Contents of this page

1.Origin

I've heard it was invented by Shao Yong(1011-1077) in Song Dynasty of China, whom we call 'Shou You' or 'Shou Kou Setsu' in Japan. There are some legends concerned with Shao Yong.

2.System

Its system is based on Wu-Hang-Yi. Therefore, it has many same features as Wu Hang Yi has.

2-1.Casting Hexagrams without any tools

We do not need any special tools to get Hexagrams. How can we get done it then?
At the beginning to talk about it, please remember what the Hexagram is. In Yi Jin, it is a symbol which represents anything in universe. It contains Yin and/or Yang lines in itself, but its meanings are very flexible and dynamically changeable. For Example, we can interpret Kun as it were Qian. And that means, we can take the way backward like,

1. Write down or put into mind the most impressive matter whatever we see, hear or feel when we have an intention to divinate.
2. Consider which Trigrams does the matter belongs to.
3. Write it down as a lower Trigram when we decide.
4. Do the same way as 1. to get an upper Trigram.
5. Get an changing line by random number such as seconds of current time.

2-2.Examples of getting Trigrams

what we put attention in our mind	Trigrams
anything circle, white, large, tall. father, emperor, king, president, strong leader, tyrant. anybody or anything coming from northwest. person or organization of which name is related with metal such as Mr. Gold. person or organization of which name is related with wind such as Mr. Skywaker.
anything white, anything related with metal, especially small and flexible. anybody or anything coming from west. person or organization of which name is related with metal such as Mr. Sword.
anything red, hot, changing, anything related with fire. anybody or anything coming from south. person or organization of which name is related with fire such as Mr. Burn.
anything green, blue, yielding like willow, anything related with wood. anybody or anything coming from east. person or organization of which name is related with wood such as Mr. Logging.
anything green, blue, tall, or anything related with wood. anybody or anything coming from southeast. person or organization of which name is related with wood such as Mr. Oak
pond, see, river and/or anything related with water anything black, anything of which outside is soft and inside is hard. anybody or anything coming from north. middle aged man is also meaning of Kan. lower, cleaner, waterworker, middle management worker. person or organization of which name is related with water such as Mr. Pond.
anything yellow, huge like mountains. mountain, cliff, tower, and/or anything related with earth anybody or anything coming from northeast. person or organization of which name is related with earth such as Mr. Rock.
anything yellow, wide area. plain, country, desert, and/or anything related with earth anybody or anything coming from southwest. person or organization of which name is related with water such as Mr. Ground

2-3.Numerological ways to get Trigram and Hexagram

In the theory of Mei Hua Xin Yi or Mei Hua Xin Shu( "Plum Blossom Yi number" in English ), Gua is considered as a representation of a number. This theory is a kind of numerology. Therefore, we can cast Trigrams or Hexagrams freely using any kinds of numbers. These are examples :

