quái the latest. But others hold that the Hệ Từ contains very ancient passages mixed with later ones.

This article follows the conventions of Wikipedia and SEP: it calls the Ten Wings a collection of ten wings, does not attribute them to a single author, and notes that tradition attributes them to Khổng Tử while modern scholarship rejects this. The Sino-Vietnamese naming of the wings (Thoán truyện, Tượng truyện, Hệ Từ truyện, Văn Ngôn truyện, Tự Quái truyện, Thuyết Quái truyện, Tạp Quái truyện) is the common convention in Vietnamese books.

What is the point of reading the Ten Wings today?

For students of the I Ching, the Ten Wings are a commentary layer that cannot be skipped. To understand why the Càn hexagram is considered the hexagram of the junzi, one must read the Tượng truyện. To understand why the 64 hexagrams are arranged in the current order, one must read the Tự Quái truyện. To understand the philosophical foundation of the I Ching, one must read the Hệ Từ truyện. To understand how the eight trigrams are tied to nature and family, one must read the Thuyết Quái truyện.

But the Ten Wings should also be read with an awareness of layers. Not every sentence in the Ten Wings has the same value, the same date, or the same author. Some sentences are commentary close to the text, some are independent philosophy, and some are records by later people. Reading the I Ching while skipping the Ten Wings lacks depth. Reading the Ten Wings while forgetting that they are a multi-layered text easily confuses the ancient divination layer with the later philosophical layer.