Eighteen Changes Make One Hexagram — Follow These Eighteen Changes. You Will Truly Know How to Cast.
After These Eighteen Changes, You Will Really Know How to Cast
The Dayan method: six lines, three changes per line, eighteen changes total. You read about it. But give yourself fifty yarrow stalks and go from Change 1 to Change 18 — you may not finish independently. This article uses one real casting (querent Zhang San, born May 18 1992, asking about career direction). We walk through every change together. Each step marks: current change number, which line we are building, total remainder sum, what line value comes out (9/6/7/8), and whether to draw ⚊ or ⚋. After these eighteen changes, you move from 'I know how casting works' to 'I can cast on my own.'
Eighteen changes divide into six groups. Each group of three changes produces one line. The first nine changes build the lower trigram (lines 1 to 3). The last nine changes build the upper trigram (lines 4 to 6). Every change has only four steps: Divide-Two, Suspend-One, Count-by-Four, Return-Remainder. After each line, collect the remainder stalks, reassemble exactly forty-nine, and start the next line. Moving lines appear automatically — 9 and 6 are the moving lines. Follow once. Next time, you operate.
Preparation: The Taiji Stalk and the Forty-Nine Operating Stalks
Line 1 · Change 1: Remainder 5
Line 1 · Change 2: Remainder 4
Line 1 · Change 3: Remainder 8 → Line 1 Determined
Line 2 · Change 4 → Change 6: Line 2 (Old Yang Moving Line)
Line 3 · Change 7 → Change 9: Line 3 Determined
Line 4 · Change 10 → Change 12: Line 4 Determined
Line 5 · Change 13 → Change 15: Line 5 Determined
Line 6 · Change 16 → Change 18: Line 6 Determined
Assembling the Hexagram — Original and Transformed
Can You Really Cast a Hexagram on Your Own? Four Self-Test Standards
- You complete a full Dayan casting without consulting any reference. One sheet of paper. Fifty yarrow stalks. Twenty minutes. A hexagram emerges. If not — follow along again.
- During the operation, you naturally voice the symbolic meaning of each step. Divide-Two = Taiji gives birth to Liangyi. Suspend-One = the Three Powers. Count-by-Four = the Four Seasons. Return-Remainder = the intercalary month. Not memorized. It surfaces as your hands move.
- After Return-Remainder, you never touch those stalks again. The remainder stalks wedged between your left ring finger and pinky, and the stalks on the table still in play — physically separated. You know clearly: those stalks have left this round's computation.
- Six lines complete. You immediately identify which lines are moving — 9s and 6s stand out — and you instantly draw the transformed hexagram. No second computation.
Common Breakers
- Mixing remainder stalks back in to count. This is the number one fatal error. After Change 1, the remainder stalks (5 or 9) go aside. Change 2 never touches them. After Change 2, its remainder stalks (4 or 8) go aside. Every change's remainder stalks exit the subsequent computation. Your active counting pile shrinks each change. One moment you mix remainder stalks back in — every number after that is wrong. Every line is wrong. Use a separate bowl for remainder stalks. Physical isolation.
- Taking Suspend-One from the left pile. The rule is: take one stalk from the right pile. Many people grab from the left by reflex. The right-and-left sum is the same. The math does not break. But the Three Powers position shifts. Humanity should stand between Heaven (left) and Earth (right) — taking from the right symbolizes humanity descending from Heaven toward Earth. The ritual itself holds meaning. If you do not care about ritual, use the coin method instead.
- Losing track of which change and which line. Eighteen changes is long. Recommended method: draw six horizontal lines on paper from bottom up (lines 1–6). Beside each line, leave three spaces to record the three change remainders. After a line's three changes, draw ⚊ or ⚋ and mark the value. At Change 18's end, six lines are clear. No backtracking.