No.	Material	Method
1	Name	I use this method to analyse out looking personalities. Because name is used by others more oftenly than the owner. 1.Convert name into number. A=1, B=2, C=3,,,,Z=26 Example) Makoto Ogino is : M A K O T O 13 + 1 + 11 + 15 + 20 + 15 = 75 (1) O G I N O = 60 (2) 15 + 7 + 9 + 14 + 15 TOTAL = 135 (3) 2.Get remainder of each number. 75 / 8 = 9 ... 3 (1) 3 60 / 8 = 7 ... 4 (2) 4 135 / 6 = 22 ... 3 (3) 3 3.Convert (1) and (2) into Trigram respectively, and (3) is a number of changing line. (1) is a number for Lower Trigram(first Name) (2) is a number for Upper Trigram(family Name or other parts of name) 4 is for Zhen (Upper Trigram) 3 is for Li (Lower Trigram) Hexagram is 55( Feng / Abundance ) with changing line 3.
2	Date-1	This method is written in ancient Chinese books of numerology. But I do not think it is convenient to use for any people, because people have to know the branches of dates before calculating. And, I've read that using branches does not have any important meanings in a book that I introduce on the last part of this page. Important point is that we can get a specific number by using specific method of calculation. To get a Hexagram from Date : 1998 October 19 20:08. 1. Get base numbers from Date like : (1) 3 (1998 is the year of Yin, which is 3rd of the twelve branches) (2) 10 (October) (3) 19 (19th) (4) 11 (20:08 is the hour of Xu, which is 11th of twelve branches) 2. Get Upper Trigram number by adding (1), (2) and (3). 3 + 10 + 19 = 32. (this means Year + Month + Day) 32 / 8 = 3 ... 8 Kun is an Upper Trigram of 8. 3. Get Lower Trigram number by adding Upper Trigram number and (4) 32 + 11 = 43. ( Upper Trigram Number + Day ) 43 / 8 = 5 ... 3 Sun is a Lower Trigram of 5. 4. Get changing line number by adding (1), (2), (3) and (4) 3 + 10 + 19 + 11 = 43. ( Year + Month + Day + Hour ) 43 / 6 = 7 ... 1 line 1 is changing. Therefore, Kun (Upper Trigram) Sun (Lower Trigram) Hexagram 46 (Sheng / Pushing Upward) with changing line 3 is generated.
3	Date-2	This method is simple and easy to use, but not meaningless. I think, that year and month represents energy of Heaven(revolution on orbit), and, day represents energy of Earth(rotation on axis). To get a Hexagram from Date : 1998 October 19. (without time) 1. Get Upper Trigram calculating Year and Month. 1998 + 10 = 2008. 2008 / 8 = 250 ... 8 Kun is Upper Trigram. 2. Get Lower Trigram from Day. 19 / 8 = 2 ... 3 Li is Lower Trigram 3. Get Changing Line by adding Year, Month and Day. (1998 + 10 + 19) / 6 = 2027. 2027 / 6 = 337 ... 5 Line 5 is changing. Finally, Kun (Upper Trigram) Li (Lower Trigram) Hexagram 36 (Ming I/Darkening of the Light) with changing line 5 is generated.
4	Date-3	This is the way I always use( because using Japanese era ). The text book of Mei Hua Xin Yi says, people may use any kinds of era to determine year number if they always use the same way. In another words, people may not use another ways even if the result cannot be satisfied for them. The important thing is, that we should select one of several kinds of era, but once we decided, we should not change it often. When I use this or next method to get Birth Hexagram by Birth Date, I interpret the Hexagram as inner(mental and/or spiritual) analysis of personality. To get a Hexagram from Date : 1998 October 19. (without time) 1. Get Upper Trigram calculating Year and Month. Using calendar's year, which is started in BC 660. (1998 + 660) + 10 = 2668.( Japanese era, which is started in BC 660 ) 2668 / 8 = 333 ... 4 Zhen is Upper Trigram. 2. Get Lower Trigram from Day. 19 / 8 = 2 ... 3 Li is Lower Trigram 3. Get Changing Line by adding Year, Month and Day. ((1998 + 660) + 10 + 19) / 6 = 2687. 2687 / 6 = 447 ... 5 Line 5 is changing. Now, Zhen (Upper Trigram) Li (Lower Trigram) Hexagram 55 ( Feng / Abundance ) with changing line 5 is generated.
5	Date-4	This method is used in He Luo Li Shu. And this is one of the most difficult method to get understood. This is the reason why I do not prefer to use. This method is used for analysis of personality and forcasting life like astrology. 1.Get eight letters from Birth Date. (Eight letters means ten stems and twelve branches of Year, Month, Day and Hour. We need Chinese calendar to pick up them.) Example) 1998. October 20. 