LiuYao & the I Ching

4.1.1Why it is called the first of all classics

The Book of Changes (Zhou Yi) is grouped with the Lianshan and the Guicang as the three Yi traditions, and it stands first among the Five Confucian Classics (the Yi, Shu, Shi, Li and Chunqiu). It is also an important intellectual resource for Daoism.

It is the only classic that is at once a divination manual and a work of philosophy. Confucius said, “Give me a few more years, so that at fifty I may study the Yi — then I might be free of great faults.” The Great Treatise (Xi Ci Zhuan) says, “The Yi is on a level with heaven and earth; therefore it can encompass the way of heaven and earth.”

4.1.2Three layers of text

“Three sages in turn, three ages in succession” — this is how the Hanshu, “Treatise on Literature”, summarises the making of the Book of Changes: Fuxi (high antiquity), King Wen (middle antiquity) and Confucius (late antiquity).

A scholarly caveat: modern scholarship holds that the judgement and line texts were compiled through a long process of collective accumulation; “King Wen wrote the judgements, the Duke of Zhou wrote the line texts” is a traditional attribution that cannot be confirmed. The Ten Wings, too, were not the work of Confucius alone but of several scholars living between the Warring States and the Qin–Han period.

4.2.1The three Yi traditions and the oldest divination method

The first two are lost; later ages produced reconstructed editions whose authenticity is disputed. Only the Zhou Yi has come down to us.

The oldest divination method: fifty yarrow stalks were worked through a three-stage process summed up as “the number of the Great Expansion is fifty, of which forty-nine are used”, each stage yielding one line. A full hexagram took eighteen stages and was extremely laborious. The method is recorded in the “Great Expansion Number” section of the Great Treatise (Xi Ci Zhuan), Part One.

4.2.2Spring and Autumn and Warring States: from divination to philosophy

• –

  The Zuo Zhuan and the Guoyu record more than twenty divination cases and are the most reliable material for the study of early Yi learning. They show that people of the time were already giving hexagrams a *moral reading (for instance, “this is found in the Zhou Yi: in The Army (Shi) changing to Approach (Lin)*”).

• –

  Confucius and the Yi: the *Analects has “at fifty I may study the Yi”; the silk manuscript Yao from Mawangdui records that Confucius “loved the Yi in his old age” and drew a clear line between invocation and divination and moral duty* — “I put invocation and divination last; I look only at their moral duty.”

• –

  The Yi Zhuan (Ten Wings) took shape: the single most important “philosophical upgrade” in the history of Yi learning, turning a divination manual into a philosophical classic.

The contents of the Ten Wings:

Ten in all, hence “the Ten Wings” — wings that support the Book of Changes the way a bird’s wings carry it in flight.

4.2.3Han dynasty: the golden age of image-and-number learning

The character of Han Yi learning: it placed enormous weight on images and numbers, and its methods were intricate. This was both its richness and its burden.

Key source: the Zhou Yi Ji Jie (Collected Explanations of the Zhou Yi), compiled by Li Dingzuo in the Tang dynasty. It preserves a great deal of Han-dynasty image-and-number material and is the most important source for the study of Han Yi learning.

4.2.4Wei and Jin: Wang Bi sweeps away the images and speaks of principle

Wang Bi (226–249), courtesy name Fusi, was a native of Gaoping in Shanyang (present-day Jinxiang, Shandong). He lived only twenty-four years, yet he changed the direction of Yi learning completely.

Principal works: the Zhou Yi Zhu (Commentary on the Zhou Yi) and the Zhou Yi Lue Li (Brief Exemplification of the Zhou Yi).

His central claim:

• –

  “Forget the image once you have the meaning; forget the words once you have the image” — the hexagram image is a tool, and the aim is to grasp the “meaning” (the philosophy) within it

• –

  He opposed the intricate image-and-number analogies of Han Yi learning

• –

  He interpreted the Yi through Laozi and Zhuangzi, founding the philosophical reading (yili) school

Historical influence: after Wang Bi, Yi learning divided into two great currents — the image-and-number school and the philosophical (yili) school — a division that lasts to this day.

