Within the classical tradition, Confucius is portrayed as having a profound relationship with the text later known as the I Ching. He is traditionally credited with writing or compiling the “Ten Wings” (Shi Yi), a set of major commentaries such as the Tuan Zhuan (Commentary on the Judgments), the Xiang Zhuan (Commentary on the Images), and the Xi Ci Zhuan (Commentary on the Appended Phrases). These writings are said to reflect a deep engagement with the hexagrams and their line statements, and to articulate a vision in which the patterns of change described by the text mirror the moral and social order. In this view, Confucius stands as the figure who “Confucianized” the work, turning it from a practical divination manual into a classic of ethical, cosmological, and political reflection.

The Ten Wings, ascribed to Confucius or to those closely associated with him, add layers of moral, metaphysical, and symbolic interpretation to the original oracular statements. They emphasize ethical behavior, social harmony, and the cultivation of virtue in accordance with the natural patterns of change. Under this interpretive umbrella, the I Ching becomes not merely a tool for foretelling events, but a guide for self-cultivation and wise governance, a mirror in which the sage discerns how to align human conduct with the larger order of Heaven and Earth. In this sense, the Confucian tradition sees Confucius as the one who elevated the text into a central classic of philosophical and spiritual inquiry.

Modern historical and textual study, however, casts a more cautious light on this attribution. Many scholars hold that the Ten Wings were composed mainly in periods after Confucius, likely by later Confucian thinkers who honored his legacy and extended his style of interpretation. From this perspective, his “role” is less that of a demonstrable, direct author and more that of an inspiring source whose name and spirit shaped the way the I Ching was read and transmitted. The Confucian school’s influence, whether through Confucius himself or through later followers writing in his name, fundamentally determined how the text came to be understood: as a work in which divination, ethics, and cosmology are woven into a single fabric of meaning.