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Bushi Zhengzong · The Orthodox Tradition of Divination
Golden Counsels · Childbearing
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
Childbearing
Emerging first from primal chaos, Qian and Kun were distinguished and people and things arose. Taihao then appeared and established marriage to join husbands and wives.
For thousands and hundreds of years down to now, transforming generation has never ceased. Even through countless generations, its succession will have no end.
Only through yin and yang responding to one another can pregnancy arise. First examine Descendants, and male or female can be known.
Yang means a boy, seen as clearly as in the palm: one new branch. Yin means a girl; the gate—
Reading note: The supplied verse is fragmentary here. Its surviving palm, branch and gate words remain; the next source record already identifies a suspected omission.
(At the right, see the discussion of the bow and kerchief.) This passage is suspected of having an omission in the original.
Reading note: This omission statement belongs to the supplied source. No missing verse is reconstructed for the English layer.
The governing star receiving generation and strength brings a handsome, robust child. The destiny star resting or imprisoned must bring a weak, listless child.
Without Blessing and Virtue, do not investigate the Embryo line. Double Embryo and double Blessing must mean twins; one control and two penalties ends as a dream.
Embryo with Officer and Ghost brings the worry of illness during pregnancy. Wealth changing into Descendants means the joy of recovery without medicine at delivery.
The single Wife and Wealth position welcomes support. The two lines Embryo and Blessing fear injury and harm.
Tiger as the blood spirit with Descendants crossing or heavy means the pregnancy has already broken open. Dragon as joyful qi with Embryo moving means the day is near.
Blessing with Dragon empty and Embryo moving means miscarriage and empty joy. Officer with Tiger moving and Blessing empty means an interrupted birth and empty pregnancy.
Blessing already moving and the day also clashing with Embryo means the child has already been born at one’s knees. Blessing injured while Embryo changes into Ghost means the child dies wrongfully within the womb.
Brothers moving is unfavorable to the wife. Parents rising makes things difficult for the child.
Useful in Void meeting an ominous influence: what can avert anxiety at the birthing bed? Wife at Dark Warrior entering a yin palace confirms the omen of dreaming of orchids.
Reading note: The supplied 何妨 phrase is kept as a rhetorical question within the unfavorable clause, not changed into reassurance.
Control of Self or Body means the birth day is pressing near. Without Clash there is no emergence, and the delivery time is delayed.
Embryo and Blessing both rise, but Officer and Parents combine upon them: delivery is difficult. Descendants and Wealth both meet Extinction, but the day supports them: danger has rescue.
Generation and combination from the intervening lines relies entirely on the midwife’s efforts. Officer empty or hidden must mean a child born after the father is gone.
Wandering Soul with Officer and Ghost in Void means being born with the father away. Moving lines with Parents and Brothers carrying penalty or harm must mean taking the child to the springs of the dead.
Officer changing into Blessing brings much illness before birth. Wealth changing into Ghost brings many calamities after birth. Threefold combination forming Brothers means the child lacks milk; Six Clashes meeting Descendants leaves the mother at ease.
Reading note: The supplied 父 in the last clause is read through the corresponding childbirth verse as 婦, the mother. The Chinese record is unchanged.
Response meeting Void means the woman’s natal family has no gifts to encourage delivery. Self with Brothers means the household lacks rich, nourishing food for recovery.
Yang Blessing meeting Green Dragon is like a fine son in a cassia courtyard. Yin Descendants supported by the Month Commander is like an immortal lady in a peach-blossom grotto.
Reading note: The supplied 非 is read through the corresponding verse’s 扶, support. No new sex prediction or month is added.
In asking whether there is a pregnancy, examine the Hidden and Flying conditions of Embryo.
Appearing in Void means beginning to form as an embryo and dispersing again. Crossing or heavy and changing into Extinction means a pregnancy that does not succeed.
Injury to the pregnancy requires an encounter with Officer; renewed bleeding during pregnancy requires an encounter with Tiger.
Reading note: 姅 is read as pregnancy injury. The supplied 紞 is read through the old commentary’s description of bleeding recurring during pregnancy; the rare source graphic remains unchanged.
Carrying the commanding star and receiving help leaves both the living and departed at ease. In a yin place without injury, it offers no help in need or emergency.
Reading note: The living/departed and need/emergency wording retains the supplied 存沒 and 緩急 contrast without adding a medical outcome.
Meeting Dark Warrior means a pregnancy formed in secret. Meeting documents means there had previously been no child.
Pregnancy shows within because Earth joins Gouchen. The fetus remains concealed within because Dragon combines with Virtue.
In asking about a midwife, do not infer from the two intervening lines. In divining about a wet nurse, judge from the single Wealth line.
Brothers moving means poor skill, and one must guard against the wet nurse stealing. Parents rising means little milk, and one fears the midwife will injure the pregnancy.
Descendants moving means the wet nurse’s methods are more capable. Brothers and Ghost crossing or heavy means grave harm, while the course of affairs still reverses.
Reading note: The supplied 世機 is read through the changing-affairs context; no new person or additional event is inserted.
Wealth combining with Blessing means skill in nursing and care. Body generating Descendants means understanding how to maintain and support.
If there is mutual control or clash, many calamities and faults must appear.
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