The price of “sweeping away the images”: Wang Bi liberated the intellectual side of Yi learning, but he also left practical arts such as LiuYao without the theoretical backing of official Yi scholarship, so they could develop only independently, among the people.

4.2.5Tang dynasty: the official edition

Kong Yingda (574–648) led the compilation of the Zhou Yi Zheng Yi (Correct Meaning of the Zhou Yi). Built on Wang Bi’s commentary, it became the official textbook of the Tang dynasty and was included in the Five Classics Zheng Yi.

Li Dingzuo compiled the Zhou Yi Ji Jie, preserving what survived of Han-dynasty explanation.

4.2.6Song dynasty: twin peaks of image-and-number and philosophical learning

Shao Yong’s yuan, hui, yun and shi:

• –

  1 yuan = 12 hui = 360 yun = 4,320 shi = 129,600 years

• –

  1 hui = 30 yun = 10,800 years

• –

  The cycles of yuan, hui, yun and shi were matched to the sun, the moon and the stars in order to extrapolate the cycles of history

This is the grandest model of time on a cosmic scale in ancient China. It cannot be verified, yet its intellectual value is very high.

Zhu Xi’s important reversal: he stated plainly that “the Yi was originally a book of divination”, correcting Cheng Yi’s over-philosophising and restoring the Book of Changes to its original divinatory sense. It was one more reconciliation, in the history of Yi learning, of the tension between philosophy and images-and-numbers.

4.2.7Ming and Qing: LiuYao reaches maturity and takes fixed form

The standing of the Zengshan Buyi: it is built from more than 400 real hexagram cases, analysed one by one, and is *the practical bible of reading a LiuYao hexagram. The Old Man of the Wild Crane held that one should “delete every useless star and spirit and judge matters solely by the generating and controlling relations of the Five Elements, and by the movement and change of the self and response lines” — a minimalist attitude exactly like that of Zhang Nan’s Shenfeng Tongkao* in the Bazi field.

4.2.8From the Republican era to the present

4.3.1From Taiji to the 64 hexagrams

Wuji → Taiji → the two modes → the four images → the eight trigrams → the 64 hexagrams
        (yin and yang) (greater and lesser yin and yang) (the eight base trigrams) (the 64 doubled hexagrams)

The line (yao): the most basic unit of the symbols.

• –

  A yang line: ⚊ (one unbroken line); it is called “nine”

• –

  A yin line: ⚋ (one broken line); it is called “six”

Where “nine” and “six” come from (the main explanations):

• 1.

  Odd numbers are yang and even numbers yin; nine is the number of old yang and six the number of old yin

• 2.

  The Great Treatise (Xi Ci Zhuan): “Heaven one, earth two; heaven three, earth four; heaven five, earth six …” — “three in heaven and two on earth, and the numbers rest on them”

4.3.2How the eight trigrams are generated

The order of generation (the Earlier Heaven sequence, as given in the Great Treatise): Qian 1, Dui 2, Li 3, Zhen 4, Xun 5, Kan 6, Gen 7, Kun 8

The branching diagram for “Taiji generates the two modes”:

        Taiji
       /    \
     Yang      Yin          ← the two modes
    /  \    /  \
  Yang   Yin  Yang   Yin        ← the four images
 / \  / \  / \  / \
Yang Yin Yang Yin Yang Yin Yang Yin      ← the eight trigrams
Qian Dui Li Zhen Xun Kan Gen Kun

4.3.3The trigram symbols and their basic properties

A mnemonic verse: “Qian, three unbroken lines; Kun, six broken segments; Zhen like an upturned basin; Gen like an overturned bowl; Li hollow within; Kan full within; Dui broken above; Xun broken below.”

