The Confucian classic traditionally linked to the 64-hexagram divination system is the I Ching, or Book of Changes.
The I Ching combines an older divination manual with interpretive commentaries that became important in Confucian learning. Each hexagram is made from six broken or unbroken lines, producing 64 possible arrangements. The figures are used to discuss changing situations and appropriate conduct.
Traditional accounts connect the trigrams and hexagrams with legendary figures such as Fu Xi and King Wen, but the text developed through multiple historical layers. Its commentarial material became especially influential during the Han period and later in Neo-Confucian philosophy.
The I Ching is often treated only as a fortune-telling book, but its historical role is broader. It became a philosophical and cosmological classic studied by scholars, and its concepts influenced Chinese thought, literature, art, and political theory.