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Overview
The I Ching, or Classic of Changes, stands as one of the oldest surviving Chinese texts. Its origins trace back to the Western Zhou period around 1000 BC as a practical manual for divination using yarrow stalks. Over centuries, specifically during the Warring States era, scholars added philosophical commentaries called the Ten Wings, transforming it into a cosmological guide. By the second century BC, it joined the Five Classics and became central to East Asian thought.