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Jou, Tsung Hwa: A Translation ?

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grndultimte

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Hello Again,

I have "The Tao of I Ching: Way to Divination" in my possession by Jou, Tsung Hwa. Can anyone tell me their experiences with using this translation? Has anyone ever used or heard of "The Plum Flower Mind I Ching"...Mei Hua Sin I. Or the Hsien Tien method of casting Hexagrams?

Thanks guys/gals,

G
 

peter

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Translation and "Plum Flower Divination" are 2 separate methods of interpreting a hexagram. Master Jou's translation is not bad, and he gives variants of interpretation, and moreover he doesn't fix on philological problems, but translates "in usual language".

"Plum Flower Numbers" (Mei Hua Yi Shu, or Mei Hua Xin Yi) bases on trigrams. It is not a very complex method, but you have to know 5 Chinese elements. I have a translation of Shao Kang-jie's "Numbers of Changes of Wild Plum Mei-hua" in Russian only, and don't know whether it was translated into English. Jou Tsung-hwa gives basics of this method, in Shao Yong's book (Shao Yong is the second name of Shao Kang-jie) are given some specific cases and examples.

"Xian Tian" is the second name for "Plum Flower Divination", yes?

In Jou Tsung-hwa's book there are also interesting pictures for every hexagram - a third way to interpretation.
 
G

grndultimte

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Yes Peter,

I found the pictures that go with each Hexagram interesting. They add an alomost subliminal element to one's reading. I have not tried the Mei Hua Yi Shu method yet, I've only used the yarrow and the coins. Is the Mei Hua Yi Shu method any more flexible if you will? I don't even know if "accurate" is the term I'm looking for?

g
 

peter

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Oh, you mean getting a hexagram with numerological methods? I prefer to separate a) methods of getting a hexagram (cast coins, or yarrows, or some calculations) and b) methods of analyzing. If you're speaking about calculating a hexagram and its moving line, then - I don't like Master Jou's calculations based on Gregorian calendar. It has nothing common with Yi Jing, and original Chinese calculations base on Chinese solar calendar (or calendar Xia). EG today (Feb 12) is year Yi-You (Green Rooster), month Wu-Yin (Yellow Tiger) and day Ding-Mao (Red Hare). So we must add 10 (rooster's branch - you), 3 (tiger's branch - yin) and 4 (hare's branch - mao) nad get 17. Then another number will be 17 plus hour's branch (Chinese hour is 2 hours on our clocks), EG 12 (pig's branch), and get 29. So the upper trigram will be the rest of dividing 17 by 8 - 1, Qian (or Chien), the lower trigram will be the rest of dividing 29 by 8 - 5, Xun. So we have hexagram #44, "Meeting" (or "Queen", I don't remember all variants of translation of "Gou" character). Changing line is the rest of dividing 29 by 6 - 5. So the 5th line changes, and we have #50, "Cauldron" as the secondary hexagram.

Now we can analyze it with "Mei Hua" method. "Body" is the lower trigram - Xun, Wind, Wood. "Application" is Qian, Heaven, Metal. Nuclear hexagram is #1 Qian, "Creative", so both trigrams there are Qian, Metal. And finally, in #50 we see Xun, Wood at the bottom and Li, Fire on top. So Wood (Body) is in very bad condition - it is suppressed by 3 Metals, and exhausted by Fire. While now it is already Spring by Chinese calendar, Wood has maximal power, so it can deal with such unfavourable situation, but with some difficulties.

More interesting methods of calculating of a hexagram are described just in the book by Shao Yong. But they can be explained by some simple principles:

1. When you see some letters, or Chinese characters, or numbers, separate them in 2 equal groups. if amount is odd, then put the central member to the second group.

2. Calculate sums in each group: if they are letters, then assign a number to each letter (by some system - primitive, from 1 to 26, or Jewish: 1-10, 20-100, 200-800 - or whatever you find working), if they are Chinese characters, then sum amount of brush strokes in each character, if they are numbers, simply sum them.

3. The first (lesser) group sum shows you the upper trigram - divide it by 8 and take the rest (0 means 8 - Kun, Earth). The second (greater) group shows the lower trigram analogically.

4. Add first sum to second, add also current hour (I prefer Chinese hours), divide te total sum by 6 and take the rest - you'll receive number of changing line (0 means 6 - top line).

I don't use calendrical method of calculating, but I like to apply numerological method to bus tickets (we have 6-digit bus tickets and 7-digit trolleybus ones) and try to see what will happen in place where I'm going to.

So numerological methods give you always one changing line, and it's their disadvantage.
 

yly2pg1

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Hi G,

"Is the Mei Hua Yi Shu method any more flexible if you will?
I don't even know if "accurate" is the term I'm looking for? "

Yi Shu places a special emphasis on accuracy.
The accuracy would put a person at rest by knowing

(1) the 'strength' of the event (whether the reading would come true?)
(2) when is the coming time

Share with us more about your findings in Yi Shu ...
 

peter

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I doubt that Yi Shu can give very deep sight in a hexagram - and it is because it always give one and only one moving line. So we have only 384 variants of transformation instead of full 4096 (that can appear when you using coins or yarrow).

But Yi Shu can give you many hexagrams, and on this quantity you'll be able to make a prediction. You can use all things that you see for making hexagrams, and if you are good with Chinese elements, you can predict how events will flow further.
 

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