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Bushi Zhengzong · The Orthodox Tradition of Divination
Refuting Errors · Lifetime, Household and Marriage
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Refuting Errors about Lifetime Major and Minor Periods in Supplement to the Forest of Changes
Some divine whether they will obtain rank and reputation in their lifetime; some, because of poverty and humble station, whether they will become wealthy and honored; some, because they have no sons, whether they will ever have them. Some ask about long or short life, whether an acquired skill can support them for life, whether the Way they practice can be carried out throughout life, or how their brothers, children or nephews will fare.
Each kind of divination has its own Useful Spirit. Among the books, only the discussion by Wild Crane in Augmented and Revised Divination by the Changes offers a very appropriate method of asking separately about lifetime matters.
Generally, in asking about a lifetime's good or ill, one should examine the Six Relations' generation, control, restraint, transformation, penalty, clash, control, combination, movement, stillness, Void and break. When the spirits are asked, the mechanism of good or ill must appear in the lines, and that of success or failure in the hexagram.
I recall divining about success or failure in my own lifetime in a Wu-Chen year, Chen month, on a Bing-Chen day. I obtained Lü changing into Gu.
Matter asked about: success or failure in my own lifetime.
Hexagram name: Fire over Mountain, Lü (Traveling), changing into Mountain over Wind, Gu (Decay).
Hexagram palace: Li Fire; Void: Xu and Hai; missing lines.
Six Beasts; Self/Response; hexagram.
Line; Qian.
Branch; Six Spirits; stems and branches; Six Spirits; Hidden.
Spirit; Hexagram Body; Day.
Chen; Month Commander; Tai Sui.
Green Dragon; Si Brothers; Bing; Bing; Wu.
Dark Warrior; Wei Descendants; Chen; Chen; Chen.
White Tiger; Response; ０; You Wealth; Xu Descendants.
Soaring Snake; Shen Wealth.
Gouchen; ｘ; Wu Brothers; Hai Officer; Hidden.
Vermilion Bird; Self; Chen Descendants; Mao Parents.
At that time my ancestral property was abundant, and I fancied wealth and high station. In this hexagram, Descendants with Vermilion Bird holds Self, and the Officer line enters its Tomb in the day: clearly rank and reputation are out of the question. The documents line is hidden beneath the yin image of the Self line: clearly I lost my mother early. The hexagram has Six Combinations, with Wealth and Blessing combined: clearly the ancestral estate is substantial. All these were matters preceding the divination.
My father was then still living, and I had recently married. Later prosperity, decline, injury and bereavement would naturally be verified. Who could have known that in the Xin-Wei year I would lose my father and have a son? That was the year when the Parents line entered its Tomb. The fifth line represents the senior branch of the family and holds Wei Earth Descendants: I did indeed have an eldest son.
In the Jia-Xu year my second son was born. I told a friend: How remarkable! The fifth line holds Wei, and my eldest son belongs to Sheep. The fourth line changes into Xu, and my second son belongs to Dog. The first line holds Chen, so my last son must belong to Dragon.
The friend said: Earth governs the number five; you ought to have five sons. I said: No. A layer of Earth's number is five, increased or reduced according to decline or strength. Here Descendants appears repeatedly: by principle, each appearance corresponds to one.
Later, in the Ding-Chou year, a son was born. The friend asked: You said your later son would belong to Dragon. Why does this one belong to Ox? I said: Though I have this child, he is not within the reckoning. I fear he will be difficult to raise. Indeed, the following year he was lost. In the Geng-Chen year I did have a son.
From the Jia-Xu year, when I was twenty-six, my household estate gradually declined. In Ji-Mao I traveled far away; I returned in the second month of Ren-Wu, and my wife had already died. Year after year I was tossed
about, and eventually made my living by selling divinations.
Reading note: The preceding account and this continuation remain separate source records. The supplied 末幾 is read through the recently-married context, 未子 through the later-son comparison, and 矢 through the child's loss. The dates, ages, animal signs and reported sequence are retained without harmonizing them.
Someone asked: Why did the turmoil begin at twenty-six? I said: On entering the Jia-Xu year, the Wealth at Response met the year, was in Cycle Void, stood with White Tiger, and changed into Month Break. It was a year of Clash at the Self position. This is called meeting Clash where there was combination.
In the Mao year, the Wealth line at Response was clashed. Thus husband and wife were separated far apart, and I was not present when my wife died. The Wife and Wealth line also received control in the Wu year, and in the Mao month it again encountered Clash from the Month Commander.
As for making a living by selling divinations, Vermilion Bird holds Self and the hexagram belongs to the Li Palace: these are images of literary refinement. My second son accomplished nothing: White Tiger Xu Earth Descendants meets three breaks, from year, month and day. Only in the Jia-Shen year did I begin to obtain stability.
From this hexagram, consider Golden Counsels: “When asking about establishing a household, dislike a hexagram formed of Six Clashes; to know the founding of an enterprise, welcome lines forming Six Combinations.” My first success and later failure are an instance of this.
