What is Yi?

Yi is an I Ching classical-text study tool and a decision-reflection journal you can revisit over time. Its promise is: “From uncertainty to a decision of your own | Listen · Illuminate · Walk beside you.” Career, family, relationships, education, or what comes next in life—Yi helps you see your situation clearly and make a decision that is truly your own.

Tap Ask to begin directly, or choose a starting point in Explore and bring your own question with you. Tap Ask on the home screen to begin; Siri, quick actions, and widgets can open the same guided journey. Yi takes you one step at a time: write or skip your question, pause, choose an opening image, confirm a casting method, form the hexagram, and read the interpretation. Each screen handles one thing. Yi preselects the method you used last time, and you can change it whenever you wish. When you finish, the image, hexagram, and anything you wrote stay together in one record, ready to reopen from Journal and continue reflecting.

Yi uses the I Ching as a mirror, placing facts, options, and constraints together for reflection while the final decision remains yours. For important health, legal, or financial matters, also rely on sound facts and qualified professional advice.

The new home screen offers five starting points: a concrete concern, understanding yourself, a life scene from 36 opening images, another perspective from 22 archetypes, or observing a direction with the compass. First-time visitors see labelled examples. After use, your portrait, bookmarks, or saved observation can appear instead. Choose a perspective that feels relevant and turn it into a question of your own.

Understand yourself uses 24 questions to help you reflect on how you see yourself today. The eight trigrams are portrait categories. The radar chart has six dimensions: energy, decision, pressure, pace, change, and relationships. It is not eight ability scores, and farther out does not mean better. The portrait is neither a fixed label nor a validated psychological assessment.

In the new iPhone experience, open Understand yourself on Home or the portrait entry at the top of My. You can revisit previous portraits, answer again, or bring that insight to Ask. The result can be shared or saved as an image with a Yi download QR code. The image excludes individual answers, private questions, journal entries, and your self-reported MBTI type.

No. You may optionally enter an MBTI type you already know and view it beside your current portrait. Yi does not infer, validate, or convert MBTI from the trigrams or radar chart, and gives no matching percentage. Your entered type stays on this device and can be changed or cleared. The two are simply references for reflecting from different perspectives.

No. The website’s eight questions suggest a starting point for classical-text study. The App portrait uses a separate set of 24 questions. The web result does not create a portrait or transfer into the App. Web answers are used only on the current page and are not saved when you leave.

After a quiet pause, Yi invites you to choose a modern image as a prompt for viewing the situation from another angle. You decide whether it feels relevant. The image supports reflection; it does not reach a conclusion for you.

No. The opening image, casting, and interpretation are three separate paths. The image offers a reflection angle; the hexagram is formed through the method you choose; the interpretation begins with the completed hexagram and the classical text. Neither the image nor the wording of your question selects the hexagram.

Yi preserves the key formation rules of the coin and yarrow-stalk methods on iPhone and iPad; the quick journey uses touch or gentle movement to complete the cast. Plum Blossom can begin with the current time, two numbers, a longer Chinese sentence, or something in view and its direction. The device changes how you take part, while the six lines, changing lines, and hexagram structure still follow the chosen method. This consistency concerns formation rules and structure, not a guaranteed outcome or the feel of physical tools.

Each hexagram follows the method you choose. The opening image and the wording of your question do not select it, and the result is not changed to match an expectation. The completed hexagram stays with your record for classical study, reflection, and later review.

The coin and yarrow-stalk methods both use the quick guided journey while following their own formation rules. Plum Blossom can begin with the current time, two numbers, a longer Chinese sentence, or something in view and its direction. You choose inside the Ask journey; Yi preselects your last method, and you can change it at any time. Choose the method you are willing to complete attentively and record honestly.

Yes, but there is usually no need to restart immediately for a different result. First write down what you understood and your next step. After you act, open the same record from Journal and add what changed. If the situation itself changes, a new record can be more useful.

People from different faith backgrounds all face responsibility, relationships, suffering, waiting, and choice. Yi offers Christians who read the Bible, Buddhists who read Buddhist texts, and readers curious about other classics a space for study and personal reflection that respects each source and preserves its differences. Begin with the text you know, then choose whether to open another perspective.

Yi currently presents Bible–I Ching and Buddhist texts–I Ching as separate reading paths. Begin with the original text and context, then consider points of illumination, differences that should remain, and questions for reflection before recording your own response. Comparative reading is optional, and you may stay with the text most familiar to you.

You can read the complete Bible in Chinese and English, search it, follow a reading plan, add highlights and notes, and view comparative readings with the I Ching. The Bible keeps its own faith context, while the I Ching perspective serves as a mirror for reflecting on a situation. Prayer, church life, and pastoral counsel retain their own essential place.

You can read selected complete Buddhist texts with clear sources, search them, follow a reading plan, add highlights and notes, and view I Ching comparisons where material is available. Buddhist texts keep their own teaching and practice context, while the I Ching perspective supports observation and reflection. Daily practice and trusted teachers retain their own essential place.

Yi preserves each text’s original wording, context, and faith tradition, and presents comparative prompts separately from personal notes. For questions of doctrine and faith, return to the relevant scriptures and a trusted religious community.

The Chinese text of the Zhouyi is transcribed character by character from Zhonghua Book Company’s Zhouyi parallel classical-and-modern edition. Commentary identifies authors, schools, and sources wherever possible. The Bible and Buddhist texts also include edition and source information so you can check the originals.

Classical texts and historical commentary retain their source wording. Yi’s supporting readings are grounded in source editions and attributed material, completed on your device, and designed so you can return to the original text at any time.

Different eras, schools, and commentators focus on different questions, leaving a range of interpretations. Yi preserves those differences and their sources as material for comparative study, helping you form your own understanding.

Your content is stored on your device first, and you can use Yi without signing in. Your questions, reflections, and notes belong to you and are kept as your private material.

No. Any guided step, supporting reading, or review prompt that uses your question runs on your device. Your question is never sent to a cloud model.

After you sign in and choose to sync, records are encrypted on your device before moving between your devices; the service stores only encrypted content. You can also export your data or delete records from your device and sync through Settings.

Yes. Basic classical-text study, casting, records, source text, and attributed commentary are free. On supported devices, a Simplified Chinese on-device reading is also available without a subscription. Each account can sync up to 20 encrypted records for free. Members have unlimited sync plus Traditional Chinese, English, and Japanese on-device readings, intermediate and advanced courses, some long-form content, long-term reviews, and collection features. See the in-app subscription page for current details.

Yi Plus supports long-term study with unlimited encrypted sync, intermediate and advanced courses, complete long-form stories, multilingual deep reading, and long-term review tools. Yi Master adds monthly and annual collection reports, priority service, and supporter benefits. Current benefits and prices are shown on the in-app subscription page.

Choose Restore Purchases on Yi’s subscription page. To change a plan, renew, or cancel, open the subscription settings for your Apple Account. After cancellation, paid benefits remain available until the current subscription period ends.