How to read a hexagram: the name, the judgement, the image and the lines
The text of the Book of Changes is old, and a first reading can make you dizzy. In fact a hexagram is neatly built, and once you know what each layer is you can read it layer by layer.
First the name, then the two trigrams
The name of a hexagram holds its picture. Take Tai, "Earth over Heaven": the first two characters give the upper and lower trigram, Earth above and Heaven below; the last character, Tai, is the name. Heaven belongs above, yet here it sits below with Earth on top, so the air of heaven rises and the air of earth sinks, the two meet in the middle, and that is Tai: things flow, and there is ease and peace.
Whenever you read a hexagram, look at the upper and lower trigram first and picture the two stacked together. The name is then no longer a word to be memorised.
The judgement: one sentence for the whole
The judgement sums up the whole hexagram. The shortest has only a few characters, like "Source, success, benefit, perseverance" for Qian. Tradition says it came from King Wen of Zhou; scholars disagree on the exact author, but its place is not in doubt: it is the gate into the hexagram.
When you read a judgement, do not hurry to find which word means good or bad. Ask first what kind of situation the sentence describes. Is it a time to wait, to advance, to give way, or to gather in?
The image: the line that reads best as advice
Each hexagram also has an "image" that says what the two pictures together teach a person. For Qian: "Heaven moves with strength; the noble person strives without rest." For Kun: "The earth's condition is receptive; the noble person bears all with great virtue."
The wording is regular: first the picture, then "the noble person therefore...". It does not say what will happen, only what attitude to meet it with, which makes it the easiest part to hold against yourself.
The lines: six places, six stages
The six line texts go from the bottom up and are called first, second, third, fourth, fifth and top. Think of them as six stages of one matter: the first is the start, the top is the end. The second and the fifth stand in the centre of the lower and upper trigrams and are traditionally taken as the best placed; the third and the fourth sit at the border of the two and are often more tense. The Commentary on the Appended Phrases has "the second brings much praise, the fourth much fear, the third much misfortune, the fifth much achievement", which speaks of exactly these places.
Each line text begins by stating its place and its nature: "nine at the beginning" is the first line, yang; "six in the second place" is the second line, yin. Nine is yang and six is yin, a notation special to the Book of Changes.
The plain wording: turn it into your own words
After the original, read the plain wording. The plain wording in our game is our own writing, and it speaks only of the stance the hexagram suggests, not of what will happen.
Then do one small thing: from the judgement, the image and the six lines, pick the sentence that most resembles your situation now, copy it down, and think why it resembles it. One sentence is worth more than a whole book, because you chose it yourself.
Questions people ask
What if I cannot follow the classical Chinese?
No need to force it. Read the plain wording and the keywords for each hexagram first, then go back to the original and catch one or two sentences. After a few hexagrams, the words that keep returning, such as "benefit", "perseverance" and "no blame", become familiar.
How should I take the words "good fortune" and "misfortune" in a judgement?
When the ancients spoke of good and bad fortune, it was closer to a reminder about measure in conduct: in this stance things tend to go smoothly, in another they tend to run into trouble. It is not a written ending. Read it as "what should I watch for if I act this way".
Do I have to read the line texts?
With no changing lines, the judgement and the image are enough. With changing lines, the line texts are the heart of it; which one to read is explained in the article on changing lines.