According to Supplement to the Forest of Changes, begin at the first line and give each line five years for a Major Period; begin at the first line and give each line one year for a Minor Period. From twenty-one through twenty-five my Major Period was at the fifth line, Wei Earth Descendants. Why, then, did my father die when I was twenty-three? From thirty-one through thirty-five it was at the first line, Chen Earth Descendants. Why did my wife suffer when I was thirty-four? If the Major Period is like this, the Minor Period can be understood.
Reading note: The source writes the book title 易木補遺 here; it is read through the repeatedly named Supplement to the Forest of Changes, without altering the Chinese graphic.
He also says that the changed hexagram governs after thirty years of age. Why, then, had my household already fallen at twenty-six? From thirty-five to forty, the Major Period is at the second line, Brothers with Gouchen. Why did I instead obtain stability?
If one uses Nuclear Hexagrams, inner Xun is documents and outer Dui Metal is Wife and Wealth. Since the nuclear images contain both documents and Wife and Wealth, why did I lose both parents early and my spouse in middle age?
Following Zhang Xingyuan's method merely confuses people. They say: A lifetime hexagram must be calculated like this. Major and Minor Periods are unlike an ordinary small divination; the fee should be greater. Yet in the end, blessing, calamity, good and ill show not the slightest verification.
Those who later divine about a lifetime should know that the overall pattern of prosperity and decline is announced in the hexagram, while injury, control, harm, encounters and opportunities are announced in its lines. Recklessly inferring yearly and monthly responses where the lines do not report them has no accuracy. It is better to ask separately about reputation, gain, calamity, blessing, long life or early death: then each becomes clear and easy to see. Students should apply their minds to detailed inference.
Reading note: The compact fee clause is read as the claim that lifetime calculations deserve a larger payment than ordinary small readings. “No accuracy” reads the supplied 無淮 through its rejection of unverified yearly and monthly predictions.
Refuting Household Errors in Supplement to the Forest of Changes
The erroneous household judgments are those of Supplement to the Forest of Changes. It divides hexagrams into flourishing, supported, dead and submerged states. After Beginning of Spring, it says, Gen flourishes, Zhen is supported, Xun is Embryo, Li is submerged, Kun is dead, Dui imprisoned, Qian resting and Kan abandoned. After Spring Equinox, Zhen flourishes, Xun is supported, and so on.
It also says: In examining the six matters of people and dwellings, if both inner and outer trigrams flourish or are supported, prosperity is indicated even if the lines have no Wealth or Officer. If they are dead, imprisoned, resting or abandoned, there is no good sign even with Wealth, Officer, Green Dragon and Heavenly Joy.
If one obtains Yi (Nourishment), Xiao Guo, Gu, Jian, Heng or Yi (Increase) after Beginning of Spring, all supposedly meet flourishing, support or Embryo, and one must predict limitless wealth and honor. If one obtains Jin, Ming Yi, Lin, Cui, Bi or Shi, one must predict unending ruin. On this reasoning, generation, control, restraint and transformation are abolished, and a shortcut alone decides good, ill, calamity and blessing.
Even that error is less serious than taking both the Officer line and the fifth line as the household head. If Officer is bad and the fifth line good, how does one distinguish the head's good or ill?
He says that Descendants moving greatly increases household property. This is an old method and is not wrong. But if Officer and Ghost is the household head, Descendants must not move: movement would control and injure Officer. On Zhang Xingyuan's account, must someone wishing to increase the estate instead wish to injure his father?
He also says: The first line represents children, chickens, geese, the well and the foundations. If the first line meets misfortune, are children, chickens, geese, well water and foundations all afflicted? In a household where chickens or geese die, must the children also die, the well collapse and the grave break?
The second represents wives and concubines, cats, dogs, the hearth and the splendid hall. If the second line meets misfortune, are all of these afflicted? If cats or dogs die, must wives and concubines also die? If a wife or concubine dies, is it caused by an obstruction in the hearth or splendid hall?
I give only the errors of two lines; the others cannot all be described. In every household divination, distinguish the Useful Spirit clearly. A later volume judges household matters separately through the six lines. Students should examine it closely to avoid error.
Reading note: The supplied 鼊 in the household list is read as hearth, following the corresponding Chinese transcription's 竈. The project's Chinese graphic is preserved; no animal or additional household event is inserted.
Refuting Marriage Errors in Supplement to the Forest of Changes
Among marriage rules, those of Supplement to the Forest of Changes are most erroneous. It takes inner and outer trigrams and Self and Response as chief factors, with yin and yang Wealth and Ghost lines as evidence. When a man divines about a woman's family, inner is husband and outer wife, while Self is also husband and Response wife. When a woman divines about a man's family, outer is husband and inner wife, while Self is wife and Response husband.
These sayings leave later students without a settled view. Suppose a man's family divines about a marriage and the outer trigram is unfavorable but Response favorable. Is the marriage both good and bad? Can they ultimately be matched or not?
People now follow this without asking whether parents or uncles are divining about a child's or niece's marriage, or brothers or maternal uncles about a nephew's, younger brother's or girl's marriage. They indiscriminately discuss Self and Response as husband and wife, and Officer and Ghost and Wife and Wealth as husband and wife. They do not determine the couple's good or ill through the Useful Spirit's generation, control, restraint and transformation, greatly losing the subtle purport of Prior Heaven.
