Liu Yao

A common three-coin convention gives one face 3 and the other 2. Each throw totals 6, 7, 8 or 9; six throws form the lines from bottom to top. Six is changing yin, seven static yang, eight static yin and nine changing yang. Which physical face receives each value is fixed before throwing. The primary figure uses 6 or 8 as yin and 7 or 9 as yang; flipping only 6 and 9 gives the resulting figure.

The raw total distinguishes shape from movement. Three faces worth 2 give 6, while two faces worth 3 and one worth 2 give 8: both draw a yin line, but only the first changes to yang. Likewise 7 and 9 both draw yang, but only 9 changes to yin. A primary hexagram can therefore have the same shape under different throws while its resulting figure differs. The six totals preserve this distinction before branches or interpretive roles are assigned.

A cast supplied by another person, a chosen numerical figure and a fresh coin casting have different origins even when their figures match. Recording that origin keeps formation separate from interpretation. In the static Qian exercise below, replacing the fifth 7 with 9 leaves the primary figure Qian but changes the fifth line in the resulting figure; the upper trigram becomes Li over lower Qian. This is a change within one cast, rather than a second independent casting.

Na Jia assigns stems and branches through established tables. The eight-palace arrangement supplies a palace phase; relative generation and overcoming then produce the Five Relationships: Parents, Siblings, Offspring, Wealth and Officer/Ghost. These are technical roles, not literal relatives in every question.

The Self line, shi, marks the questioner’s side under the selected arrangement, while ying marks the corresponding other position. Their line locations come from the palace sequence; they are not chosen after an interpreter decides which position looks favorable. A branch’s phase and relationship must be derived before a role is interpreted.

The palace phase supplies the reference for the Five Relationships. The phase that generates that reference is Parents; what the reference generates is Children; what overcomes it is Officials/Ghosts; what it overcomes is Wealth; a matching phase is Siblings. In the Qian palace, the reference is Metal. Earth therefore counts as Parents and Water as Children even when the corresponding line’s visual form is yang. Yin–yang line shape, branch assignment and relationship classification are three separate layers.

Yong shen is the selected focus. The Yong Shen chapter of Zeng Shan Bu Yi differentiates the question’s object: its examples associate documents and protective structures with Parents, resources with Wealth, and constraints or office with Officer/Ghost. A reader must explain why a role fits this question.

A general wish such as “will my whole life go well?” has many competing objects. A clearer question identifies one arrangement, person or aim, and a time horizon where relevant. Choosing a focus does not turn the symbolic line into factual evidence about that person; it makes the method’s interpretation bounded and inspectable.

For a document question, the traditional Parents category provides a focus because its source list includes written instruments and protective structures. In the static Qian exercise, both line three Chen and line six Xu are Earth Parents. A focus is therefore not always a single obvious line. The question, self position, strength and movement conventions guide the selected reading when the category appears twice. If a required relation is absent on the visible six lines, the adopted method may examine concealed relations; that is a further rule, not permission to invent a seventh visible line.

Selecting a document focus also separates the object from its owner. Parents can name the instrument; self and other locate the parties under the adopted role scheme. A line’s generated or constrained relation is then evaluated for that object in its position. This avoids assuming that every Earth line is “my parent” or that the other position reveals everything about a recipient. The reading is built from the question’s object, its traditional category and the chart’s distinct coordinates.

The month and day provide temporal conditions; moving lines and their transformed branches add interactions. Emptiness relates a branch to the ten-day cycle, monthly break involves its relation to the month branch, and combination or overcoming connects particular terms. They perform different jobs within the reading.

Yuan Shen names what generates the focus, while Ji Shen names what overcomes it. In the static Qian example, a Wood Wealth focus meets Water as its generating relation and Metal as its overcoming relation. Date and movement determine how those relations are evaluated; the words “support” and “constraint” are conclusions from those conditions, not substitutes for them.

Consider the same Parents focus under two declared month branches. Chen Earth and Xu Earth oppose one another; a Chen focus is monthly broken in an Xu month, while an Xu focus is monthly broken in a Chen month. That is an exact branch relation, not a general claim that Earth is always weak. Likewise the ten-day cycle gives two branches no assigned stem in that cycle, which is the basis of xun kong. Its meaning in a reading also depends on the adopted rules for movement, filling and timing.