08:42 Hour Day Month Year --- Stem Branch Yin male or Yin female ------ born in the year of Yin stems. (Yi, Ding, Ji, Xin or Gui) Yang male or Yang female ---- born in the year of Yang stems. (Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng or Ren) 2.Get numbers of stems and branches. Numbers of stems: 6 2 8 7 1 9 3 4 6 2 Numbers of branches: 1,6 5,10 3,8 3,8 5,10 2,7 2,7 5,10 4,9 4,9 5,10 1,6 Example) Hour Day Month Year Geng Geng Ren Wu Stem 3 3 6 1 Chen Zi Xu Yin Branch 5,10 1,6 5,10 3,8 3. Calculate sum of Yang(odd) number to get Celestial number, and calculate sum of Yin(even) number to get Earth number. Celestial number(sum of odd number) : (Year)+(Month)+(Day)+(Hour) = (1+3)+(5)+(3+1)+(3+5) = 22 Earth number(sum of even number) : (Year)+(Month)+(Day)+(Hour) = (8)+(6+10)+(6)+(10) = 38 = 38 - 30 = 8 The max of Celestial number is 25. The max of Earth number is 30. The result of Celestial number calculation is 22. This value is less than max value of Celestial number. Therefore, 22 is a Celestial number of this case. When the result of calculation is greater than max value, we need subtract the max value from the result value. In this example case, Earth number is greater than the max value of Earth number. Therefore, we substract 30 from 38. Finally, 8 is an Earth number of this case. 4. Get Upper Trigram from Celestial number, and get Lower Trigram from Earth number. Trigram Number is like followings: 6 7 9 3 4 1 8 2 There are several rules to get Trigram number from Celestial number and Earth number. See some examples: Examples of Celestial number - Trigram number conversion Celestial number Trigram number 18 18 - 10 = 8 23 23 - 20 = 3 25 25 - 20 = 5 28 28 - 25 = 3 31 31 - 25 = 6 39 39 - 25 = 14. 14 - 10 = 4 50 50 - 25 = 25. 25 - 20 = 5 Examples of Earth number - Trigram number conversion Earth number Trigram number 14 14 - 10 = 4 25 25 - 20 = 5 29 29 - 20 = 9 30 3 42 42 - 30 = 12. 12 - 10 = 2 50 50 - 30 = 20. 2 56 56 - 30 = 26. 26 - 20 = 6 The Trigram numbers of this case: Celestial number 22 Upper Trigram 2 Kun Earth number 8 Lower Trigram 8 Gen The Hexagram of this case: 15( Qian/Modesty ) This is a Birth Hexagram of earlier Heaven. A Birth Hexagram of later Heaven is generated like following: 1)Exchange Upper and Lower Trigram of earlier Heaven Hexagram. 2)Reverse changing line's attribute of new Hexagram. Earlier Later --- --- ------- --- --- --- --- *--- --- --- --- ------- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- *------- The later Heaven Hexagram of this example is : 27( Yi/Nourishment ) If we get number 5, we need to decide Trigram number by exceptional rule. Example of the case of number 5 1864 - 1923 male ----- Gen female --- Kun 1924 - 1983 Yang male or Yin female ----- Gen Yin male or Yang female --- Kun 1984 - 2043 male ----- Li female --- Du 5. Getting a changing line We get a Changing line from Birth Hour Branch. First, position the branches to lines of Birth Hexagram. And, changing line is the line Birth Hour Branch is positioned. The Birth Hour Branch of his example is Chen. Positions of branches are like following: If Birth Hour is Yin branch, start positioning at lower Yin line. If Birth Hour is Yang branch, start positioning at lower Yang line. The Birth Hour of example of this case is Chen(Yang branch). Therefore, branch positioning starts at line 3(The 1st Yang line of Birth Hexagram). Hexagram 15(Qian) (number) is order of branch positioning --- --- (6)Si --- --- (5)Chen --- --- (1)Zi -------Chou(2) <-- 2 branches are positioned on Yang line. (4)Mao --- --- (3)Yin --- --- Therefore, the changing line of this example is 4th line. 6. Period of Life We can calculate period of life using changing line. Yin line rules 6 yeas. Yang line rules 9 years. Because 6 represents Yin number, and 9 represents Yang number. Example of this example: Earlier Heaven Later Heaven Age Age --- --- 13 - 18 ------- 73 - 81 --- --- 7 - 12 --- --- 67 - 72 *--- --- 1 - 6 --- --- 61 - 66 ------- 31 - 39 --- --- 55 - 60 --- --- 25 - 30 --- --- 49 - 54 --- --- 19 - 24 *------- 40 - 48 I'll write more detailed articles of He Luo Li Shu in its own page.
6	Age	This method is used in Huang Ji Jing Shi, which is used to analyse history by Hexagram. We can cast Hexagrams on Hour, Day, Month, Year, 10 Years, Sei(30 Years), Un(360 Years), and Kai(10800 Years). The most largest unit of time is Gen(129600 Years). But the book of Huang Ji Jing Shi tells nothing about Gua of it. Year Stems & Branches Hexagram of Un Hexagram of Sei Hexagram of Decade Hexagram of Year Hexagram of Two Months 1997 44 Gou 50 Ting 56 Lu 33 Dun 13 Tong Ren 44 Gou 12 Bi 53 Jian 56 Lu 31 Hsien 1998 44 Gou 50 Ding 56 Lu 31 Xian 49 Ge 28 Da Guo 45 Cui 39 Jian 62 Xiao Guo 33 Dun This table is a result of Huang Ji Jing Shi, which is other kind of Yi Jing numerological method. I will write more detailed article of it in another page.

