Scholarly

An I Ching Reading according to the scholars tradition is what most people think of when thinking of an I Ching Reading. In many ways, it is a form of bibliomancy, using the text of "The Book of Changes" as its reference.

The question is posed, and the reader tosses three coins six times. Each toss of the coins results in one line of a hexagram. These lines are identified as either Yang or Yin, and either Still of Moving. The image and commentary of that hexagramis then looked up in the Book of Changes and interpreted in the context of the question.

Additional insight in gained from the comments made on specific “moving” lines within the hexagram and the commentary on the figure that results when the moving lines change between their Yin and Yang nature.

I will tend to use the translations of Huang and of Karcher when reading in this fashion.

While most English-language books focus on the scholarly method, readings on this site will primarily use the latter two, which I generally find more interesting and versatile.

Wen Wang Gua

This method is not widely practiced in North America, as learning resources are few and far between. However, it is a remarkably subtle method of interpretation.

In this method, the diviner uses coins to create a hexagram of six lines. Using established formulae, each line is associated with one of the signs of the Chinese Zodiac. The interactions of these signs with each other is then interpreted in the context of the month, date, and hour of the divination.

The text of the I Ching is not consulted for this method of divination.

Plum Blossom

Plum blossom divination is a method of I Ching divination that uses synchronicity to determine to create hexagram with exactly one moving line. This image is then interpreted primarily with respect to the trigrams that compose it.

This method uses a combination of trigram associations, and references to the I Ching text for prediction.

When the text is referenced, it is very often for inspiration and images rather than commentary. As a result, I will regularly use the translation of Ritsema and Sabbadini when using this method, as they provide a detailed semantic field for all possible meanings of the symbols in the original Chinese text.