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Bushi Zhengzong · The Orthodox Tradition of Divination
Eighteen Discussions · Six Beasts and Four Birth Positions
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
7. Appraisal of the Six Beasts
Green Dragon most delights in joy and has much benevolence; attached to the Avoided Spirit, it makes every undertaking unfavorable.
White Tiger is most fierce and brave and loves killing; generating the Useful Spirit, it makes undertakings favorable.
When Vermilion Bird controls the person, disputes and verbal conflicts are often present. If it comes to generate the Useful, documents and letters should return.
Gouchen belongs to Earth. Empty, it means fields and gardens ripen poorly. Forceful and controlling Self, it brings involvement with official runners, restraint and delay.
Soaring Snake: strange events and groundless alarm. Dark Warrior: private affairs and thieves.
White Tiger, the blood spirit, is especially fitting when moving in childbirth.
Vermilion Bird in the Wu Palace transforms into Water: why fear a great disaster?
Reading note: The question retains the supplied 何忌 wording rather than changing it into an additional prediction.
Soaring Snake with a Wood Ghost oppresses the person: fear of hanging oneself; it is difficult to escape cangue and fetters.
Dark Warrior, with Officer generating a still Self: when associating with petty people, do not worry about implication. Self controls; still.
Reading note: The final 世克靜 is a compressed fragment in the supplied text. Its words are retained without inventing a completed outcome.
Green Dragon: patrol and capture, at places of entertainment and wine shops.
Reading note: This brief association remains a fragment; no missing subject or additional event is supplied.
Ghost moving with Gouchen: in discussing prayers, promptly fulfill the offering to Tai Sui; in asking the cause of illness, swelling and a yellow, puffy appearance.
These briefly illustrate choosing applications for the Six Spirits. Do not exalt the Six Beasts, saying that every encounter with an auspicious spirit makes everything favorable, and that holding an ominous mansion makes every matter unfavorable.
6. Discussion of the Four Birth Positions in Turn
Reading note: This heading is numbered sixth in the supplied source, after the seventh discussion. Its number is retained.
Fire is born at Yin; Metal at Si; Water and Earth at Shen; Wood at Hai. Fire has its Storehouse at Xu and Extinction at Hai. Metal has its Storehouse at Chou and Extinction at Yin. Water and Earth have their Storehouse at Chen and Extinction at Si. Wood has its Storehouse at Wei and Extinction at Shen.
These are fixed examples for Birth, Tomb and Extinction. Birth is used in every hexagram; Tomb and Extinction must be investigated in every line. Apart from these three, none of the remaining stages is given weight in the hexagram.
For example, Fire's Bathing at Mao is mutual generation. Its Cap and Belt at Chen, Decline at Wei and Nourishment at Chou are draining qi. Si Fire at Approaching Office in Si is Repeating Chant. Wu Fire at Approaching Office in Si is a Retreating Spirit. Si Fire at Imperial Peak in Wu is an Advancing Spirit. Wu Fire at Imperial Peak in Wu is Repeating Chant. Wu Fire at Decline in Wei is mutual combination. Wu Fire at Illness in Shen-Si; Wu Fire at Death in You is a Hostile Spirit. Si Fire at Illness in Shen is mutual combination. Embryo at Zi is mutual control. Wu Fire's embryo at Zi is control, clash and Reversing Chant. From this, why should the other influences be given weight?
Reading note: The incomplete Illness phrase includes both 申 and 巳 in the source. Both are retained here as Shen-Si; no missing result is added and no life-stage position is silently corrected.
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