2-4.Spirit

The most important spiritual point of Mei Hua Xin Yi is, it has two main aspects of Yi Jing, phylosophy and practice. Lao Zi and Mo Zi are spiritual background of Mei Hua Xin Yi. The book I read says this "Lao Zi's Yi and Mo Zi's Yi".

Lao Zi's Yi means that we should pay attention to nature of the target at first step of interpretation.

Mo Zi's Yi means that we should use Mei Hua Xin Yi for only on good faith, and, try to think of Providence and honesty rather than evil desire and selfish satisfaction.

3.Principles to interpret Hexagrams

At first, we need to get a Hexagram with one changing line in Mei Hua Xin Yi method, usually by using six coins. One of them is marked, to indicate it must be a changing line. We put them after shuffling, and finally we can get a Hexagram with one changing line. Now, we are ready to decide Ti and Yong.

The most important point of Mei Hua Xin Yi method is using two conceptions which always oppose against each other, 'Ti' and 'Yong'.

        
            'Ti' means self. Nothing but 'Ti' can get the focus of interpreting
            hexagrams in Mei Hua Xin Yi method. We must settle only one 'Ti' in
            the oracle. 'Ti' can represents a person, a company, an event, some
            status of things, a relationship between people, and other all things
            in the universe. When we use Mei Hua Xin Yi method to solve problems,
            it is serious and important question for us to consider what is the
            most appropriate subject as 'Ti' in current problem.

        
            'Yong' means everything but 'Ti'. All things but 'Ti' are included.
            'Yong' is always the opposition against 'Ti'. When 'Ti' means a subject
            'Yong' means an object. When 'Ti' represents self of the client being
            consulted 'Yong' represents whole environment around 'Ti'. When 'Ti'
            means a plan of the client company 'Yong' means the future results of
            the plan and/or influence by competitors.

3-1.Relation between Ti and Yong

I usually use the latter way, and find status of relation between Ti and Yong to interpret Hexagram. If Ti is stronger or powerful it means a good answer. How can we find whether Ti is stronger than Yo or not ? It is very simple.

In Mei Hua Xin Yi method, we compare Wu Hang( five elements ) of Ti and Yong at first. Wood helps Fire, Fire helps Earth, Earth helps Metal, Metal helps Water, and Water helps Wood. For example, when we get Hexagram 6 with 2nd line changing, Ti is upper Qian, Metal and You is lower Kan, Water. So, we consider about relationship between Metal and Water. According to Wu Hang system Metal helps Water. It means You helps Ti. This represents that situation is friendly for subject.

