Show HN: I Ching simulator with accurate Yarrow Stalk probabilities

53 pointsposted 2 days ago
by jackzhuo

33 Comments

nestorD

4 hours ago

Fun fact: archaeological evidence on I Ching divinatory records shows an hexagram distribution different from the one produced by the yarrow stalk method. Meaning that, while it is now considered the traditional method, it was likely not the original approach.

z2

3 hours ago

Naive question: could this have been survivorship bias? Could certain ones not have been written down or kept with the others?

nestorD

24 minutes ago

I doubt it. The I Ching does not really have bad / low interest hexagrams. Also historians who studied the topic seem pretty sure that the yarrow stalk method is a recent introduction (by I Ching standards, we are talking about a bronze age divination tool...).

egypturnash

6 hours ago

Some kind of text on what the resulting hexagrams mean along with their names would be nice for those of us who haven't memorized the meaning of all sixty-four.

ohbleek

4 hours ago

I believe that is what is listed at the bottom of the page.

helterskelter

5 hours ago

I'm curious, and I figure you would know more about this than I do: when using real yarrow stalks for the I Ching, how do you split them into groups? I mean like, roughly equal? Don't think about it too much and just split? Just separating them into, say, groups where one group is just a single stalk doesn't seem random.

I guess it's a question of philosophy, either split into groups based off of your intuition, or aim for a truly random split in the pile.

Anyway, I wasn't sure if this is something that's a settled matter or what.

ksymph

5 hours ago

Functionally it makes no difference whether you split near the middle or not -- a truly random selection would sometimes end up with a pile of one, and that's totally fine. As long as you're not trying to game the system by, say, specifically counting out the sticks to get the outcome you want, it makes no difference. (and if you're doing that, then what's the point?)

Splitting closer to the middle does make it easier to avoid unintentionally counting though. If you make the same splits every time, you'll get the same outcome of course.

Philosophically / spiritually speaking, "don't think about it too much and just split wherever feels right" is the simple answer. Keep in mind the question you want to ask when you make the split and let whatever happens happen. Close your eyes if it helps you focus.

helterskelter

2 hours ago

> Functionally it makes no difference whether you split near the middle or not -- a truly random selection would sometimes end up with a pile of one, and that's totally fine.

Yeah I just mean I would be very conscious of splitting with a single stalk in one group and would wonder if that was really a 'fair' selection or something I did intentionally since I know the exact number of the yarrow in one hand. In practice, I can't imagine anyone would make a selection like that, even though in a truly random system it would happen not infrequently.

jmkd

3 hours ago

I got a result using coins but could find no link to the hexagram so had to look it up on another site. While I was clicking around your site trying to find the hexagram then I lost my reading and back button didn't work, so changing lines etc were lost. I would love to use this more but not in current state.

NooneAtAll3

5 hours ago

Any chance to make Enter or Spacebar press the button when Yarrow Stalk thing progresses?

It got tiring and boring to click and click and click with the mouse with no explanation for how it works

blastro

5 hours ago

As a fellow iChing developer - this is nice! Thanks for sharing.

Jimpulse

6 hours ago

Any sites that give nice barebones explanation of the results? I imagine filling more of the blanks myself instead of AI is part of the exercise, but a nice starting point can help.

thefaux

5 hours ago

The canonical western text is Richard Wilhelm's german interpretation, translated to english by Cary Baynes. This site has the hexagram descriptions from that translation: https://www.iching.online/wilhelm.php

I recommend buying the book though. It is fascinating whether or not you buy into it.

Jimpulse

2 hours ago

Dang a Jung forward. Will have to pick it up! Thanks.

mistrial9

2 hours ago

Carl Jung's Synchronicity text, published at the end of his life, uses I Ching as one testing ground..

dvh

5 hours ago

> "What should I use for 15V 150mA DC power supply?"

Original Hexagram 45. GATHERING TOGETHER (MASSING) (Ts'ui)

Transformed Hexagram 17. FOLLOWING (Sui)

Ok.

calebm

4 hours ago

The I Ching contains all 6-bit patterns.

roadside_picnic

3 hours ago

The hexagrams can be modeled with only 6-bits, but this does not contains enough information for a proper reading of I Ching which also need to account for line changes. So there are really 4 lines: young yin, old yin, young yang, old yang.

A fundamental part of I Ching reading is the implication that each present state is in the process of transforming to another.

n0um3n4

3 hours ago

i wonder if a query to thise quantum random bumber generator machines would help

lawlessone

4 hours ago

Now i feel like i need to read The Man in the High Castle again.

vessenes

a day ago

I can’t get this to work on iOS at all - question - coin or yarrow choice - then what? No links seem to be hot/working. A little tutorial would be great. Fun project!

jackzhuo

20 hours ago

Hi, thank you so much for reporting this!

I just identified the issue (it was a specific mobile browser compatibility bug). I have deployed a hotfix and it should be working now on iOS.

Could you please give it another try? Sorry for the trouble!

AnonHP

a day ago

Same here. It just doesn’t work on Firefox Focus on iOS, even after I disabled content blockers.

dang

a day ago

I put this post in the SCP (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308) - will temporarily bury it until the author confirms it's working. Sorry for the inconvenience!

jackzhuo

20 hours ago

Hi Dan, thanks for the heads up. I have fixed the mobile bug and deployed the update. It should be working for everyone now. I've also replied to the users above.

typpilol

a day ago

Not working on edge on android either

jackzhuo

20 hours ago

Thank you! I found the bug causing issues on mobile/Edge. Just deployed a fix. It should be working now.

thenthenthen

18 hours ago

Seems to work on iOS safari!

jackzhuo

18 hours ago

Great to hear! Thanks for verifying.

jackzhuo

20 hours ago

Thanks for flagging the Firefox Focus issue. I've just pushed a fix for mobile browsers. It should be loading correctly now. Let me know if it works for you!

jackzhuo

21 hours ago

sorry, I will check it now!