Da Chu to Da You: should his cement works sell this year?

1890 (Meiji 23) · Takashima himself, asking about sales from his cement works at Atsuta · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 26 Dà Chù (Great Taming), line 4 moving, changing to Hexagram 14 Dà Yǒu (Great Possession).

Original text

余有攝綿土製造所在愛知縣下熱田。其支配人來請。占明治二十三年攝綿土販賣之商機。筮得大畜之大有。爻辭曰。六四童牛之牿。元吉。斷曰。六四辰在丑。丑土也。艮爲手。又爲厚。是能以手練成厚實攝綿土也。元來此物密合石灰與粘土。燒爲粉末。入之水中。積久而成。凝固如石。今占得大畜。明明示我畜貯之象。可知今年此物淹滯。依六四爻辭曰。童牛牿。牿謂牛馬之牢。畜之以防其逸。則知此物宜畜之於庫。至二十五年以待價也。爲上九何天之衢亨。乃可通用自在也。後果如余占。

In plain words

Takashima owned a cement works at Atsuta in Aichi prefecture. Its manager came to ask him to divine the prospects for selling cement in 1890. The cast gave Da Chu with its fourth line moving, changing into Da You. The line reads: "Six in the fourth place: a board on the horns of a young bull; supreme good fortune."

Takashima's judgment: by the line-branch system the fourth line falls on chou, which belongs to earth; Gen stands for the hand and for thickness, so this is earth worked by hand into something thick and solid, which is cement. Cement is made by mixing lime and clay, burning them to powder, and adding water, after which it sets hard as stone. Drawing Da Chu, Great Accumulation, plainly shows storing up, so this year the product would not sell.

By the line's "a board on the young bull's horns": a pen for cattle and horses, to keep them from getting away. So the stock should be kept in the warehouse and held until 1892 to wait for a better price. Only when the top line is reached, "the highway of heaven; success", would it move freely.

It turned out as he had divined.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the fourth line of Da Chu is read, with the top line's "highway of heaven" borrowed to show the way out.
Line-branches and trigram images are used: the fourth line falls on chou, which is earth; the upper trigram Gen is the hand and thickness; together, "earth worked by hand into something thick", that is, cement. This line-branch method comes from the Jing Fang tradition, and Takashima uses it to recognise the product in the figure.
The hexagram is read as accumulation: storing up, taken straight as holding stock.
Time is counted by lines: from the fourth line to the top gives waiting two years, to 1892.

About the outcome

"It turned out as I divined" is Takashima's record for his own business; it gives no figures for that year's sales or the price two years later. What stands out is that he uses line-branches and trigram images to "recognise" cement, when the question had already said it was cement. This site does not treat it as evidence.

Applying it to your situation

"A board on the young bull's horns" means restraining it while it is still small: early restraint costs less than repair later. Is there something you are rushing to put out that would do better held back for a better moment?

Original: Takashima Kaemon, Takashima Ekidan (expanded edition), recorded by Yanagida Ikusaku, Chinese text by Wang Zhiben, 1901. Translation, notes and reflection by this site.

These are historical records kept by the diviner himself. The outcomes are his own account; this site uses them to study how the lines were read, not as evidence that divination predicts events.

Cast a hexagram · All of Takashima's cases · The 64 hexagrams