This is one of the most searched questions about the I Ching, and the honest answer is unsatisfying: you can, but the result will be poor.

Why binary questions fit badly

The text was not written to answer yes or no. It describes configurations — where pressure sits, which direction things move, what the moment calls for. Forcing that into a binary throws away nearly all of it.

There is also a practical problem: a yes-or-no framing invites recasting until you get the answer you wanted, and the text specifically warns against that.

Where the idea comes from

Some later folk practice assigned fixed auspicious or inauspicious values to hexagrams. It exists, but it is a simplification that sits outside the main commentarial tradition, and it is why scores and verdicts vary so much between English-language sites.

The deeper problem with "will it happen"

A binary question assumes the outcome is already fixed and you are simply being told it. The classical texts assume the opposite: that the situation is in motion and your conduct is one of the forces acting on it. Asking "will X happen" removes the variable the text is actually addressing.

What to ask instead

  • Replace "should I" with "what would happen if I".
  • Replace "will it" with "what is moving toward it, and what is blocking it".
  • Replace "is this right" with "what do I not yet understand about this".

These take a few more seconds to form and produce answers you can actually use.

Why the text resists it

The I Ching was not written to answer binary questions. Its vocabulary is made of situations, seasons and conduct — success, perseverance, blame, no blame — and none of it maps cleanly onto yes and no. When you force a binary, you throw away most of what the text offers.

That reflects an assumption rather than a defect: most real decisions are not binary, and knowing the shape of a situation is usually more useful than knowing a verdict.

If you still want one

Accept the answer as a rough signal, not a determination. A reading that says a course is favoured does not say you should stop thinking about it. And treat repeated casting of the same question as a warning sign — if you find yourself asking daily, you have probably already decided and are looking for permission.