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Bushi Zhengzong · The Orthodox Tradition of Divination
Eighteen Discussions · Flying and Hidden Spirits
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5. Correct Discussion of the Flying Spirit
There are six kinds of Flying Spirit:
When a hexagram has a Hidden Spirit, what lies above the Hidden Spirit is the first kind of Flying Spirit.
The Six Beasts and five categories are the second kind of Flying Spirit.
The five categories of another palace are brought into this palace to take Wealth, Officer, Parents, Brothers or Descendants: this is the third kind of Flying Spirit.
Within a hexagram, an upper and a lower line are of one category. When the inner is still and the outer rises, the outer flies inward: this is the fourth kind.
When the outer is still and the inner rises, the inner flies outward: this is the fifth kind.
When both inner and outer rise, they fly away: this is the sixth kind.
6. Correct Transmission of the Hidden Spirit
The Hidden Spirit is considered only when the hexagram lacks its Useful Spirit: only then look for the line beneath which the Useful Spirit is hidden. Once the Useful Spirit appears, its Cycle Void, Month Break, movement, stillness, generation, control, combination or clash all express the working mechanism. Where there is an illness, use medicine to treat it.
Thus the empty awaits its own day; the broken needs filling or combination; the hidden awaits emergence; a clash awaits combination; a combination awaits clash. These are the principles that when things reach an extreme they must change, and when a vessel is full it tips.
If one treats break or void as having no use, makes Qian the Hidden beneath Kun, and, though Da You has all five categories, drags in Pi as its Hidden, or says that every line has a Hidden, is this not an illness deprived of medicine? The transmission is erroneous. Students are left without a gate through which to enter. I now set out a fixed, unchanging principle so that they may readily ascend the hall.
Qian, Kun, Gen, Dui, Kan, Li, Zhen and Xun are the first hexagrams of their eight palaces, called the Eight Pure Hexagrams. Their lines fully possess Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth; their images fully possess Officer, Parents, Descendants, Wealth and Brothers. If one is missing in any of the seven subsequent hexagrams of a palace, take it from that palace's first hexagram as Hidden.
For example, Gou and Dun lack Wealth: borrow Yin Wood from the Qian Palace. Dun, Pi, Jin and Guan lack Water: move Zi Water from Qian to hide beneath the first line. Guan and Bo are short of Metal: Shen Metal of Qian is Hidden. Qian is used here as the model. In every other palace and hexagram, likewise use the palace's first hexagram for the Hidden Spirits of the other seven.
(Ying [Eagle]: This says that only when the Useful Spirit is missing from the hexagram should one seek it in that hexagram’s palace and see beneath which line it is hidden.)
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