Guides

Wenyan is the most unusual chapter in the Ten Wings — it only interprets Qian and Kun, the two hexagrams that form the door to the entire I Ching. Master these two, and the remaining 62 tr-grams fall into place. Qian line 9.3 'the superior person works tirelessly all day and stays vigilant at night — no error,' Kun line 'Kun reaches ultimate softness yet moves with firmness' — every passage includes the original text, plain translation, and deep analysis. Read why Wenyan was written for only two hexagrams.

Shuogua (Explaining the Trigrams) is the most practical chapter in the I Ching system. It systematically explains why Qian is Heaven, the ruler, the father, and the horse; why Kun is Earth, the mother, and the ox; why Zhen is Thunder, the dragon, and the eldest son. 'Heaven and Earth are fixed in position; mountain and marsh exchange breath; thunder and wind press against each other; water and fire do not attack each other' — this is the foundational framework of trigram relationships. The animal and body-part correspondences for all eight trigrams — the source of Plum Blossom Divination's classification of things. Original text, plain English translation, and deep analysis.

Xici Shang (Great Commentary Part 1) is the most systematic philosophical explanation of the I Ching, attributed to Confucius and his disciples. From Heaven above and Earth below to 'one yin one yang is the Dao,' from Taiji generating the Two Modes to the distinction between Dao above-form and tools below-form — each passage includes the original text, plain English translation, and deep analysis. See why the Xici Commentary is the key to the entire I Ching.

Xici Xia (Great Commentary Part 2) covers three things: how Fuxi observed Heaven, Earth, and all creatures to abstract the eight trigrams; the philosophy of 'when blocked, change — change leads to passage — passage leads to endurance'; and the line position theory of lines 2 and 4. Plus the thirteen hexagrams for making tools by observing images — nets from Li, plows from Yi, markets from Shi He. How ancient sages made real objects based on hexagram images. Original text, plain English translation, and deep analysis.

Xugua (Sequence of the Hexagrams) explains the order of the 64 hexagrams from Qian and Kun to Jiji and Weiji. Adjacent hexagrams relate in only two ways: mutual rotation (flip the hexagram upside down to get the next one) or mutual transformation (all six lines switch yin to yang and vice versa). Each hexagram's position in the sequence is not random — it forms a complete model of cosmic evolution and human development. Understand Xugua and you understand the grand structure of the entire I Ching.

Zagua (Miscellaneous Hexagrams) distills each of the 64 hexagrams into a single word or two. Qian — hard. Kun — soft. Bi — joy. Shi — sorrow. Zhen — rising. Gen — stopping. Sun and Yi — the beginning of flourishing and decline. Why is Zagua's arrangement different from the received text? For beginners it is the fastest entry point — no need to memorize hexagram statements. Remember one word and you capture the essence of an entire hexagram. Original text, plain English translation, and deep analysis.

Calendar casting is the core method of plum blossom divination. Year uses the Earthly Branch number (Zi=1, Chou=2…Hai=12). Month uses the lunar month number. Day uses the lunar day number. Upper trigram: sum of year+month+day ÷ 8, take remainder. Moving line: sum of year+month+day+hour ÷ 6, take remainder. Complete worked example included, plus why the lunar calendar matters.

Plum blossom number casting explained. First number ÷8 gives the upper trigram. Second number ÷8 gives the lower trigram. Third number ÷6 gives the moving line. Numbers can come from license plates, house numbers, phone digits, random page numbers. Five worked examples with different number sources, plus how to handle large numbers.

Plum blossom object and sound casting explained. See a color (red=Li, white=Dui), a shape (rectangle=Zhen, circle=Qian), a creature (horse=Qian, cow=Kun) — cast from it. Hear a number of sounds ÷8 for a trigram. See a character — use stroke count or radical (three-dot water=Kan). Full mixed-casting method included.

Three complete plum blossom divination cases with deep analysis. Love: woman asks about getting back with ex (Di Lei Fu → Shan Lei Yi). Career: job seeker tests interview outcome (Kan Wei Shui → Shui Di Bi). Health: mother tests son's illness (Zhen Wei Lei → Lei Huo Feng). Each case includes casting source, upper-lower trigram and moving line calculation, original-nuclear-changed hexagrams, ti-yong judgment, response timing, and actual verification. Plus the two biggest traps for beginners.

Three plum blossom response timing methods: Trigram Number Method (upper number + lower number + moving line number), Five-Phase Method (yong trigram's attribute sets speed — fire fastest, water slowest), Solar Term Method (anchor to solar term points). Near-response and far-response judgment rules, plus a real job-offer case study — from hexagram to calculated arrival date.

The Three Essentials and Ten Responses form plum blossom divination's most mysterious external response judging system. Three Essentials: what the ear hears, what the eye sees, what the heart thinks. Ten Responses: heaven-time, geography, people-character, behavior, speech, sound-color, text, number, objects, plants-animals. Each with real external response examples showing how they work. Core rule: external responses crash into you. You don't go looking for them.

Ti-yong generating and overcoming is the core of plum blossom interpretation. Ti is you. Yong is the matter. Ti generates yong = draining. Yong generates ti = great fortune. Ti overcomes yong = minor fortune. Yong overcomes ti = misfortune. Ti-yong harmony = alignment. Each relation broken down in depth with concrete examples, plus rules for when both trigrams have moving lines.

Complete wanwu leixiang (image correspondence) table for plum blossom divination. Each trigram lists categories: astronomy, geography, people, body parts, animals, objects, season and five-phase. Qian=heaven, Dui=marsh, Li=fire, Zhen=thunder, Xun=wind, Kan=water, Gen=mountain, Kun=earth. One table maps all eight trigrams to everything in the world.

Xun doesn't tell you to kneel. It tells you to switch approaches when head-on collision smashes you against a wall. Xun = wind. Wind has no shape but it slips through every crack. How Xun works in workplace influence, relationship navigation, and character development.

Dui = joy. Not the fleeting kind that leaves you empty. The kind where you sit with someone who gets it and talk about something that matters to both of you. Friends discuss and practice — sharpen ideas with someone who knows the terrain. It's ten times faster than grinding alone. How Dui works in social connection, learning, love, and character.

Huan isn't a bad hexagram. It's about the wisdom of dissolving so you can rebuild. Old things that don't scatter leave no room for new ones to enter. How Huan works in organizational restructuring, ending relationships, and psychological rebuilding.

Jie teaches you to create systems. But it also warns: a system that becomes a cage is worse than no system at all. Bitter limitation cannot persevere — discipline pushed too far hurts more than no discipline. How Jie works in management systems, self-discipline, relationship boundaries, and health habits.

Zhong Fu is about the power of sincerity. Pigs and fish were the humblest offerings in ancient ritual — but Zhong Fu says sincerity moves even these. Not that sincerity is all-powerful. It's that sincerity is the only thing you can deploy with zero external resources. How Zhong Fu works in career trust-building and relationship foundations.

Xiao Guo teaches a survival wisdom everyone overlooks: small mistakes are allowed — but direction matters. Small excess favors the low, not the high — when you're in a low position, mistakes cost little. When you force your way upward, mistakes cost ten times as much. How Xiao Guo works in career moves and relationship conflict.