Memory aid:

• –

  Qian, three unbroken lines: three solid lines

• –

  Kun, six broken segments: three broken lines (six segments)

• –

  Zhen, an upturned basin: it looks like a basin standing open — a solid line below and two broken lines above

• –

  Gen, an overturned bowl: it looks like a bowl turned face down — a solid line above and two broken lines below

• –

  Li, hollow in the middle: the centre is empty (yang–yin–yang, so the middle line is yin)

• –

  Kan, full in the middle: the centre is solid

• –

  Dui, broken above: the top is empty

• –

  Xun, broken below: the bottom is empty

4.3.4The Earlier Heaven and Later Heaven arrangements

The Earlier Heaven directions (arranged along the north–south axis):

    Qian (South)
  Dui    Xun
Li        Kan
  Zhen    Gen
    Kun (North)

The Later Heaven directions (south above, north below):

    Li (South)
  Xun    Kun
Zhen        Dui
  Gen    Qian
    Kan (North)

The Later Heaven numbers (the nine palaces of the Luo Shu): Kan 1, Kun 2, Zhen 3, Xun 4, centre 5, Qian 6, Dui 7, Gen 8, Li 9

A mnemonic verse: “Nine on the crown, one beneath the feet; three to the left, seven to the right; two and four for the shoulders, six and eight for the feet” (this is the Luo Shu, which corresponds to the nine palaces of the Later Heaven arrangement).

4.3.5Table of the trigrams’ correspondences with all things

The Shuo Gua Zhuan (Discussion of the Trigrams) sets out the correspondences of the eight trigrams systematically. Those most often used are listed below:

The “branch — direction — element” correspondences commonly used in LiuYao:

4.4.1How hexagrams are named and read

Each of the 64 hexagrams is made by stacking two three-line trigrams (the base trigrams):

• –

  The lower trigram (the inner trigram): the three-line trigram at the bottom

• –

  The upper trigram (the outer trigram): the three-line trigram at the top

How to read it: from the bottom upwards. Take Peace (Tai) — “Earth over Heaven”: Kun (Earth) is the upper trigram and Qian (Heaven) the lower.

Naming the line positions: from the bottom upwards they are chu (the first place), two, three, four, five and shang (the top place)

How yang and yin lines are named in particular places:

• –

  A yang line in the first place → Chu Jiu; a yin line in the first place → Chu Liu

• –

  A yang line in the fifth place → Jiu Wu; a yin line in the fifth place → Liu Wu

• –

  A yang line in the top place → Shang Jiu; a yin line in the top place → Shang Liu

“The eminence of the nine in the fifth place” (jiu wu zhi zun) comes from the fifth line of the Qian hexagram: “A flying dragon is in the sky; it is favorable to see the great man.”

4.4.2Relations between lines: correct place, holding the middle, correspondence, adjacency, support and riding

4.4.3Jing Fang’s eight-palace hexagram order (the foundation of LiuYao)

Jing Fang divided the 64 hexagrams into eight palaces, eight hexagrams to a palace. The first hexagram in each palace is the “pure hexagram” (the palace’s own hexagram); the other seven are classified by the position of the self line as first, second, third, fourth and fifth generation, wandering soul, and returning soul.

The rule for the position of the self line:

Memory aid: the self line and the response line are always two places apart (if the self is the third, the response is the sixth; if the self is the fourth, the response is the first).

A mnemonic for the order of the eight palaces (the generative logic of Jing Fang’s Yi Zhuan): the palace’s own hexagram → change the first, second, third, fourth and fifth lines in turn → this gives the first- to fifth-generation hexagrams → change the fourth line again for the wandering soul → change the whole lower trigram back for the returning soul.

4.5.1Methods of casting a hexagram

Method one: shaking coins (the traditional mainstream)

Tools: three copper coins (or ordinary coins)

Rules:

• –

  The inscribed side is called the “reverse” and the blank side the “face” (schools name them differently, but what matters is how many reverses come up)

• –

  Shake six times, recording the result each time, from the first line to the top line (from the bottom upwards)

The reading table (taking the reverse as yang):

Note: old yang (3 reverses) and old yin (0 reverses) are “moving lines”: they change into a line of the opposite nature and produce a “changed hexagram”. Young yin and young yang are “static lines” and do not change.

