Another Divination Story V

While Plum Blossom Divination uses trigrams that build up hexagrams, Wen Wang Gua uses the six yaos that build up the hexagrams. Each line is assigned a stem and branch. One line is assigned the subject with another line the object. Each line will carry certain aspect of life according to the five element interaction. The method is quite complicated but the result is amazingly accurate. Let us see how we can use this method to analyze Zi Gong's divination.

Unfortunately the month and day when Zi Gong did the divination were unknown.
Without the month and day, we lose a lot of details.

Subject Hai water represents Lu.
Object Wei earth represents Yue.

Officer/Ghost holds subject. Indicates that Lu started the war.
Offspring holds object. It indicates that Yue fought back.
Usually we need to compare which is stronger, the subject or the object to see who wins the war.

The lines in between play a very important role in this hexagram.
The moving line You is Wife/Wealth that transfers the energy from Wei earth to Hai water. This can be interpreted as the effort made by Yue was in vain. In fact, it only strengthens the offensive Lu military. How did this happen?

Probably the Lu army was able to capture food and weapons due to the ineffective defense of Yue.

Parents line is missing in this hexagram. It is Mao wood hiding under the first line Chou earth. The parents line represents peace treaty. This is because Parents represents document that controls Offspring and is enforced by Officer/Ghost. The winner of the war Lu urged Yue to accept a treaty to restore peace. When did it happen? Since the hiding spirit controls the flying spirit, it is quick. Probably when the flying spirit is clashed away in the Wei month, the war will end.

If the divination took place in the Mao month, then peace talks would definitely arrive at a settlement. This is because Hai, Mao and Wei form the wood frame confirming the peace between subject and object.

Using the texts of Zhou Yi to interpret the hexagrams can yield different results depending on the intuition and knowledge of the diviner. Using Plum Blossom or Wen Wang Gua, the image is much clearer. However, it takes much time and effort to learn. Unfortunately some people, after reading a few books, think they already know the methods.

I will quote Confucius' words to end this posting:

To learn without thinking leads to confusion.

To think without learning leads to danger.

JY