They do not know that Self, Response, Wealth and Officer each have distinct roles. Self is my household and Response the other household. When a woman herself asks about marrying a particular man, Officer is the husband and Self is herself. If Officer and Self generate or combine, with Officer yang and Self yin, this is called occupying the proper place.
When a man himself asks about marrying a particular woman, Wealth is the wife and Self is himself. If Wealth and Self generate or combine, with Wealth yin and Self yang, this too is called occupying the proper place.
If parents or senior relatives ask about matching a son or grandson with a particular family's daughter as daughter-in-law, use Descendants as Useful Spirit. Descendants at Self, or Descendants in a yang image, refers to the male of one's own household; Descendants at Response, or Descendants in a yin image, refers to the other household's girl. Without clash or break and with generation or combination, they can naturally be matched and the couple will be harmonious. Without generation or combination and with clash or control, they will naturally be at odds. If resting or imprisoned, or under control, there will naturally not be long life.
If a father asks about his son's marriage, injury at Self naturally indicates disobedience and harm to the father-in-law; generation received by Wealth naturally indicates filial conduct benefiting the mother-in-law. In arranging a younger brother's marriage or a younger sister's marriage, use the Brothers line.
Once, in a Wu month on an Yi-Mao day, a father chose a son-in-law for his daughter and obtained a still Pi hexagram. Someone brought this hexagram to ask. I said: Self is yin, Response yang; the Officer star flourishes in the season; the hexagram has Six Combinations; the day holds Wealth; Wealth and Officer generate one another; all six lines are still. Must this be a good match?
I said: According to Zhang Xingyuan, it is a good match. Descendants is hidden and in Cycle Void, so there must be no offspring. According to my judgment, Zi Water Descendants is hidden beneath the yin Wei Earth line: I fear only that your daughter will not live long. The person disagreed and left. Not long after the marriage, the girl died of illness.
Reading note: The supplied narrative gives two 予曰 introductions around the question and reply; their stated attribution is retained. No extra speaker or different outcome is introduced.
Matter asked about: a father choosing a son-in-law for his daughter.
Hexagram name: Heaven over Earth, Pi (Obstruction).
Hexagram palace: Qian Metal; Void: Zi and Chou; missing lines: Zi Water Descendants line.
Six Beasts; Self/Response; hexagram.
Line; Qian.
Branch; Six Spirits; stems and branches; Six Spirits; Hidden.
Spirit; Hexagram Body; Day.
Chen; Month Commander; Tai Sui.
Dark Warrior; Xu Parents; Yi; Wu.
White Tiger; Response; Shen Brothers; Mao.
Soaring Snake; Wu Officer.
Gouchen; Mao Wealth.
Vermilion Bird; Self; Si Officer; Hidden.
Green Dragon; Wei Parents; Zi Descendants.
Zi Water Descendants is hidden beneath the yin Wei Earth line: I fear only that your daughter will not live long. The person disagreed and left. Not long after the marriage, the girl died of illness.
Another person, a father choosing a daughter-in-law for his son, divined in a Shen month on a Jia-Wu day and obtained Fu changing into Shi He. I said: Response combines to form a Descendants configuration that generates Self. Not only will the dowry be substantial; you will also enjoy the blessing of her filial conduct.
They married later in a Si year. She was indeed filial, worthy and gentle, and the dowry was exceptional. Under Zhang Xingyuan's explanation, Officer is the husband, and here the Yin Wood husband star is in Month Break and controlled by a Metal configuration: it must injure the husband. Why, then, have twenty years of marriage passed, with both parents-in-law living, the couple harmonious, many sons and recently even a grandson?
Reading note: The supplied year count is 廿十. “Twenty” follows the corresponding Chinese transcription's 二十; it is not read as an additional ten years. The project's original number is unchanged.
Matter asked about: a father choosing a daughter-in-law for his son.
Hexagram name: Earth over Thunder, Fu (Return), changing into Fire over Thunder, Shi He (Biting Through).
Hexagram palace: Kun Earth; Void: Chen and Si; missing lines: Si Parents.
Six Beasts; Self/Response; hexagram.
Line; Qian.
Branch; Six Spirits; stems and branches; Six Spirits; Hidden.
Spirit; Hexagram Body; Day.
Chen; Month Commander; Tai Sui.
Dark Warrior; ｘ; You Descendants; Si Parents; Jia; Shen.
White Tiger; Hai Wealth; Wu.
Soaring Snake; Response; ｘ; Chou Brothers; You Descendants.
Gouchen; Chen Brothers; Hidden.
Vermilion Bird; Yin Officer; Si Parents.
Green Dragon; Self; Zi Wealth.
Response combines to form a Descendants configuration that generates Self. Not only will the dowry be substantial; you will also enjoy the blessing of her filial conduct. They married later in a Si year. She was indeed filial, worthy and gentle, and the dowry was exceptional.
Later students should judge in this way, so that they do not abandon a favorable indication for an unfavorable one and thereby mislead people in arranging marriages.
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