A second notation (taking the inscribed side as yang) reverses the table above; in practice you must be clear about which system you are following.

Method two: casting by time with Meihua Yishu (Plum Blossom Numerology)

The Earlier Heaven numbers: Qian 1, Dui 2, Li 3, Zhen 4, Xun 5, Kan 6, Gen 7, Kun 8

The upper trigram = the remainder of (the number of the year branch + the month number + the day number) ÷ 8; the lower trigram = the remainder of (the number of the year branch + the month number + the day number + the number of the hour branch) ÷ 8; the moving line = the remainder of (the number of the year branch + the month number + the day number + the number of the hour branch) ÷ 6

(When the remainder is 0, take 8 or 6.)

This is the method of Shao Yong’s Meihua Yishu (Plum Blossom Numerology). It belongs to a different system from the Najia method of divination and is an independent art in its own right.

Method three: the yarrow-stalk method (the ancient method)

The method recorded in Part One of the Great Treatise (Xi Ci Zhuan): “the number of the Great Expansion is fifty, of which forty-nine are used”. The procedure is laborious — three stages make one line, eighteen stages make a hexagram — and it was the orthodox way of casting a hexagram in the Qin and Han periods. Few people use it today.

Method four: variants — casting from numbers, from called-out numbers, from the time, and so on

4.5.2The four steps of setting up a hexagram: Najia, the self and response lines, the six relations and the six spirits

Step one: Najia (assigning the Earthly Branches)

Each line of the eight pure hexagrams is matched with an Earthly Branch. Jing Fang’s Najia table:

An important point: when setting up a hexagram, the lower trigram takes the three lower lines and the upper trigram the three upper lines. Take Peace (Tai) — “Earth over Heaven” (Kun above, Qian below):

• –

  The lower trigram Qian: the first line Jia-Zi, the second Jia-Yin, the third Jia-Chen

• –

  The upper trigram Kun: the fourth line Gui-Chou, the fifth Gui-Hai, the top Gui-You

The rules of Najia:

• –

  The yang trigrams (Qian, Zhen, Kan, Gen) take their stems in forward order: Qian with Jia, Zhen with Geng, Kan with Wu, Gen with Bing

• –

  The yin trigrams (Kun, Xun, Li, Dui) take their stems in reverse order: Kun with Yi, Xun with Xin, Li with Ji, Dui with Ding

• –

  Qian and Kun are each matched with two stems — Jia and Yi at one end, Ren and Gui at the other — while the remaining six trigrams take one stem each

Note: Najia tables differ between sources over a few individual lines; in practice you should settle on one system and stay with it. The table above is the most widely circulated version.

Step two: placing the self and response lines

Use the table in §4.4.3 to determine the self line and the response line.

The self line stands for “oneself” or “the party concerned”; the response line stands for “the other party” or “the circumstances”.

Step three: assigning the six relations

Take the element of the palace as “self”, then look at the element of the Earthly Branch on each line and fix the six relation from its link with “self”:

Example: the Qian palace belongs to Metal, so the lines of the Qian hexagram run:

• –

  First line, Jia-Zi (Water) → Metal generates Water → self generates it → Children

• –

  Second line, Jia-Yin (Wood) → Metal controls Wood → self controls it → Wife and Wealth

• –

  Third line, Jia-Chen (Earth) → Earth generates Metal → it generates self → Parents

• –

  Fourth line, Ren-Wu (Fire) → Fire controls Metal → it controls self → Officials and Ghosts

• –

  Fifth line, Ren-Shen (Metal) → same as self → Brothers

• –

  Top line, Ren-Xu (Earth) → it generates self → Parents

Step four: assigning the six spirits

Using the day stem of the day the hexagram was cast, arrange the six spirits from the first line upwards:

