How to Write 爻 (yáo) — Meaning “Yao (lines in a trigram or hexagram of the I Ching).”

Think of 爻 as two X marks stacked on top of each other, like a short ladder. Each X reminds you of a crossed line in a hexagram, and the stack suggests the six lines (六爻) of a complete hexagram. This visual trick helps link the shape to its meaning in the I Ching.

Write 爻 with 4 strokes in this order: first the left part of the top cross (diagonal down-left), then the right part (diagonal down-right), then the left part of the bottom cross, and finally the right part. A common mistake is making the two crosses too wide or uneven; keep them compact and centered, with the bottom cross slightly below the top one.

Common expressions include 六爻 (liù yáo), meaning the six lines of an I Ching hexagram, and 爻辞 (yáo cí), the explanations for each line. These terms are used when studying or discussing the I Ching, a classic Chinese divination text.

爻 is rarely used in everyday modern Chinese, but it appears in specialized contexts related to the I Ching and traditional Chinese philosophy. Culturally, it represents ancient wisdom and the binary-like system of yin and yang lines that underpins Chinese cosmology and divination.

Common words containing 爻 include: 六爻 (liù yáo) — Six lines of a hexagram; 爻辞 (yáo cí) — Yao ci (explanations of the lines in the I Ching).; 卦爻 (guà yáo) — the lines of a hexagram.