These are written statements appended to each hexagram and each line within hexagrams. "Hexagram texts", which came from divination records, were later compiled and attached individually to each of the 64 hexagrams and each line within the hexagrams. The texts generally fall into two categories: one indicating auspicious or inauspicious events, and the other consisting of narratives. These texts recorded many aspects of social life in ancient China and reflected early understanding ancient people had about god, spirits, and the world.

The sages created the systems of eight trigrams and 64 hexagrams to observe hexagram images. Texts are attached to all hexagrams and hexagram lines to predict disasters or auspicious events, and changes thus occur through the interaction between what is hard and what is soft. (The Book of Changes)

Confucius said, "The sages created the hexagram images to develop full understanding of things, set up the 64 hexagrams to detect the nature of everything true or false, attached hexagram texts to augment verbal expression, leveraged the combinations of the 64 hexagrams to fully explore their significance,and encouraged every being to make change so as to realize the magical power of hexagrams." (The Book of Changes)