The order: Azure Dragon → Vermilion Bird → Gouchen → Tengshe → White Tiger → Dark Warrior (six in all, exactly one for each line)

The correspondences of the six spirits:

4.5.3Core concepts in reading a hexagram

The relevant line, the source line, the bane line and the foe line

How to choose the relevant line (by the matter asked about)

The month branch and the day branch (the “month and day” matter most)

• –

  The month branch: the month branch in force when the hexagram is cast. It governs strength and weakness (the “authority of the month”)

• –

  The day branch: the day branch on which the hexagram is cast. It governs life and death (the “lord of the day”; it can control even a moving line)

The first principle of LiuYao judgement: the month branch and the day branch carry more weight than any line in the hexagram. However strong a line may be, if the month or the day controls it the matter will hardly succeed; however weak a line may be, if the month or the day generates and supports it the matter can still succeed.

The void of the decade

See Chapter 01, §1.4.6. When a line in the hexagram falls into the void of the decade:

• –

  A true void: void while resting or confined and without qi → the matter will hardly succeed

• –

  A false void: void while prosperous or strong and full of qi → it can succeed on the day it leaves the void

Moving lines and changed lines

• –

  A moving line: a line obtained as old yang or old yin (○ or ✕); it changes into a line of the opposite nature

• –

  The changed hexagram: the new hexagram formed once the moving lines have changed

• –

  A changed line: the new line that corresponds to a moving line after the change

What a moving line means: a moving line is “the cause of the turn in events” and stands for the driving force in how a matter develops. Traditionally, “with one moving line read that line; with several moving lines read the relevant line”.

Generation and control, clash and combination

“Turning into an advancing spirit” and “turning into a retreating spirit”:

• –

  A moving line that changes into the “next” Earthly Branch of the same element → an advancing spirit (its power grows)

• –

  A moving line that changes into the “previous” Earthly Branch of the same element → a retreating spirit (its power wanes)

Hexagrams of clash and hexagrams of combination:

• –

  A hexagram of clash (the inner and outer trigrams clash within themselves): it points to changeability, difficulty and dispersal

• –

  A hexagram of combination: it points to harmony and an easy outcome

4.5.4Judging the timing of an answer

The timing of an answer is “when the matter will come to pass”.

The usual rules for timing:

Timing is the hardest part of LiuYao, and the place where “adjustment after the event” most easily creeps in. As an educational account, we must state plainly that the judgement of timing has no basis in scientific verification and must not be used as grounds for any decision.

4.5.5A complete worked example of setting up a hexagram

Example: on a certain day (a Jia-Zi day, in the Zi month) the coins are shaken and the hexagram Standstill (Pi) — “Heaven over Earth” — is obtained, with the first line (Jia-Zi) moving.

Step one: determine the palace

Consulting the table of the eight-palace order, Standstill (Pi) — “Heaven over Earth” — belongs to the Qian palace (a third-generation hexagram of that palace).

Step two: Najia

Standstill (Pi) = Qian above, Kun below

Step three: placing the self and response lines

A third-generation hexagram → the self line is the third, the response line the sixth.

Step four: assigning the six relations (the Qian palace belongs to Metal)

Step five: assigning the six spirits (a Jia-Zi day → on a Jia day the sequence begins with the Azure Dragon)

Step six: the judgement (assuming the question asked was “seeking wealth”)

• –

  The relevant line: Wife and Wealth (the third line, Yi-Mao, Wood — which is also the self line)

• –

  The self line carries wealth → tradition holds that “the wealth line holding the self” is a sign of wealth

• –

  Mao Wood in the Zi month (Water is prosperous, Wood is strong) → it is generated by the month and is strong

• –

  On the Jia-Zi day, Zi Water generates Mao Wood → it is generated by the day

• –

  Mao Wood forms a Zi–Mao punishment with the day branch Zi → there is a blemish

• –

  The Azure Dragon on the first line is moving; Parents changes into … → you must look at the changed line

Note: this is only a demonstration of method, showing how the chain of reasoning in LiuYao unfolds; it represents no real prediction whatsoever.

