Hi,

I asked IChing if i partner my friend to purchase a apartment which he is acquired recently for investment?

Here is what ICHING said:

31.1.2.4
leading to
5

Can someone kindly help if this is good or bad for me to join him?

Thanks in advanced

5 Waiting seems to me to be accentuating that your purchase would be for investment purposes. Do you and your friend have clear agreement on when you would sell to get your money out? 5 makes me wonder if it would take longer than anticipated, that you might find yourselves WAITING to cash out.

Hi Tanjhj,

I read it this way:

Don’t paint yourself into a corner with this deal. Don’t get to feeling desperate. Keep your options open. Let things come to you.

Hi,
Hex 31, line 1 suggests that you are considering the deal.
line 2 suggests that you should wait a little while you get more precise information about the deal.
line 4 suggests that you should make up your mind once and for all, no more questions. Ask your friend for help then all doubts will disappear.

Hex 5 'waiting', it is now the right time to do the deal with your friend. Waiting here means waiting for the value of the property to increase, success follows. The profit from the deal will come in the future, it cannot be rushed. Be patient and oneday you will make a very good profit on your investment. Go for it.

Maybe the poem from "Yilin" on the combination of hexagram 31 changing to hexagram 5, could help:

入宇多悔，耕石不富。衡門屢空，使士失意。

Entering the house brings many regrets,
And tilling the stones does not bring the wealth.
The gate made of cross pieces of wood (the poor dwelling) is repeatedly empty,
And the officer is disappointed.

The poem seems very clear to me, so I would say don't buy the house. It seems it has a bad fengshui.

--
Boyler
www.hidden-city.net

Hi boyler,
I always thought that you had to physical visit a place before you could say that it has bad feng shui or not? I don't see how a poem from a book can judge the feng shui of a place that the author of the poem has never seen.

Hi willowfox,

<<I always thought that you had to physical visit a place before you could say that it has bad feng shui or not?>>

Contrary to some believes, it is not so. There is a fengshui saying which says something like:
"The upper class fengshui masters watch the stars of the Big Dipper, the middle class fengshui masters look after water mouths, and the lower class fengshui masters conceited walk in the mountains."

Have you ever considered physical visit to the future before you could say/interpret the answer to a question about a future event, consulting"Yijing"?

<<I don't see how a poem from a book can judge the feng shui of a place that the author of the poem has never seen.>>

The author of the poem never mentioned fengshui - I did.

It is called an interpretation, and I might be wrong, of course.

It's based on the question asked, which posts the frame to interpretation, and the divinatory poem to be interpreted in the given frame for interpretation.

The poem is relatively clear - it mentions a house and some regrets resulting from entering the house, futile work (tilling the stones), no wealth, poor and empty dwelling and disappointment.

My conclusion, based on the above, was that the house probably has bad fengshui, at least for the questioner. The main reason I blamed fengshui is the phrase "repeatedly empty", that is, many come and go, do not stay there for long, something causes them all to move away.

Besides, there are many who physical visit a place, but can not or do not know how to judge the fengshui of the place, so they could, perhaps, decide to use an oracle, and follow its advice.

Many temple oracles (lingqing) include advices concerning fengshui (of course, without any need of physical visit to the place - one just need to ask question about it - this is why it is called divination.)

Also, in (some schools of) traditional fengshui, yinyang xiansheng would, before deciding the fengshui of the place, first consult the "Yijing".

Anyway, fengshui is not the subject of the thread.

Sorry for the lengthy explanation.

--
Boyler
www.hidden-city.net

Hi Boyer,
you are quite right, feng shui is not the subject of this thread. My goodness, divination by poetry that is a strange method, have to see what Milton says. Investment and making money is what this thread is all about and I think this person is on a potential winner.

Hi willowfox,

<<My goodness, divination by poetry that is a strange method, have to see what Milton says. Investment and making money is what this thread is all about and I think this person is on a potential winner.>>

???

Sorry I don't understand. What is strange - stranger then consulting an oracle for investment and making money?

Isn't this a "Yijing" forum? Isn't "Yijing" is an ancient book made of short sayings and poems itself which are used in divination?

Well, the "Yilin" is a book written by an eminent yi scholar, Jiao Gan, from Han Dynasty. The book consist of (64x64) 4096 divinatory poems, each and every one possible combination of one hexagram changing to another (including non-changing hexagrams). It belongs to legitimate tradition of yixue.

Many other Chinese divinatory systems are using divinatory poems (it is almost the rule), "Taixuanjing", "Lingqijing", as well as numerous lingqings. More about Chinese divinatory poetry see in "Chinese Poetry And Prophecy: The Written Oracle In East Asia", by Michel Strickmann and Bernard Faure.

The point is that when one once decide to do such a strange thing as to consult the oracle of the "Yijing" - in this case about investment and making money by buying a house - and obtains hexagram 31 changing to hexagram 5, one can read the relevant texts for mother hexagram 31 as well as texts for the resulting hexagram 5, in the "Yijing", and try to interpret them to receive a meaningful answer, *and/or* one can read the relevant poem in "Yilin", where is also "hidden the answer" to the same question as it is a divinatory poem about hexagram 31 changing to hexagram 5. (There are also other methods used for the same purpose.)

So what do you find strange in using poetry for divination in the context of Chinese culture?

BTW, when, and if, you finally accept the concept of divinatory poetry, when, and if, you finally realize "Yilin" is an important piece of yixue literature in Chinese history, which is used parallel with "Yijing", and when, and if, you realize that the above poem really refers to hexagram 31changing to hexagram 5, and that it is used for the interpretation of the answer on the question on buying the house, how would you interpret it, if you would interpret it?

--
Boyler
www.hidden-city.net

Hi Boyer,

thanks for the information. As for Hex 31 line 5 > Hex 5 I have aready given my interpretation using the I-Ching as you already know because you gave a negative comment about it. I do not possess the "Yilin", so I cannot say whether the book is worthy of my attention or not. For the moment I will stick with the I-Ching.

Hi willowfox,

<<thanks for the information. As for Hex 31 line 5 > Hex 5 I have aready given my interpretation using the I-Ching as you already know because you gave a negative comment about it.>>

Don't get me wrong, I didn't gave a negative comment on your interpretation of the answer. I didn't comment it at all (see my original post #5 in this thread). What I did is something like asking another doctor for the second opinion.

<<I do not possess the "Yilin", so I cannot say whether the book is worthy of my attention or not. For the moment I will stick with the I-Ching.>>

Fair enough.

--
Boyler
www.hidden-city.net