I Ching terms

One of the horizontal strokes that make a hexagram. Six per hexagram, counted from the bottom up.

A yang line is solid (⚊), a yin line is broken (⚋). Every hexagram is built from these two.

In line names the bottom line is “first” (初) and the top line “top” (上); the others are numbered two to five.

In line names nine marks a yang line and six a yin line: 九三 is a yang third line, 上六 a yin top line.

The eight three-line figures: Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, Kun, each with a natural image and quality.

Two trigrams stacked into a six-line figure: 8 × 8 = 64.

Lines 4–6 form the upper (outer) trigram, Lines 1–3 the lower (inner). Inner often stands for you and what is near; outer for the other side and surroundings.

The full name gives the upper and lower images, then the name: “Water over Heaven, Waiting”.

The short text that opens each hexagram and speaks for the whole. Read it first for the overall situation.

One text per line, describing that position. The moving line’s text is usually the focus of a reading.

A commentary explaining the Judgment, often through the trigrams and positions. One of the Ten Wings.

One sentence on the whole picture, usually “X above Y: the noble person thereby …”, drawing a lesson from the image.

A short note on each line text, often naming the position or the reason.

Ten commentaries on the text: Tuan (2), Images (2), Xici (2), Wenyan, Shuogua, Xugua, Zagua. Traditionally attributed to Confucius.

Qian’s Judgment, common elsewhere too: great, prevailing, favorable, steadfast (zhen can also mean “to divine”).

The most direct verdicts: a good outcome, a bad outcome.

Regret: remorse that can still be corrected. Humiliation: embarrassment, minor trouble. Both are lighter than misfortune.

Danger; stay alert. Often paired with “no blame”: risky, but careful conduct avoids fault.

No fault. Not the same as good fortune: the conduct is right and invites no blame.

An extra text in Qian and Kun, read when all six lines move.

A yang line in an odd place (1, 3, 5) or a yin line in an even place (2, 4, 6) is in its proper place.

Lines 2 and 5 sit in the middle of their trigrams; central lines are usually balanced.

Lines 1–4, 2–5 and 3–6 correspond. One yin and one yang answer each other; two of the same kind do not.

A yin line directly below a yang line: the soft supports the firm, usually smooth.

A yin line directly above a yang line: the soft rides on the firm, an uneasy place.

The relation of adjacent lines; a yin and a yang side by side are close to each other.

Matching lines of the same kind do not respond. Gen’s Tuan: above and below do not respond.

Both central and proper: yang Line 5, yin Line 2.

The line a hexagram turns on: the lone line in a single-line hexagram; also “the line that makes it” and “the line that leads it”.

The four values of a cast line: 9 old yang and 6 old yin (they move), 7 young yang and 8 young yin (they stay).

A line that came out 9 or 6. It flips to produce the changed hexagram and is the focus of the reading.

The hexagram you cast: the present situation.

The hexagram after the moving lines flip: where things lean, not a fixed outcome. “Guan to Pi” means Guan changing into Pi.

Toss three coins per line, six times. One face counts 3, the other 2; the sum gives 6–9.

The method in the Xici: forty-nine of fifty stalks, three operations per line. Its odds of moving lines differ from coins.

Old terms: the lower (inner) trigram is zhen, the upper (outer) hui. Zhu Xi later used them for primary and changed hexagrams in three-line casts.

From Zhu Xi’s Yixue Qimeng: how many lines move decides which text to read. One moving line: that line of the primary; none: the primary Judgment; and so on.

A question should be specific, about you, observable, and single. The old rules: do not divine without real doubt, and do not ask the same thing again and again.

The hexagram turned upside down, often read as the other party’s view. Waiting reverses to Conflict.

Every line flipped, often read as the opposite or missing half. Waiting inverts to Progress.

Lines 2–4 as the lower and 3–5 as the upper trigram: the inner process. Essential in Mei Hua.

The received order of the 64, from Qian and Kun to After and Before Completion. The Xugua explains why each follows the last.

