Someone looked for information on the Nanjing method I mentioned in a post and didn't find it. I just went looking for it and couldn't find it either, so here it is (it's in Rutt's edition of the Yi, but a lot of people don't have that). So here it is, edited to remove the silly arithmetic error:

The Nanjing method is used to filter down the results of an Yi Jing reading to a single text. The method was created by a group at Nanjing University. They 'reverse engineereed' the readings found in the Spring and Autumn Annals to determine how a reading was interpreted in antiquity. Let us say you received this reading, which, unfiltered, would give you three changing line texts and two judgements:

767676

Add the numbers of the hexagram up, and we get 39.

Subtract that number from 55

55 - 39 = 16

Determine if any of the changing lines are the significant line text, which we will call the 'Nanjing line', according to this table:

6, 7, 18, 19 - line 6
5, 8 , 17 - line 5
4, 9, 16 - line 4
3, 10, 15 - line 3
2, 11, 14 - line 2
1, 12, 13 - line 1

Our example produces line 4, which is changing, so we read that line.

To determine what text to read we use these rules:

If there is one changing line, and it is a Nanjing line, read that, otherwise read the judgement.

For two changing lines, if one is a Nanjing line then that line is read, otherwise the judgmeent.

For three changing lines, the Nanjing line, otherwise both judgement texts.

For four changing lines, the Nanjing line, otherwise the second hexagram's judgement.

For five changing lines, the Nanjing line, otherwise the second hexagram's judgement.

For six changing lines, the second hexagram's judgement.

Cgait, I'm not sure I follow you - but the Nanjing method sounds useful.

767676 is Hex 64 (1,3,5) changing to Hex 1, correct? When I add up the line numbers (7+6+7+6+7+6) I get 39, not 45. Am I adding up the right numbers?

The number 55 - where does that come from? It seems like it should be derived somehow, especially since it appears to be a constant. Or is 55 just the 'magic number' that makes the Nanjing method work?

Now the other value of changing line (besides 6) is 9. I suppose six changing yang lines (6x9) would be 54, which is the highest number possible and 1 short of the constant 55. That would yield a Nanjing Number of 1, correct?

I assume the reason for all this is that existing records of the oldest divinations using the Yi show some method was used to restrict the number of line texts consulted. The ancient Chinese did not read all the the changing lines. I remember Zhu Xi also developed a system for limiting the number of texts used in a reading. Is the Nanjing Rules Method pretty much the same thing, only based on an analysis of old readings?

I wonder why we read all the lines these days? Apparently it's not historically accurate, and it certainly is awkward to fit them together.

Lindsay

Doh!

Yes, of course it's 39. If I could add there would be a lot of other things I could probably do.

As to where the 55 is from, I'm not at all sure and I don't have the original Nanjing group article, so I'm not sure how they came up with the whole thing). It does ring a bell for me with some of the material in the Da Zhuan.

So, 55 - 39, if I can subtract, gives us line 4 as the Nanjing, which is a 6, and thus that is the line to read.

Lindsay writes:

I assume the reason for all this is that existing records of the oldest divinations using the Yi show some method was used to restrict the number of line texts consulted. The ancient Chinese did not read all the the changing lines. I remember Zhu Xi also developed a system for limiting the number of texts used in a reading. Is the Nanjing Rules Method pretty much the same thing, only based on an analysis of old readings?

Click to expand...

Yes, I've seen the Zhu Xi one as well. The Nanjing method, as I understand it, was based on just the divinations found in the Chun Qiu (Spring and Autumn Annals). This same set of divinations is analyzed in Rutt's book, by the way. His work has a great deal of valuable material. (Zhouyi: The Book of Changes, Richard Rutt. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996, hardback, xii + 497 pages, ISBN 0-7007-0467-1.)

Hi

The so called 'Najing Method" is based on the total of heaven and earth numbers, based on the Ho Tu and Luo Shu diagrams (mostly the first one) Heaven is Yang and even, Earth is Yin and odd... Heaven therefore are numbers 1,3,5,7,9 (added together makes 25...) and Earth is 2,4,6,8,10... (wich makes 30... and voila... 25 + 30..... = 55!)

Greetings / Huggies.
Frank (C that is...)

By the way... It was first mentioned in Greg Whincup's "Rediscovering the I Ching", way before Rutt, and I got the explanation from that book...

Frank C

So it is!

Great find! I've had Whincup all these years on the shelf and never dug back through that appendix to find the description of the method.

Nanchino as 'Gao Heng' method

I find a version of 'nanchino' in Wang Dongliang 'Les signes et les mutations'.
He write this method have been (re)created from the study of Gao Heng.

It appears a little more complex than what i've read in previous posts, and also more argumented.

If is in your interest (thread stopped in 2006...!) you can download it in my blog: www.processive.wordpress.com.
It is in french version (pdf scan).

I post the link, here, soon.

Russell has a page devoted to this method:

http://www.russellcottrell.com/VirtualYarrowStalks/NanjingiRules.htm

Ch.

Russell Cottrell vs Wang Dongliang...

Hy.

I've read about the link above.

'Gao Heng' not seems to have a different approach in lines and hex reading.

You may compare here:

http://processive.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/gao-heng-e-il-numero-del-cielo-terra/

You need a password to read [but..the article is in French]
Send me a private message if you want.

[excuses for my 'light' english]

The old timers here forgot I wrote about the Nanjing Method a few years ago...

A Proposed Alternative Milfoil Divination Method of the Yijing