Preface to the Expanded and Revised Book of Changes Divination
增刪卜易序
Preface to the Expanded and Revised Book of Changes Divination
增刪卜易序
The Way of Yijing Divination
卜易之道
野鶴曰：卜易之道，乃伏羲、文王、周公、孔子四大聖人之心法也。得其精者可以參天量地；粗知其理亦可趨吉避凶。凡學卜者可以深求，亦可淺學。淺學者只要先學裝卦，知道動變及卦之六沖，卦變六沖看熟用神章中占何人占何事以何爻爲用神；再看何爲旬空、月破及春夏秋冬四時衰旺、生克沖刑卽知決斷禍福。
The Wild Crane says: The way of Yijing divination is the mind-method transmitted by the four great sages -- Fuxi, King Wen, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius. Those who master its essence can fathom Heaven and measure Earth; those who merely grasp its principles can still pursue good fortune and avoid disaster. Those studying divination may pursue deep study or learn at a basic level. For basic learning, one need only first learn how to cast a hexagram, understand moving lines and changes, the six clashing hexagrams, and changing hexagrams with six clashes. Then study the 'Useful Spirit' chapter to know which line serves as the useful spirit for what person inquiring about what matter. Next learn what constitutes void of the ten-day cycle, monthly destruction, and the waxing and waning across the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter -- generation, overcoming, clashing, and punishment. Then one can determine fortune and misfortune.
野鶴老人 (Yehe Laoren): Wild Crane Elder (野鶴老人) was the pen name of a Qing dynasty divination master whose real identity is uncertain. His practical manual was later expanded (增) and edited (刪) by Li Wenhui (李文輝) and supplemented by Li Woping (李我平), becoming one of the most influential practical divination texts in the Chinese tradition.
用神 (yongshen, 'Useful Spirit'): the key technical concept in Six-Line (六爻) divination. Each type of inquiry (career, health, marriage, etc.) has a designated line type that serves as the primary indicator. For example, when inquiring about one's career, the 'official ghost' (官鬼) line is the useful spirit; for wealth, the 'wife-wealth' (妻財) line.
The Zengshan Buyi belongs to the 'Six Lines' (六爻) school of Yijing divination, which uses coin-tossing rather than yarrow stalks. This practical, case-based approach became the dominant form of Chinese divination from the Ming dynasty onward, far more widely practiced than the philosophical study of the Yijing.
Divining for Career Success
占功名
假令占功名者得旺官持世，或動爻作官星生合世爻，求名如拾芥耳。倘遇子孫持世，或子孫動於卦中，不拘占入場占升遷悉如水中撈月。
Suppose when divining for career success one obtains a prosperous 'official' line holding the generational position, or a moving line producing the official star that generates or combines with the generational line -- then obtaining a post is as easy as picking up mustard seeds. But if one encounters the 'offspring' line holding the generational position, or the offspring line moving within the hexagram, then regardless of whether one is divining for passing examinations or promotion, it is all like fishing for the moon in water.
持世 (chi shi, 'holding the generational position'): in Six-Line divination, one of the six lines is designated the 'generational' (世) line, representing the querent. Which line 'holds' this position is determined by the hexagram type and is critical to interpretation.
The five line types -- parents (父母), siblings (兄弟), offspring (子孫), wife-wealth (妻財), and official-ghost (官鬼) -- form an interlocking system of generation and overcoming. For career divination, the official-ghost line is favorable (it represents authority), while the offspring line is unfavorable (offspring 'overcome' officials in the five-phase cycle).
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