What This Casting Means for Career, Relationships, Personality, and Health
Career & Wealth
Original hexagram ䷽ Xiao Guo — minor excess. Best to stay low, not rise. Asking about career direction: what you are doing now went just a little too far. Not a big mistake. A small excess — the food is a pinch too salty, your words came out a shade too sharp. Xiao Guo's Line 2 moves (Old Yang → Young Yin): Line 2 is the only moving line in the entire hexagram. The line statement says: 'Passing by the grandfather, meeting the grandmother. Not reaching the ruler, meeting the minister. No blame.' You bypassed the big target and met the right person. The position you originally wanted to charge toward (grandfather/ruler) — you did not get it. But along the detour, you met someone who helps you (grandmother/minister). Not reaching the ruler, meeting the minister — you did not see the king, but you met the minister. Your current reality: the big goal is not directly achieved, but you gained key connections. Transformed hexagram ䷎ Qian: Qian is the only hexagram in the entire sixty-four where all six line statements are auspicious. The 'minor excess' you face right now eventually turns into 'modesty' — pull back, keep a low profile, do steady work — the outcome is good. Three things to do: One — do not charge at the big target head-on (Xiao Guo tells you your thrust is too aggressive). Two — catch the Line 2 signal. You have met a resource-rich person. Learn from them. Three — the transformed hexagram Qian tells you the ending is good, provided you practice modesty.
Love & Relationship
Xiao Guo's image for relationships: thunder on the mountain — your expression (thunder = vibration) hits an obstacle (mountain = stillness). The words you speak — the other person does not fully receive them. Xiao Guo's line statement 'the bird flies away, its cry lingers in the sky.' The bird is gone. The sound still hangs in the air. Your relationship state: you may be thinking about someone (ex, unrequited, long-distance). The person is not here. The emotion still drifts. The Line 2 movement matters most: Line 2's statement says 'meeting the grandmother' — the grandmother is a deceased mother. The symbol is 'someone from the past' — a person from early life who shaped your view of relationships (mother, elder, mentor). Your behavior patterns in love were influenced by that person from the past. Partner type, expectations — the source may be that 'grandmother,' not the current partner. Transformed hexagram Qian in relationships — lower your expectations. Qian says: 'The modest gentleman, humble himself to shepherd his own conduct.' Your expectations are too high (thunder rushes outward). The mountain presses them back down (Xiao Guo). After pressing down comes modesty (self-awareness). Conclusion: do not fit real people into an ideal template. Drop expectations by one notch. The relationship becomes much more comfortable.
Personality
This hexagram has only one moving line across all six — Line 2. A single-moving-line personality portrait: your basic life platform is very solid (five stable lines). But one point is turning (Line 2). Line 2's position in the hexagram is 'just breaking ground.' Line 1 is the seed buried underground. Line 2 is the sprout breaking through the soil. Your personality turning point sits at the 'breaking through' stage: recently you may have suddenly understood something that changed your behavior. Before, you may have gone with the flow (matching others' expectations). Recently, you started making your own judgments. The shift is not complete — Line 2 just changed. Four more stages lie ahead. Hexagram image keywords: Gen (mountain) above — a hard shell. Zhen (thunder) below — beneath the shell churns a torrent of energy. Others see you as steady, quiet, reliable (mountain). You know there is a raging current inside (thunder). You have strong internal drive but do not express it much — not because you cannot speak. You feel that speaking it aloud disperses it. Transformed hexagram Qian confirms: your strength does not lie in display. It lies in the force you hold back. 'The laboring modest one, the gentleman has good fortune to the end' — you are tired but you keep going. The end is auspicious. Your identity builds this way.
Health
Xiao Guo's body image: thunder below, mountain above — the lower body has power (thunder = vibration = vitality). The upper body is pressed down (mountain = heaviness = pressure). Your body is saying: legs and feet are strong. Shoulders and neck are carrying a load. Line 2 corresponds to the calves and knees in the body. Old Yang transforming to Young Yin — your knees are shifting from 'overuse' (Old Yang = pushed too hard) toward 'need for rest' (Young Yin = need quiet). Your knees may feel uncomfortable recently — soreness, clicking, occasional pain. Not random. The hexagram gives a synchronized signal. Transformed hexagram Qian in the body: Qian = contraction = no excess. Your exercise mode needs to shift from 'charging' (thunder) toward 'guarding' (Qian). Not stopping exercise — changing the type. Running → swimming. High-intensity interval training → yoga. Ball sports → tai chi. Shift from outward force to inward cultivation. Xiao Guo's overall message: 'Small matters are possible; great matters are not.' Your body right now cannot handle big disruptions — major surgery, extreme dieting, excessive training. Small adjustments work well. Ten minutes of daily stretching is ten times more effective than two hours of weekend over-exercise.