4.6.1Three senses of yi: change, simplicity and constancy

4.6.2Core philosophical propositions

4.6.3Some important hexagram meanings

Qian and Kun (the gateway of the I Ching):

The dragon imagery of the six lines of Qian (the best-known sequence of line texts in Yi learning):

“After Completion (Ji Ji)” and “Before Completion (Wei Ji)” (the end of the 64 hexagrams):

The I Ching closes with “Wei Ji” — an arrangement full of meaning: the world is always in an “unfinished” state, and change never comes to an end.

4.6.4The logic of the Xugua Zhuan

The Xugua Zhuan explains the logic behind the order of the 64 hexagrams:

Heaven and Earth came into being, and then the ten thousand things were born      Qian and Kun (Heaven and Earth)
What fills the space between Heaven and Earth is nothing but the ten thousand things; hence Zhun follows      Zhun (the hardship of first birth)
Things, once born, are sure to be obscured; hence Meng follows      Meng (obscurity and enlightenment)
…

The upper canon (hexagrams 1–30): from Qian and Kun to Kan and Li, it deals with the unfolding of Heaven and Earth. The lower canon (hexagrams 31–64): from Xian and Heng to Ji Ji and Wei Ji, it deals with the unfolding of human society.

4.7.1Fuxi (a legendary figure)

Traditional standing: first of the Three Sovereigns, the founding ancestor who “drew the trigrams”.

Traditional deeds:

• –

  Xici Zhuan, Part Two: “In ancient times, when Bao Xi (Fuxi) ruled all under Heaven, he looked up and observed the images in the sky, and looked down and examined the patterns on the earth. He watched the markings of birds and beasts and what suited the ground. Near at hand he took from his own body; far off he took from other things. Thereupon he first made the eight trigrams, to communicate the virtue of the spirit-like and bright, and to classify the true nature of all things.”

• –

  Tradition credits Fuxi with creating the eight trigrams, devising written tallies, knotting fishing nets, teaching hunting and fishing, and fixing the rites of marriage.

Cultural significance: Fuxi stands for the key leap in Chinese civilisation — from observing nature to building a system of symbols. Whether or not he existed, the legend of “Fuxi drawing the trigrams” is itself a metaphor for how abstract signs arise out of observing images.

Archaeological link: painted pottery from the Dadiwan site at Tianshui, Gansu (about 8,000 years old) bears incised marks resembling hexagram figures, and these are often cited as a clue to early trigram drawing (though scholars dispute it).

4.7.2King Wen of Zhou (c. 1152–1056 BCE)

Who he was: a leader of the Zhou clan in the late Shang, surnamed Ji and named Chang, honoured by later ages as King Wen.

Traditional deeds:

• –

  “King Wen was imprisoned and so worked out the I Ching” (from the Letter to Ren An) — held for seven years by King Zhou of Shang at Youli (present-day Tangyin, Henan), he extended the eight trigrams into the 64 hexagrams while in prison and composed the judgement texts.

• –

  He laid the foundation of the Zhou political philosophy of “matching virtue to Heaven”.

A historical reading: on the evidence of archaeology and documents, “King Wen worked out the hexagrams” more likely refers to a systematic reorganisation and re-editing of an existing divination system by the Zhou. The number hexagrams found on the oracle bones of Zhouyuan (hexagram figures built from numerals) show that the hexagram system was taking shape at the Shang–Zhou transition.

The Youli site: in present-day Tangyin county, Henan, the remains of Youli are called “China's earliest prison” and “the birthplace of the I Ching”, and an I Ching museum stands there.

4.7.3The Duke of Zhou (dates unknown, c. 11th century BCE)

Who he was: the fourth son of King Wen of Zhou and younger brother of King Wu, named Dan. A statesman of the early Western Zhou and the leading figure behind “the establishment of rites and music”.

