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Chapter 1 of 131
Zeng Shan Bu Yi — Revised I Ching Divination
Overall Paraphrased Meaning
"The Addition and Deletion Divination Changes" originates from the ancient tradition of using yarrow stalks for divination, teaching people how to seek good fortune and avoid misfortune 🌱. Although past sages had already explained it thoroughly, Old Man Yehe spent decades delving deeply into research, extensively studying various texts 📚. He applied theoretical knowledge to practical divination while widely collecting real-life case studies, using actual outcomes to verify the theories—retaining what proved effective and discarding what did not.
He advocated for using only the Line of Self (世爻), providing a clear basis for judgment, and removed confusing concepts such as Gua Body (卦身), World Body (世身), astrological煞 (星煞), and natal charts (本命), eliminating the confusion caused by multiple conflicting approaches. For complex phenomena like Void Lines (旬空), Month Broken (月破), Clashes and Oppositions (刑冲), and Advancing Spirits (进神), he offered unique and insightful interpretations ⚡. He also reanalyzed the authenticity of terms such as Tomb (墓), Extinction (绝), Growth (生), Prosperity (旺), Moving Lines (动爻), Three Harmonies (三合), Fan Yin (反吟), and Fu Yin (伏吟), clearly distinguishing between different types of divination rules, such as wealth, career, parents, and children, thereby correcting many errors found in older texts.
All these insights came from his own enlightenment, uncovering what predecessors had not discovered and making it easier for later learners to get started 🚪. Unfortunately, he never compiled his work into a book during his lifetime. Later, Juezi obtained his manuscripts and, unwilling to keep them private, edited and organized them, finally publishing the book and requesting me to write this preface. I believe: Yehe’s knowledge was transmitted through Juezi, and Juezi’s name was preserved through Yehe.
The author’s preface delves deeper:
Is the philosophy of the "Book of Changes" profound? Certainly, it is. From Fu Xi’s creation of the trigrams to the commentaries by King Wen, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius, all aimed to comprehend the virtues of the divine and classify the nature of all things. However, only a sage can truly understand another sage.
Later masters, starting from Guiguzi, developed systems such as the Five Elements' mutual generation and restraint, the relationship between Self (世) and Response (应), and the classification of the Six Relatives (父母, 兄弟, 妻财, 官鬼...), making divination simpler and clearer than the ancient yarrow stalk method and more practical for seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune 📊.
In my youth, I also studied divination, but sometimes it was accurate, and other times it was not. It was not until my townsman Li Woping gave me a handwritten copy of Old Man Yehe’s divination records that I meditated on it and had a sudden realization—the key to accuracy lies in choosing the right method and following the right book ✅.
Thus, I secluded myself for two years, using Yehe’s and my own practical cases to compare and contrast various ancient and modern divination texts. I retained what was accurate, deleted what was not, corrected what contradicted the principles of the Changes, and supplemented what was cleverly accurate. Finally, I organized and categorized the content into this book. Its explanations are clear, allowing beginners to learn divination without a teacher; those familiar with the Changes can refine their skills, and masters can grasp its deeper meanings. Within half a year, one can acquire the academic essence that took Yehe over forty years to develop—this way, how could there be inaccurate divinations? Those dedicated to spreading true knowledge should not consider my words arrogant.
(Note: The original text did not include specific八字 cases, so no Component tags are inserted.)