Liu Yao - analytic Yijing interpretation

[mcoolio]

Most people know about the Yijing book with a text for each hexagram and each separate line.

 

Using only that is good to get familiar with the Yijing, but it goes much deeper than this. If you only use/know this you haven't fully entered the door of Yijing study.

 

2 other known methods are Liu Yao (also called Wen Wang Gua) and Plum blossom divination. Plum blossom divination uses the environment to generate the hexagram and there is always exactly one changing line. It's a very intuitive method.

 

But I haven't studied that method and I want to talk here about Liu Yao.

 

Liu Yao (Wen Wang Gua)

 

Liu Yao is a more analytical method of interpreting the Yijing. Each line is assigned one of the 12 earthly branches (the 12 chinese zodiac signs). Interpretation of the casting is mainly done by looking at the relationships between these earthly branches, but also some other stuff such as the 6 mythical animals and the chinese calendar(which also uses the earthly branches as you may know).

 

Chinese calendar which also uses the earthly branches (and heavenly stems) to indicate the energies of that moment is also used in the interpretation.

 

The chart for one casting looks like this:

 

 

This opens up a whole new level of Yijing study and there is much less room for the subjective interpretation of the interpreter, which is a huge limitation of using the classicial Yijing text for interpretation.

 

This method is slowly becoming more familiar in the west. In the past years, a few good books and some websites have been released that make it possible to get acquainted with and use this method relatively easy, although it still requires a little bit of study.

 

Some books and websites:

 

Website that can be used to assign branches and animals to a hexagram:

https://www.bright-hall.net/wwg/

 

Jack Chiu's book

http://www.acmc.com.hk/Book011.aspx

 

2 Books from Alfred Kee (these 2 are probably the best place to start right now, that is if you really want to go in depth. Second book shows some more advanced techniques)

https://www.amazon.com/When-Ching-Has-Text-Divination/dp/9671938701/

https://www.amazon.com/Grasping-Changes-Ching-Eight-Secrets/dp/9671938736/

 

Book from Vincent Koh (a little less in depth on Liu Yao but also talks about plum blossom divination and other things, can perhaps be good if you only want some basic familiarity with this method)

https://www.sgbookshelf.com/product-page/i-ching-wisdom-revealed

 

 

I recently started studying this method myself and I think it is a great way to advance your Yijing study. Would be cool if we can discuss this technique on this forum as well.

Edited August 27, 2022 by mcoolio

[Harmen]

The latest podcast that I made with Johannes Bloemsma for our Casting Changes podcast deals with this topic:

 

 

[mcoolio]

Nice podcast. And I like how you emphasized the fact that you don't necessarily have to use all the rules of that system. In fact also was a nice reminder to myself as a beginner learning it.