Traditional deeds: tradition holds that the 384 line texts of the I Ching were composed by the Duke of Zhou.

Historical standing: the Duke of Zhou is one of the most important figures in the history of Chinese political institutions and a key link in the Confucian “succession of the Way” (Confucius honoured him all his life). His contribution to the line texts is a traditional attribution; most modern scholars hold that the judgements and line texts were the product of long collective accumulation.

4.7.4Confucius (551–479 BCE)

Who he was: a thinker and educator of the late Spring and Autumn period and the founder of the Confucian school; named Qiu, courtesy name Zhongni, a native of Zou in the state of Lu (present-day Qufu, Shandong).

His relation to the I Ching:

• –

  The Analects, “Shu Er”: “Give me a few more years, so that at fifty I may study the I Ching — then I might be free of great faults.”

• –

  The silk manuscript Yao from Mawangdui records that Confucius loved the I Ching in his later years — “at rest it lay on his mat, on the road it rode in his bag” — yet he drew a clear line between “invocation and divination” and “moral duty”: “I put invocation and divination last; I look only at their moral duty.”

• –

  Tradition holds that Confucius wrote the Ten Wings; modern scholarship holds that they were not the work of one person at one time, but Confucius and his school were undoubtedly the central force behind them.

Historical significance: Confucius's “Yi learning of moral duty” raised the I Ching from a divination manual to a classic of moral philosophy and set the mainstream direction of Yi learning for the next two thousand years. This is the fundamental reason the I Ching could become “the first of all classics”.

4.7.5Jing Fang (77–37 BCE)

Who he was: a Western Han scholar of the I Ching and of music theory; his original surname was Li, courtesy name Junming, a native of Dunqiu in Dong commandery (present-day Qingfeng, Henan). Because he loved the pitch pipes, he worked out the surname “Jing” for himself from the pitches.

Contributions:

• 1.

  The Najia method — it brought the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches into the 64 hexagrams and joined the hexagram lines to the system of generation and restraint among the Five Elements. The direct source of LiuYao divination

• 2.

  The eight-palace hexagram order — it divided the 64 hexagrams into eight palaces and set up a systematic framework for their order

• 3.

  The theory of the self and response lines — it fixed a self line and a response line for every hexagram

• 4.

  The theory of the six relations — it built a system of six relations on the element of the palace to which the hexagram belongs

• 5.

  The hexagram-qi theory — it matched hexagrams to the Solar Terms (a further development of Meng Xi's work)

• 6.

  Music theory — he created the “sixty pitches”, an extension of the “three-part gain and loss” method

How he ended: for memorialising Emperor Yuan of Han about “Shi Xian's monopoly of power” and “the law for assessing officials by the record of their tasks”, he angered the powerful and was executed in the marketplace at the age of forty-one.

Historical standing: one of the most important figures in the history of Chinese shushu. Core concepts such as LiuYao, the Najia method, hexagram-qi and the self and response lines all come from Jing Fang. It is fair to say that the theoretical skeleton of every coin-tossing divination practised today was built by Jing Fang.

4.7.6Shao Yong (1011–1077)

Who he was: a Northern Song philosopher and Yi scholar; courtesy name Yaofu, posthumous title Kangjie, a native of Gongcheng (present-day Huixian, Henan) who later lived in Luoyang.

Principal works: Huangji Jingshi (Supreme Principles Governing the World) and Meihua Yishu (Plum Blossom Numerology) (attributed).

His central contributions:

• 1.

  Earlier Heaven learning: he built a system of image-and-number deduction on the “Earlier Heaven arrangement” of the trigrams

• 2.

  The yuan, hui, yun and shi cycles: 1 yuan = 12 hui = 360 yun = 4,320 shi = 129,600 years, used to extrapolate the cycles of cosmic history

• 3.

