Credited to Shao Yong; the received book is about Ming-era.
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MEI HUA · COURSE 1 · FREE
Mei Hua · Principles
Six lessons on the rules of Mei Hua: casting by number, original/mutual/changed, Body and Use, the phases and seasonal strength. By the end you can cast and read the broad direction yourself.
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About 6 min
What Mei Hua is
Origins, how it differs from yarrow and coins, and “mind divination”.
ONE THING TO REMEMBER
Mei Hua casts from numbers, time or what you see, and judges by Body/Use and the Five Phases. It is far later than the Zhouyi: a practical method built on it.
Credited to Shao Yong, compiled later
Tradition credits Mei Hua to Shao Yong (1011–1077, Northern Song). He is said to have cast a hexagram on seeing two sparrows fight over a plum branch and fall, predicting that a neighbour’s daughter would break off blossoms the next evening and hurt her thigh: the “plum-viewing” case that gave the method its name. The book we have was compiled later, usually dated to the Ming.
Mei Hua Yi Shu, ch. 1 (excerpt)
後觀梅，以雀爭勝，布算，知次晚有鄰人女折花，墮傷其股。其卜蓋始於此，後世相傳，遂名《觀梅數》。
Later, watching the plum, he saw sparrows quarrel, cast the numbers, and knew that the next evening a neighbour’s daughter would pick the blossoms and fall, injuring her thigh. The method began here, and later ages called it the Plum-Viewing Numbers.
The full plum-viewing case is worked through in Mei Hua course 2 (Images), open as a free sample.
Same 64 hexagrams, a different way of reading
| Zhouyi casting | Mei Hua | |
|---|---|---|
| How to cast | Yarrow or coins, line by line | Two numbers, date and hour, things seen |
| Moving lines | Zero to six | Always exactly one |
| Main reading | Judgment and line texts | Body/Use, phases, seasonal strength |
| Hexagrams used | Original and changed | Original, mutual, changed |
So the trigrams from course 1 and the phases from course 5 come straight back. Line texts are secondary; the weight is on image and number.
One concrete matter at a time
Mei Hua is best at “where is this heading, should I push or hold”: take this project or not, how a negotiation will go, whether a lost item turns up. The more concrete and personal the question, the more useful the reading.
- Good“In next week’s negotiation, should I concede or hold firm?”
- Too vague“What will my life be like?” Ask about one matter at hand instead.
- Do not askMedical diagnoses, other people’s private affairs, or big financial bets on a single cast.
Do not recast the same matter until you like the answer; the first cast is the one to read.
“Mind divination”
Mei Hua is often called “mind divination”: the hexagram is a starting point, read together with the people and things at hand. This course makes the rules solid; Mei Hua course 2 brings the images to life.
Cast from numbers or time; always one moving line.
Judge by Body/Use, the phases and seasonal strength.
Try it now
3 small points in this lesson; get each right once and you pass. A miss is fine: it comes back two questions later, asked a new way.