I am at a crossroads in my life, and have a decision to make that has been bugging me for some time.

Context: I am questioning whether to cut my ties with the professionals that 'represent' me. Our professional relationship is stagnant, and I have over the last two years garnered my own success without their help. And as a result have felt happier. Bit O also feel very sad that the professional relationship has not worked out. My instinct tells me to drop them and move on to seek better representation...

My question was: What if I were to leave x and x?

I received Hex 7 > 46! I've done a lot of research on both these hexagrams tonight and I am a little confused now! The changing line 3 seems to suggest deadweight; the wagon with the corpse, etc.

Any guidance, any thoughts at all, really appreciated!

Many thanks. E

The event described certainly was one of great change, forming a new dynasty, in fact. I do not use multiple lines. There is a reconstructed method for using the Yi as it was used in early China. The technique is called the Nanjing method. Using that method we only read one text from your divination, 7:3. Below is a draft of my commentary on that text from my forthcoming book Zhou Yi Dao, Living the Yi:

六三 師或輿尸。凶。

Old text:

Six in the Third. The host may have the dead ancestor in the wagon. Misfortune.

New text:

Six in the Third. The host may have wagons of corpses. Misfortune.

The army is in confusion. A lack of decisive action in battle is almost invariably disastrous. We see here, as in many lines of the Yi, that the third and fourth places are places of confusion, fraught with peril. The image of the corpse wagon is found in the fifth line as well, and there again it is given the diviner’s tag of misfortune.

Over the centuries this imaged moved from an ancient and specific practice into a more generalized and commonsense interpretation. If there is war there are corpses, and at some point they are going to be transported by wagon, and thus this image. But the old text here represents a tradition from the Shang and Zhou days (see Lagerwey, 2007, p. 218). It is not a corpse, but the spirit tablet of a former king that is in the wagon, ritually wheeled into the battle. It is thought that this happened at the battle of Mu Field, when King Wu defeated the Shang tyrant Zhou Xin. King Wen, organizer of the coalition that defeated the Shang, had died, and Wu finished what he had started. But ritually King Wen was a participant in the triumph by bringing his spirit tablet onto the field. This is also attested to in the Records of the Grand Historian, in the biography of the hermits Bo Yi and Shu Qi, where they accost King Wu on his way west to attack the Shang tyrant Zhou Xin, carrying the spirit tablet of his father, King Wen. (Shi Ji, Ordered Biographies, V. 7, p. 31 of the Russian edition).

Receiving 7.3 - 46 as a response to your question, "What if I were to leave x and x?" reads to me as if it is saying that keeping these people with you is like dragging a corpse around. Hexagram 46 describes successfully going forward on one's own.

cjgait said:

The event described certainly was one of great change, forming a new dynasty, in fact. I do not use multiple lines. There is a reconstructed method for using the Yi as it was used in early China. The technique is called the Nanjing method. Using that method we only read one text from your divination, 7:3. Below is a draft of my commentary on that text from my forthcoming book Zhou Yi Dao, Living the Yi:

六三 師或輿尸。凶。

Old text:

Six in the Third. The host may have the dead ancestor in the wagon. Misfortune.

New text:

Six in the Third. The host may have wagons of corpses. Misfortune.

The army is in confusion. A lack of decisive action in battle is almost invariably disastrous. We see here, as in many lines of the Yi, that the third and fourth places are places of confusion, fraught with peril. The image of the corpse wagon is found in the fifth line as well, and there again it is given the diviner’s tag of misfortune.

Over the centuries this imaged moved from an ancient and specific practice into a more generalized and commonsense interpretation. If there is war there are corpses, and at some point they are going to be transported by wagon, and thus this image. But the old text here represents a tradition from the Shang and Zhou days (see Lagerwey, 2007, p. 218). It is not a corpse, but the spirit tablet of a former king that is in the wagon, ritually wheeled into the battle. It is thought that this happened at the battle of Mu Field, when King Wu defeated the Shang tyrant Zhou Xin. King Wen, organizer of the coalition that defeated the Shang, had died, and Wu finished what he had started. But ritually King Wen was a participant in the triumph by bringing his spirit tablet onto the field. This is also attested to in the Records of the Grand Historian, in the biography of the hermits Bo Yi and Shu Qi, where they accost King Wu on his way west to attack the Shang tyrant Zhou Xin, carrying the spirit tablet of his father, King Wen. (Shi Ji, Ordered Biographies, V. 7, p. 31 of the Russian edition).

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hi friend, congratulations on your book!
could you answer this question for me please?
why is the judgment "misfortune" if the war was won with the spirit tablet? i get your historical point but not the judgement part, is the misfortune that the king is dead?
Thank you so much. Sabrina

cosasimpropias said:

Answer this question for me please? Why is the judgment "misfortune" if the war was won with the spirit tablet? i get your historical point but not the judgement part, is the misfortune that the king is dead?

Click to expand...

Hello Sabrina, and welcome. I will attempt to answer your question; however do note, this thread is four years old and the person who started it has never returned to tell us what the outcome was. Also, I think cjgait is offering a possible historic context to the words, but I don't think he actually makes an interpretation of this person's reading.

There are many Yi authors and scholars who tie things that we find in the Yi's to historic or mythic events and people. This is fine, and it can sometimes help us in our understanding of the Yi's responses. However, I think there are a few important points to consider:

One thing I keep in mind is, what's described here may have taken place hundreds of times and centuries before when King Wu of the Zhou defeated the Shang. So perhaps this is describing an earlier battle where the outcome lead to 'misfortune'.

Another example of referring to history is the darkening of the sky at midday that we find in Hex. 55, with 'the capital in shadow' (trans S. Field). Some have speculated that this may refer to an eclipse or dust storm that King Wu took as a sign that he "will meet a noble ally" and defeat the Shang; and this led him to decide to go into battle, even though the mourning period for his father, King Wen was not over. But again, I assume that people in ancient China (and other ancient cultures) had been seeing eclipses and other unusual events as omens, long, long before it may have been the case for King Wu.

So, I think it's fine to learn about the (sometimes) speculative historic 'roots' of what we find in the Yi; however, we also have understand that these 'sign's has been happening for many thousands of years before the Yi was written; and it is also entirely likely that some of what we are reading is describing mythical events (or people or creatures), and not (just) historic ones.

An example of a mythic connection in the Yi is Stephen Field's name for Hex. 15, which he calls "The Wedwing" - a mythical bird with one one wing, and that unless it mates (weds) another Wedwing, it will continue to only fly around in circles.

So looking at the historic or mythic roots of the Yi can sometimes be useful, but also at times confusing or inconclusive. I'd suggest then that you can always turn to the actual words and images. And consider the history and myth more as supplemental material , but not the main course!

I'd say, Rosada's interpretation above is a good example of this, where I think she looks at the actual words and imagery, and says:

"these people with you is like dragging a corpse around. Hexagram 46 describes successfully going forward on one's own."

I might see this differently than Rosada does, and from a different perspective - and perhaps have a different interpretation; but I still very much like and appreciate her interpretation: it feels 'valid' to me, in that she worked with what is given in the reading. It seems too that she saw this more as metaphor (e.g. perhaps any of us carrying 'corpses' around - stuff, people from the past - that are not useful, dragging us down ....)

I hope that helps to answer your question and is of use to you.

Best, D