  The “doubling method”: generating the structure of the cosmos by repeated division into two (Taiji → the two modes → the four images → the eight trigrams → …), which has something in common with Leibniz's binary thinking

• 4.

  Meihua Yishu (Plum Blossom Numerology) (attributed): a simple method of casting a hexagram from time and numbers

Historical standing: he is named together with Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi as one of the Five Masters of the Northern Song, and he is one of the founders of Neo-Confucianism. His image-and-number system is the highest achievement of ancient Chinese cosmology.

A saying of his: “Learning that does not reach the frontier of Heaven and humanity is not worthy of the name.”

4.7.7Zhu Xi (1130–1200)

Who he was: a Neo-Confucian of the Southern Song; courtesy name Yuanhui, style name Hui'an, a native of Wuyuan in Huizhou (present-day Wuyuan, Jiangxi). He brought Neo-Confucianism to its fullest synthesis.

Principal works: Zhouyi Benyi (The Original Meaning of the I Ching) and Sishu Zhangju Jizhu (Collected Annotations on the Four Books).

His contributions to Yi learning:

• 1.

  He stated plainly that “the I Ching was originally a book of divination”, correcting Cheng Yi's over-philosophising bias

• 2.

  He restored the “diagrams and writings” tradition (the He Tu and Luo Shu charts, the Earlier Heaven diagram) to its place in Yi learning

• 3.

  He steered a middle course between images-and-numbers and philosophical principle, and his reading became the official standard of Yi learning through the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties

• 4.

  Zhouyi Benyi took “a book of divination” as its standpoint and had enormous influence on later ages

Historical standing: Zhu Xi is the most influential figure in the intellectual history of late imperial China. His Zhouyi Benyi and Sishu Zhangju Jizhu determined how Chinese readers read the classics for the following 600 years.

4.7.8The Old Man of the Wild Crane (dates unknown, early Qing)

Who he was: a great Qing master of LiuYao whose real name and life can no longer be traced; he is known to posterity as “the Old Man of the Wild Crane”.

Principal work: Zengshan Buyi (Augmented and Abridged Divination), whose full title is Zengshan Buyi Quanshu.

His central contributions:

• 1.

  He deleted a great many useless Shen Sha (Stars & Spirits) and held that matters should be judged only by the generation and restraint of the Five Elements and by the movement and change of the self and response lines

• 2.

  The book is built from more than 400 real hexagram cases, each one analysed in turn

• 3.

  He set out practical rules such as “when the relevant line appears several times, take the one that is in Emptiness or broken by the month”

• 4.

  Its language is plain, and it insists again and again that “one must not cling to a single principle”

Historical standing: the most important practical classic of LiuYao divination. The Zengshan Buyi and the Bushi Zhengzong are known together as the twin jades of LiuYao — the first prizes practice, the second prizes system.

His scholarly temper: his spirit of “cutting away the tangled to keep the simple” matches that of Zhang Nan (Shenfeng Tongkao) and Chen Su'an (Mingli Yueyan) in the Bazi field exactly, and together they make up the minimalist current in the shushu world of the Ming and Qing.

4.7.9Shang Binghe (1870–1950)

Who he was: a Yi scholar of the modern era; courtesy name Jiezhi, style name the Old Man of Zixi, a native of Xingtang, Hebei.

Principal works: Zhouyi Gushikao (A Study of Ancient Divination in the I Ching), Jiaoshi Yilin Zhu (Annotated Jiao's Yilin) and Zhouyi Shangshi Xue (Shang Binghe's Study of the I Ching).

Contributions:

• –

  He systematically arranged ancient divination cases and set out a methodology for distinguishing the image-and-number school from the philosophical school

• –

  He studied the I Ching by the methods of evidential research (kaoju), and is a representative figure of modern Yi learning

• –

  He held that “the images are the foundation of the I Ching”, and rediscovered the image-and-number value of Han Yi learning

Historical standing: a leading figure of Yi learning in the Republican era, named together with Hang Xizhai.