Yuan Shen and Ji Shen are relative to the selected focus, not permanent names for two relationship categories. For Wood Wealth in the Qian exercise, Water Children generates the focus and Metal Siblings overcomes it. If the selected focus is Earth Parents instead, Fire Officials/Ghosts generates Earth and Wood Wealth overcomes it. This change follows the phase relationships, even though every line retains its original palace-relative relationship name. A relation’s role in the question can therefore differ from the literal emotional impression of its label.

Consider six unchanged yang lines: raw values 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 from bottom to top. The figure is Qian, the first figure of the Qian palace, with Metal as its palace phase. Following the traditional Qian Na Jia arrangement, the lower trigram uses Jia Zi, Jia Yin and Jia Chen; the upper uses Ren Wu, Ren Shen and Ren Xu.

Five Relationships are relative to the palace’s Metal: Water is generated by Metal and becomes Offspring; Wood is overcome by Metal and becomes Wealth; Earth generates Metal and becomes Parents; Fire overcomes Metal and becomes Officer/Ghost; Metal shares the phase and becomes Siblings. Self lies at the upper line and Other at line three in this pure-palace arrangement.

The example is a structural exercise, not a historical consultation: all six throws have the static value 7. The palace is Qian Metal because this is the pure Qian figure at the start of that palace series. No transformed branch is added because there is no moving line. If one raw value were 9 instead, the primary line would remain yang but would carry movement, and the resulting trigram would need its own branch assignment. This distinguishes visual sameness in the primary figure from a different dynamic record.

All three may use the same hexagram, but they emphasize different layers. Textual consultation examines the classical statements and positions. Na Jia examines assigned branches, roles and temporal relationships. Meihua often works through number- or image-based formation and body–function relations.

Rules for multiple moving lines, hidden focuses and line interactions differ across texts and teaching traditions. A method should keep its adopted tables and hierarchy coherent. Combining the most pleasing phrase from each system conceals conflict rather than resolving it.

A hexagram’s line text, Najia relations and Meihua body–function relations answer different interpretive questions. A moving fifth line can be discussed through its received line statement, through its assigned branch and transformed relation, or through which trigram holds the movement. The same geometric figure makes comparison possible; it does not eliminate the separate rules. Studying each reading with its own record is more informative than merging their labels into one score.

The Eight Palaces are groups of eight hexagrams, beginning with the pure trigram doubled and continuing through an adopted line-change sequence. Qian belongs to the Qian palace as its root figure. The palace phase is the reference used for relationships; the visual upper trigram alone does not always identify that palace. For example, a mixed figure can still belong to Qian palace even when its upper trigram is no longer Qian.

In the familiar palace sequence, the root has self at line six; the first through fifth change figures place self at lines one through five respectively. The wandering-soul figure returns self to line four, and the returning-soul figure places self at line three. The other position is three lines apart. These positions are derived chart annotations. They are not additional coin throws, and they do not move just because the reader would prefer a different personal focus.

For static Qian, self is therefore line six and other line three. Both carry Earth Parents in the exercise, but they occupy different roles. A document question can consequently distinguish the relation category from the position that carries it. Palace membership determines the phase reference; Najia determines the branch; self/other determines a further relational coordinate. Each answers a different part of the structural explanation.

Zeng Shan Bu Yi, Yong Shen chapter, records how the question’s object determines its focus: https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/增刪卜易/8 . Its Yuan Shen and Ji Shen discussion examines support, constraint and conditions of operation: https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/增刪卜易/9

The book’s examples belong to historical divination practice. Its claims about illness, pregnancy, litigation or a person’s social worth are not modern evidence for diagnosis, legal judgment or discrimination. The method can be studied in detail without treating those verdicts as verified facts.

The Qian stem–branch sequence is given in the Na Jia material accompanying Zeng Shan Bu Yi: https://zh.wikisource.org/zh/增刪卜易 . The example is a static structural exercise; date conditions and a specific focus would complete a consultation.