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Bushi Zhengzong · The Orthodox Tradition of Divination
Golden Counsels · Avoiding Turmoil, Fugitives and Lost Property, Continued
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Avoiding Turmoil
People meet obstruction or success; the world has its times of blockage and peace.
Lamenting an unfortunate lot, one happens to live amid war and disorder. Sighing at an exhausted road, one turns to the Changes and its transformations.
I therefore record hexagrams and lines already tested, to judge the bandits troubling the present.
Ghost flourishing means the bandits’ power runs rampant. Officer at Tomb or Extinction means people can begin to feel secure.
If it is encountered on the road, do not go out. If encountered in the dwelling, do not return home.
Reading note: “It” continues the preceding Officer and Ghost indication.
Moving to inflict Penalty or Harm, it is hard to escape even through intelligence and skill. Changing into Void means that even after detention one can still get free.
If the day controls and subdues it, Penalty and injury in the hexagram need not matter. If the Month Commander occupies it, do not dismiss it because the line is hidden.
What is feared is an influence that raises it up. What is relied upon is the place of Death and Extinction.
Self holding Ghost’s Tomb means one must not hide among graves. If a Water influence is encountered, take particular care within a boat.
The Zi line as Blessing and Virtue favors going north. The Wu image as Officer means do not go south.
Ghost scattered by Clash needs no journey toward a place that controls it. Blessing meeting Void is best served by a place that generates and supports it.
Strong and active in the inner hexagram, the bandits will eventually run rampant in this district. Moving and changing into a Retreating Spirit, they will go to loot elsewhere.
Officer joined to strong Blessing that combines with and generates Body turns ill fortune to good. Yang changing into yin and then penalizing or controlling Self turns pretence into reality.
Bandits flourishing in a Three Combination arrangement means falling into a trap. Body in the Void of the six cycles means eventual release from the cage.
Officer and Ghost upon Body means discovery however carefully one hides. Descendants holding Self means even face to face the parties do not encounter one another.
Brothers changing into Officer threatens looting by local people. Wealth joined to Ghost Sha calls for caution over privately concealed possessions.
The day Clashing with or controlling Wealth scatters wife and children. A moving image inflicting Penalty or injury upon Blessing and Virtue separates the children.
Fire moving and controlling Body threatens the suffering of singed hair. Water active and injuring Self brings the calamity of drowning.
Parents in Void warns of lost bundles. Wife falling into weakness warns of lost property.
A crossing or heavy fifth line leaves person and household unsettled in two places. All six lines moving chaotically scatters one family’s flesh and blood in different directions.
Blessing at Ghost’s position with Penalty, Clash and Sha means government troops act lawlessly. Officer changing into Brothers and controlling, combining with or injuring Wealth means wives and concubines suffer sexual violation.
Wife generating and supporting it turns greed for property into disaster. Descendants coming to stir it by Clash means a child’s crying brings calamity.
With the Six Relations at Birth and flourishing strength, what harm can danger do? With the Four Extinctions and Penalty or injury, meeting adversity means death.
In times of disorder, decisions have already been made by following the lines. In times of trouble, infer the outcome by following the images as well.
Most feared is Officer controlling Self: escape will be difficult. Most favorable is Blessing and Virtue upon Body: one can eventually escape alive.
Officer changing into Parents with Clash means an arrest document is issued. The day Clashing with and scattering Officer means many relatives and friends give support.
Ghost hidden and raised by a Brothers Clash means trouble comes through blood relations. Officer still but penalized or controlled by another line means the affair arises through clerks.
If Response is injured, many people are implicated. If Wife is controlled, money is certainly lost.
It is welcome for all six lines to remain still, for the hexagram to contain no Officer, for Body or Self to meet Void, or for the Useful Spirit to occupy a suitable position.
Then even a heaven-sized affair need cause no alarm. Why fear a hatred as deep as the sea?
Affairs have a hundred forms, but their principle is one. Ponder and explore with concentrated attention. If you can comprehend them together and infer the divination according to principle, your understanding will become rounded, penetrating and responsive, free from obstruction.
Fugitives
Leniency in resisting an enemy invites contempt from the many. Excessive severity in governing people leads them to flee.
Reading note: The supplied opening says “resisting an enemy”; it is retained without silently changing it to governing subordinates.
Even a great sage’s tolerance does not make petty people easy to maintain. Examine the Useful line to learn the actual traces.
At Wu, the fugitive goes south. Changing into a Yin line means turning northeast.
Wood belonging to the Zhen palace indicates a city or capital. Metal occupying a Dui image indicates a Buddhist or Daoist temple.
Ghost’s Tomb at a crossing or heavy line means hiding within a temple. Rest, Imprisonment, Death or Extinction means hiding near graves and burial mounds.
Meeting the Four Storehouses, examine the Five Phases. Hidden beneath any of the five categories, how could everything be judged as one kind?
Wood active in a Water image means escape by boat. A moving line combining with hidden Wealth means taking a woman away.