The sequence runs in pairs: 28 are reversals, 4 are inversions.

The things the Shuogua assigns to each trigram (body, animal, family, direction) so a trigram can land on concrete matters.

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water. Each trigram has one: Qian/Dui Metal, Zhen/Xun Wood, Kan Water, Li Fire, Kun/Gen Earth.

Generating: Wood → Fire → Earth → Metal → Water → Wood. Controlling: Wood → Earth → Water → Fire → Metal → Wood.

The core of Mei Hua: the trigram without the moving line is Body (you), the one with it is Use (the matter). Their relation sets the verdict.

A method credited to Shao Yong (Song dynasty); the received book is about Ming-era. It casts from numbers or time and judges by Body and Use.

The trigram numbers used to cast in Mei Hua: Qian 1, Dui 2, Li 3, Zhen 4, Xun 5, Kan 6, Gen 7, Kun 8. Divide by 8 for a trigram, by 6 for the moving line.

Five relations: same phase, Use feeds Body, Body feeds Use, Body controls Use, Use controls Body. Gain, loss, success, trouble and smoothness in the classic.

A phase’s strength in a season: ruling, rising, resting, confined, dead. Mei Hua checks whether Body is in season.

“No movement, no cast; no occasion, no cast.” Cast only when something unusual catches you and you have a question.

The book’s lists of what each trigram stands for: people, body, temper, animals, objects, directions, colours, numbers. Hold one core idea per trigram.

Qian father, Kun mother; Zhen, Kan, Gen the eldest, middle and youngest son; Xun, Li, Dui the three daughters. The odd line out gives sex and order.

What is asked, which trigram speaks, then filter by time, place and sense. “Reckon the numbers, but reason as well.”

Li south, Kan north, Zhen east, Dui west, Xun southeast, Kun southwest, Qian northwest, Gen northeast. Used for lost things, directions and Later-Heaven casting.

Former Heaven goes from numbers to a cast; Later Heaven from an image: the thing seen above, its direction below, both numbers plus the hour for the line.

Ear, eye and mind: what you hear, see and are struck by at the moment of casting. Only what comes unbidden counts.

Main, mutual, changed, direction, day, hour, outer, weather, place and people. The first three are the cast itself; the rest are turned into trigrams and weighed against Body.

Whatever turns up as you cast. The cast leads; an omen adds or subtracts a little, and counts only at that moment.

Two omens read directly: coming towards you is arriving, going away is past; “round things succeed, chipped things fail.”

Roughly when a matter comes to pass. Days that feed or match Body help, days that press on it need care; treat it as a window, not a date.

Upper number + lower number + hour. The book’s Later-Heaven cases use it for timing, as years, months or days by distance.

“Sitting, the matter is slow; walking, quick.” Halve the cast number if walking, keep it if standing, double it if sitting.

When a trigram’s phase is in season: Zhen and Xun in spring or on Yin/Mao days, Li in summer or on Si/Wu. The peony case’s noon comes from Li.

The book’s second chapter sorts questions by kind, says what Body and Use stand for in each, and gives a verdict for each relation.

Weather ignores Body and Use: count the six trigrams. “Many Li, fine; many Kan, rain”; many Xun, wind; many Dui, overcast.

Cast, Body and Use, topic verdict, season, mutual and changed, images, timing: frame first, then picture, then time.

Split by count, the smaller half above. Strokes for one to three characters, tones for four to ten (level 1, rising 2, departing 3, entering 4), counts from eleven.

Count the sounds for the upper trigram and add the hour for the lower. Knocks, bells, birdcalls; two groups make two trigrams.

Chi above, cun below, both plus the hour for the line, ignoring fen; or zhang above, chi below, ignoring cun.

Eight sources: voice, appearance, body, things carried, clothes, something touched, the date and hour, the question written down. Body is the person asking.

Do not cast from a crowd moving together, nor from rivers and mountains; for houses, trees and objects, take when they were built, planted or made.