"Jing Fang" Style of Fortune Telling Based on Hexgrams and Five Elements

The Jing Fang Method

The prominent scholar Jing Fang (京房) of the Han dynasty (77-37BC) revolutionized fortune telling based on the 64 hexgrams by marrying them with the concept of the Five Elements.

His method is:

1. Generate a trigram by the coin substitute method; this is the base hexgram (see this entry)
2. Create the alternate hexgram by flipping all lines marked with O or X
3. The base hexgram is used to predict the general state of an event or issue, while the alternative hexgram is used to predict the outcome of an event or issue
4. Identify the houses of each hexgram
5. The element of the base trigram of the house of the base hexgram is the source (原神)
6. The element of the base trigram of the house of the alternative hexgram is used to predict the final outcome
7. Allocate a Zhi (from the 12-Zhi cycle) to each line of both hexgrams based on an algorithm (the reader can look this up)
8. Take the appropriate element (based on the event or issue being predicted) as the target (用神)
9. Make predictions based on the twelve zhi items

When expressed in the language of the Standard Model, step 8-9 become:

1. For each zhi item allocated to each line of both hexgrams, find its corresponding 3D vector in the Five Elements Phase Space based on the Standard Model
2. Create a resultant vector by combining the six vectors of the base hexgram
3. Create a resultant vector by combining the six vectors of the alternative hexgram
4. Identify the target (用神) element based on the source (原神)
5. Identify the magnitude of the target element by projecting the resultant vector of the base hexgram -- this generally predicts the strength of the target, or the event/issue being predicted
6. Identify the magnitude of the target element by projecting the resultant vector of the alternative hexgram -- this generally predicts the strength of the final outcome of the event/issue being predicted
7. The interactions of both resultant vectors also have implications on whether the final outcome will be favorable or unfavorable -- for example, if the resultant vector of the alternative hexgram is much weaker than the other

Observations

Using the Zhi Formula and the Standard Model takes most of the guesswork out of applying the Jing Fang Method of fortune telling.

There are, however, some unknowns, for example the rationale behind the algorithm of allocating zhi items to each line of a hexgram. Also, practitioners of the Jing Fang method can usually make fine-grained predictions, including specific details, based on the complex interactions of the 12 zhi items -- these cannot be easily generated by the conceptualized Standard Model which reduces all interactions to a single vector embedded in phase space.

The Jing Fang Method is also the first under this study that utilizes the concept of relationships to make predictions on a particular event or issue.  This is actually only an application of the general concept of mapping a base (e.g. the Self House 命宮 in Ziwei Numbers, or the Day Pillar 日柱 in the Four Pillars) and then looking for the correct element or house for the event/issue under question based on relationships. More of this can be seen in future entries when studying other systems of fortune telling, although in many cases, a uniform 60° is used instead of the 72° in the Five Elements basic model.

Practical Example

This example is chosen at random from the book 周易与预测学 (The I-Ching and The Science of Predictions) by 邵伟华.  A prediction was seeked for the illness of asker's wife.

The base hexgram obtained was 比 and the alternate hexgram was 謙, meaning the second and forth lines of the base hexgram were flipped to form the alternate hexgram.

The houses of each hexgrams: 比 is of the house of 坤 (an earth 土 house) and 謙 is of the house of 兌 (a metal 金 house).  Therefore, the source element is earth (土).

As the event being asked is related to the asker's wife, and within the five relations a wife falls under the overcomed, thus the target element (用神) is the element overcome by the source element, or water (水).

Therefore, right away, we have the element of the alternate hexgram being a benefactor (i.e. generator) of the target element -- a particularly optimistic result generally, indicating that it is likely the event will end optimistically (remember the alternate hexgram indicates the outcome of a prediction).

The zhi vectors under the Standard Model for the base hexgram are:

1st Line: 子 (water) = (0, -1, 0)
2nd Line: 戌 (earth) = (+0.43, +0.25, -0.87)
3rd Line: 申 (metal) = (+0.43, -0.25, +0.87)
4th Line: 卯 (wood) = (-1, 0, 0)
5th Line: 巳 (fire) = (+0.25, +0.43, -0.87)
6th Line: 未 (earth) = (-0.25, +0.43, +0.87)

Not considering adjustments made due to season and location (e.g. hotter seasons magnify fire while colder seasons magnify water, spring magnifies wood while autumn magnifies metal), the resultant vector is (-0.14, -0.14, 0), meaning that it is weakly negative (i.e. wood) on the X-axis and weakly negative (i.e. water) on the Y-axis.  The Z-axis component is zero.

As the target element of the event is water, we can judge from the resultant vector of the base hexgram that it is weakly beneficial -- although not strongly but at least not detrimental. This indicates that the wife is weak from illness, but that the illness is likely not to be serious or life-threatening.

The zhi vectors for the alternate hexgram are:

1st Line: 酉 (metal) = (+1, 0, 0)
2nd Line: 亥 (water) = (-0.25, -0.43, -0.87)
3rd Line: 丑 (earth) = (+0.25, -0.43, +0.87)
4th Line: 申 (metal) = (+0.43, -0.25, +0.87)
5th Line: 午 (fire) = (0, +1, 0)
6th Line: 辰 (earth) = (-0.43, -0.25, -0.87)

The resultant vector is (+1, -0.36, 0) -- strongly metal (X-axis) and mildly water (Y-axis), but again no earth.

As the element of the alternate hexgram has mild magnitude in the target element axis, this indicates that the outcome of the prediction should be optimistic, and generally more positive than the original state.

In other words, the wife is expected to recover from a non-life-threatening illness.