I made reference tables for guidance.

Wu Hang ( five elements ) of Trigrams

Metal	Metal	Fire	Wood	Wood	Water	Earth	Earth

3-2.For more practical interpretations

Of course, those are no more than principles for interpreting Hexagrams. They can not be always enough to get solutions in any cases. Even getting a Hexagram of good fortune, some cases make us to consider it more severely. Because, what a Hexagram represents is only symbolic interpretation of it, and it does not always equals to the fact in presense.

In other words, we need careful observation of the real situation of what Ti represents and what Yong does. And moreover, we should make better resonable prediction near future by using information from this obsevation.

I do not believe We need some kinds of psychic power or talents. It is more actual and realistic ability and sense of observation to interpret Hexagrams in better way.And practical sense can be the most important helper for us. We should not be confused by Hexagram's meanings.

4.Practical Examples of interpreting Hexagrams

4-1.Gu Hun Gua

When we get Gu Hun Gua, we sometimes consider there are some cases that we should not agree with whatever the client says explicitly.

I have experienced the case like this.

My client was troubled about her relationship with her sweetheart. She said me she wanted to end it. But I got one of Gu Hun Gua then, and it was enough for me to make me feel it should not be interpreted with considering relation between Ti and You as usual.

It seemed this Gu Hun Gua told me, that innermost part of her self, had been wishing different solution from what she thought. Therefore, I advised her how she could make her situation better. And finally, She happily got married with her partner after two years. Of course, I believe she could get her happiness by her own self, but, she told me what I told her became a trigger for her to try changing herself.

4-2.No good case even with superior Ti

Basically it can be very good fortune when we get a Hexagram of which Ti is powerful, like Qian(Ti) and Gen(Earth), Li(Ti) and Sun(Wood), and so on.

But when we find Subject(that Ti represents) in presense takes no practical action to make good results, we should think it is not enough for Ti to get success. Because, even good or bad, everything is happen by its cause. No efforts to make better, no good results are given.

5. Materials of Japanese Books

There are very few books on Mei Hua Xin Yi in Japan, and as they all are based on the same ancient book, I could not much different points between them. So, I'll introduce one, which is the most comprehensive for me. And more, Chinese one, of which contents are similar to each other.

The Japanese book is a translation from ancient written Japanese of middle ages.

BOOK	SUMMARY
	The most well known to people as a book of Mei Hua Xin Yi(Plum blossom Numerology) in Japan. It seems, other books are only adaptation of this. ISBN 4-7952-2911-2 (c) 1995 , Japan
	This book is puplished from Taiwan. Of course, it is written in Chinese. But most of main parts of articles are almost the same with the book I mentioned above. I wrote Basic data in Chinese spelling as following: BOOK NAME : Shu Shu Yi Ying Yong Yan Jiu AUTHOR : Gao An Ling PUBLISHER : Wu Ling (Unfortunately ISBN is not printed) (c) 1989 , Taiwan
	This is the newest book I have known. BOOK NAME : Mei Hua Yi Shu Zhen Jue AUTHOR : Li Ke Ru PUBLISHER : Wu Ling ISBN 957-35-0625-4 (c) 1997 , Taiwan
	BOOK NAME : Yi Shu Xin Shen Mi AUTHOR : Chen Yong Hu PUBLISHER : Yo Lin Chu Ban She ISBN 957-8874-32-X (c) Taiwan
图解 易经中的数学 梅花易数 Author : 汤　行易 Publisher : 陕西师范大学出版社	BOOK : tú jiě yì jīng zhōng de shù xué méi huā yì shù AUTHOR : tāng xíng yì PUBLISHER : shǎn xī shī fàn dà xué chū bǎn shè One of the latest "Mei Hua Yi Shu (MHYS)" Guide book from China. Includes many related topics and materials with beautiful graphics. ISBN:978-7-5613-4157-5 (c)2008, China

6.Related Pages