How to read lines

[Marinaflsenda]

Dear all

I´d like to ask you how to read changing lines of Yi. lines.
I have been searching on the internet and I´ve found out that when there are moving lines in a cast, you have to focus the whole reading (I mean in terms of oracle) in them and forget about the hexagrams.

So, for example, if I get 28.2.5 changing to 63, I only have to read the meaning of lines 2 and 5. The issue comes here, as I have read that higher line is the auspicios line (the one to guess what the future could be) and the one in a lower position would be an advice, but also lines could represent two people or two different sides of a situation, so what is what?

I would like to know your thoughts and how do you read lines when you ask Yi?

Thanks,

 

[surnevs]

Dear all

I´d like to ask you how to read changing lines of Yi. lines.
I have been searching on the internet and I´ve found out that when there are moving lines in a cast, you have to focus the whole reading (I mean in terms of oracle) in them and forget about the hexagrams.

So, for example, if I get 28.2.5 changing to 63, I only have to read the meaning of lines 2 and 5. The issue comes here, as I have read that higher line is the auspicios line (the one to guess what the future could be) and the one in a lower position would be an advice, but also lines could represent two people or two different sides of a situation, so what is what?

I would like to know your thoughts and how do you read lines when you ask Yi?

Thanks,

(for my part) I belong to those who prefer one answer to one question.
Example: Hex. 44.2.4

 

[hilary]

Focus on the moving lines, yes, but don't forget the hexagrams: they show you the whole picture. Think of the hexagrams as a map and the moving lines as 'you are here' pins. Obviously it makes sense to focus on the pins, and their immediate message takes priority: for instance, if your hexagram overall says things look good but the moving line says you are in trouble - you're in trouble. However, the pins wouldn't mean much without the map. (You'd need both hexagrams to understand what kind of trouble and why!)

Like you said, it's not just 'you are here' - with two lines, it may be 'you could be here, or here, it depends what you choose.' 28.2.5 to 62 (not 63) could be that. At this point it might be easiest to share a specific reading over in the Shared Readings forum - with your question and background information - so you can see how people respond to the lines in practice.

There's also the beginner's course here - that has a 'getting started interpreting' section you might find helpful.

 

[surnevs]

[Edward L. Shaugnessy, in his latest book* suggest possible evidence that a two-step-procedure was made in an attempt to decide which of more changing lines was to be considered (quote) :

"In Chapter Five below, I will suggest that the hexagram and line statements
of the Zhou Changes may also preserve for us a vestige of a similar two-stage
divination process: the first stage resulting in one of the sixty-four hexagrams
and its hexagram statement, and the second stage further specifying which of
the six lines of that hexagram is to be used for the final determination. I will
have occasion there to note that there are only bits and pieces of evidence,
some of it quite circumstantial, in support of this hypothesis that Zhou Changes
divination originally involved a two-step process. However, that archaeological
evidence from both the Western Zhou and the Warring States periods shows
that turtle-shell divination routinely involved two stages should cause us to
entertain seriously the possibility that Zhou Changes divination was similar."]

Though there's still doubt about if this procedure were also used to examine divination as we know it, I find this very interesting. I think that for now and still today the NanJing-method is the closest serious attempt to reconstruct a possible procedure.

* The Origin and Early Development of the Zhou Changes. E.L. Shaughnessy, pg. 142

 

[surnevs]

For many years I've used the Die.
% Attached is the method. When more than one changing line shows up, for example, hex. 61.3.4 I throw the Die until two or three eyes show up to decide which line is the Omen. But the evolved or secondary hexagram will still be that obtained via Hex. 61.3.4. ie Hex. 1
I can only say that my readings via this procedure have shown up just as satisfactory as when using other methods for deciding which line among multiple to choose.

 

[Marinaflsenda]

For many years I've used the Die.
% Attached is the method. When more than one changing line shows up, for example, hex. 61.3.4 I throw the Die until two or three eyes show up to decide which line is the Omen. But the evolved or secondary hexagram will still be that obtained via Hex. 61.3.4. ie Hex. 1
I can only say that my readings via this procedure have shown up just as satisfactory as when using other methods for deciding which line among multiple to choose.

Thanks, I will have a look to it.

 

[hilary]

I don't recommend any methods for choosing a single line; I take the view that if you needed a reading with just one line changing, that's what you would have cast. There is so much more that the Yi can tell you with multiple lines (or none) - why restrict what you'll allow it to say?

 

[moss elk]

All the 'systems' that say to ignore one line and pay attention to another were created by people who didn't know how to understand their readings.

By 'dumbing it down' they handicapped their own comprehension.
Don't follow their advice.

 

[hilary]

Maybe some. Also I think many were created/ reconstructed by people - like Shaughnessy - who are just not interested in divination at all, and have never seriously tried it.

 

[surnevs]

In my posting #2, and it is important for me to underline this, I said: For my part, as I partly agree with what HeyLise once said, namely to read more lines like a story. My method using the dice is my method and I'm fine with it but firstly I prefer 1 answer to 1 question, literally. There are probably more examples than the one that I gave there ie #2, an example that can not be read like a story though...
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Add: Link

 

[Marinaflsenda]

I don't recommend any methods for choosing a single line; I take the view that if you needed a reading with just one line changing, that's what you would have cast. There is so much more that the Yi can tell you with multiple lines (or none) - why restrict what you'll allow it to say?

I totally agree with this. I´ve been using Yi for a couple of years now by reading information on the internet and using my intuition, never took any course.
And I always read all moving lines.

 

[Marinaflsenda]

Focus on the moving lines, yes, but don't forget the hexagrams: they show you the whole picture. Think of the hexagrams as a map and the moving lines as 'you are here' pins. Obviously it makes sense to focus on the pins, and their immediate message takes priority: for instance, if your hexagram overall says things look good but the moving line says you are in trouble - you're in trouble. However, the pins wouldn't mean much without the map. (You'd need both hexagrams to understand what kind of trouble and why!)

Like you said, it's not just 'you are here' - with two lines, it may be 'you could be here, or here, it depends what you choose.' 28.2.5 to 62 (not 63) could be that. At this point it might be easiest to share a specific reading over in the Shared Readings forum - with your question and background information - so you can see how people respond to the lines in practice.

There's also the beginner's course here - that has a 'getting started interpreting' section you might find helpful.

I was following your advice yesterday with 28.2.5 and I actually drew a map, hahahah, placing the numbers on it with the name of the hex and the lines, and it definitely gives a different point of view.