Inner means near and outer far. Generating Self means eventual return. Still means easy to find and moving difficult; occupying Void means no trace can be found.
Combination raising or binding means either sheltering the fugitive or retaining them. Clash stirring or opening means either sending them out on an errand or exposing their whereabouts.
A moving line inflicting Penalty or Control means someone blocks the departure. The day generating and supporting means a companion induces them to go along.
An intervening line making Combination means the intermediary knows the circumstances. Self and Response generating one another means meeting on the road.
At the sixth position without Clash or Break, the fugitive leaves and never returns. At the fifth line with Control or Generation, they leave again halfway.
The principal image changing into the principal image means even if the fugitive returns, they are hard to retain. The original palace changing into the original palace means they have not gone far.
A Returning Soul hexagram whose Useful Spirit still generates or combines means return without capture. A Wandering Soul hexagram whose Response is also a crossing or heavy line means skill in hiding and escape.
Self controlling Response means eventual capture however the fugitive hides. Response injuring Self means that even face to face the parties do not encounter one another.
Parents in Void means no news at all. Descendants moving means assistance is available.
Many malefics injuring Body threatens punishment and humiliation to the searcher instead. Moving Brothers holding Self means much money will be spent.
Parents moving and changing into Officer means officials will capture the fugitive. Self entering Tomb warns of detention by the person sheltering them.
Self and Response in same-phase harmony and not in Void means concealment here. Self and Response in Void with a lone movement means wasted effort.
If one can seek the hidden and explore the obscure, why fear deep concealment or distant flight?
Lost Property, with Thieves, Pursuing Thieves and Catching Thieves
When people suffer hunger and cold, burglars often appear. Do not forget to take care: property is also often lost through lack of vigilance.
To know whether property will be lost or recovered, examine Wife and Wealth in the hexagram.
Already in Void or changing into Void, it should be left without further inquiry. Strong under the day or month, it has not yet been dispersed and can be sought.
In the inner hexagram and original palace, a search within the household can find it. In another palace and the outer hexagram, inquiry in the neighborhood can reveal it.
The fifth is the road, the fourth the gate, and the sixth is above among the roof beams. The first is the well, the second [unclear character ○], and the third is within the women’s quarters.
Reading note: The supplied text gives ○ for the second position. No missing location is supplied.
Water means it was lost in a pool. Wood means among firewood. Earth means buried in the ground. Metal means among bricks and stones.
Moving into Tomb means the property is deeply concealed and unseen. Still on Self means the thing is still present, so why worry?
A line at Ghost’s Tomb means beside a grave or burial mound. Held by the day’s Combination, it is covered and concealed by a vessel.
The Zi line as Blessing changing into Wife and Wealth calls for searching rat holes. Blessing and Virtue in the western position calls for checking chicken roosts for the property.
Ghost in Void with Self moving means it was lost by one’s own household. Wealth hidden beneath Response and combining with Self means it was lent to someone.
Hidden beneath Descendants, it is in Buddhist or Daoist quarters. Hidden beneath Parents, it was left among clothes, book baskets or book chests.
In the inner hexagram, it was lost at home. In the outer hexagram, it was lost elsewhere.
Wealth hidden and meeting Clash means someone moved the object. Ghost active and appearing means a thief stole it.
Yin means female and yang male; the inner hexagram identifies a household member. Birth means vigorous youth and Tomb old age; another palace identifies an outside thief.
Ghost with Soaring Snake in the Qian palace indicates a tall, thin man to the northwest. Officer with White Tiger in a Xun image indicates a stout woman to the southeast.
Penalty or Clash with Self means an enemy or person bearing a grudge. Changing to or from Blessing means Buddhist or Daoist clergy are accomplices.
Ghost receiving Generation and support means a thief accustomed to the taste of this trade. Officer active above and below calls for guarding against collusion between inside and outside.
Wood controlling the sixth line means entry over the wall. Metal injuring the third position means entry through a hole in the wall.
Self Clashing with Officer means the owner had been startled awake. The day controlling Ghost means the thief is also alarmed and suspicious.
Descendants moving at Zi means a herd boy can provide news. Blessing active at You means a drinker can reveal the circumstances.
Brothers moving to rob Wealth means a search for stolen goods finds no place to recover them. Officer active and controlling Self means an attempt to catch the thief injures the pursuer.
Descendants occupying Self means there is no need to fear even a violent thief. Ghost at Tomb or Storehouse means that even patrol officers find capture difficult.
The day combining with the thief’s line means someone shelters the thief. A moving line as Ghost Sha means someone will point out the whereabouts.
If Officer is absent from the hexagram, discuss its Hidden position. If Wealth moves, examine its Tomb position closely.
Hidden controlling Flying means someone else will conceal the thief after all. Flying controlling Hidden means the thief will be captured by our side.
Hidden under an empty line means a rented dwelling, whose occupant is not sheltering the thief. Hidden beneath Self calls for vigilance against theft.
For lost boats, vehicles or clothes, a crossing or heavy Wife line is unfavorable. For escaped animals or birds, movement of Parents is especially to be avoided.
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