The Classical Basis for Each Step — Why You Do It This Way
Three Iron Laws to Remember After Completing Eighteen Changes
- Treat Remainder Isolation as an Iron Law — Use a Bowl for Physical Separation: Find an unused bowl or box dedicated to remainder stalks. After each change's Return-Remainder, place the wedged stalks directly into this bowl — physical isolation. Let no remainder stalk touch any active stalk on the table. The bowl receives only. Nothing exits. After eighteen changes, the bowl holds eighteen handfuls of remainder stalks — each handful representing one change. Looking at the bowl gives you a direct sense of the eighteen changes' accumulated weight. Also, keep extra spare stalks on a separate dish — when you need more, reach for the spare dish only. Never touch the remainder bowl.
- Make a Paper 'Eighteen-Change Record Sheet' — Draw It Beforehand. Fill as You Go.: Take an A4 sheet. Draw seven rows top to bottom — six rows for six lines plus one summary row. Each row gets three small boxes for the three change remainders. Bottom row is Line 1. Build upward to Line 6. After each change, fill in the remainder sum in the corresponding box (5/9, 4/8, 4/8). When three boxes fill, immediately write =6/=7/=8/=9 at the row's end, draw ⚊/⚋. For 9 or 6, draw a small circle beside the symbol to mark a moving line. After Change 18, the summary row writes directly: original hexagram name + moving line positions + transformed hexagram name. Paper records give you this: your brain stores zero intermediate data. Your attention stays on the operation. Precision doubles.
- Cast Ten Full Hexagrams — First Three with Reference. Middle Four Without. Final Three with Eyes Closed.: The Dayan method is like learning a craft — muscle memory beats brain memory. Print this article for the first three sessions. Follow step by step. The middle four sessions: discard the reference. Use only the record sheet. If you forget a step, push through by instinct. Afterward, check where you went wrong. The final three sessions: from picking up the Taiji stalk to drawing the transformed hexagram — consult nothing. After ten sessions, eighteen changes become muscle memory: your hands know how to Divide-Two. Your fingers know how to wedge Suspend-One. Your eyes know how to Count-by-Four. Only then does casting truly belong to you.
Common Mistakes When Casting a Full Hexagram
Q:I finished eighteen changes. Why is my hexagram different from someone else who used the same method?
A:
Because the Divide-Two step uses your hands. How many stalks your left hand grabs — you do not calculate that. You feel it. This 'feeling it' is the fundamental difference between the Dayan method and coin casting. Coin casting is mechanical randomness — three coins, six tosses. The randomness comes from the machine. The Dayan method's randomness comes from your hand — at this moment, in this state of mind, how many stalks your hand 'feels' it should grab. Nervous — grab fewer. Relaxed — grab more. Distracted — grab erratically. The hexagram from the Dayan method is your hexagram. A different person, same day, same time, same method — one Divide-Two goes differently, and the hexagram changes.
Q:When I Count-by-Four and hit an exact multiple (e.g., left hand 24 stalks), do I record remainder 4 or 0?
A:
Record 4. Remainders are always 1 through 4. Zero does not exist. Exact multiple = the final Count-by-Four yields exactly four stalks as the last group — those four stalks are the remainder. All four go to Return-Remainder. Recording 0 breaks the entire mathematical structure: Change 1 only yields 5 or 9. Zero is outside the range. The ancients had no 'mod' or 'zero' concept — what they saw: the final pile has exactly four stalks left. They take all four.
Q:All six lines came out 7 and 8. Not a single 9 or 6. Is this normal?
A:
Normal. The probability of six all-stable lines (no moving lines) is about 2%. This is called a static hexagram — no moving lines means your situation sits in an extremely stable state at this point in time. No major turn in the near term. With all lines stable, read the original hexagram's Judgment and Commentary. Use line statements as supplementary reading. See 'How to Interpret a Static Hexagram' for the detailed method. Do not worry about drawing a static hexagram. It tells you 'nothing changes right now.' It does not say 'nothing changes ever.'
Q:What is the probability of all six lines moving (all 9s and 6s)? What do I do if I get it?
A:
Probability roughly 1/4096, about 0.02%. If you draw an all-moving hexagram — your situation is undergoing a complete reversal. Interpretation method: ignore the original hexagram. Read only the transformed hexagram. When all six lines of the original change, everything you have now will not last. The focus is the transformed hexagram (the new situation). Most common all-moving cases: Qian ䷀ all six lines Old Yang → Kun ䷁. Kun ䷁ all six lines Old Yin → Qian ䷀. Extremely rare. If you draw it, treat it seriously.