Heng to Sheng: should a long-serving dignitary step down?

1890 (Meiji 23) · A gentleman, asking about a dignitary long in high office · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 32 Héng (Duration), line 4 moving, changing to Hexagram 46 Shēng (Pushing Upward).

Original text

明治二十三年。某縉紳來。請占某貴顯運氣。筮得恒之升。爻辭曰。九四田无禽。斷曰。就卦論卦。直言不諱。望勿見責。今君爲某貴顯占氣運。得恒之四爻。四爻以陽居陰。居不當位。爻辭曰田无禽。猶言謀而无功也。知某貴顯雖久處高位。目下時運已退。才力亦衰。凡所作爲。多无成效。自宜退隱。毋貽窃位之譏也。

In plain words

In 1890 a gentleman came to ask Takashima about the fortunes of a certain dignitary. The cast gave Heng with its fourth line moving, changing into Sheng. The line reads: "Nine in the fourth place: no game in the field."

Takashima's judgment: speaking only from the hexagram, I will be frank, and I hope you will not hold it against me. You asked about this dignitary and drew the fourth line of Heng. It is a yang line in a yin place, a position that does not suit it. The line says "no game in the field": hunting and catching nothing, like planning and achieving nothing.

So although this dignitary has long held high office, his time has passed and his powers have faded; most of what he does will come to nothing. He should retire of his own accord, and not leave people saying he merely occupied the seat.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the fourth line of Heng is read.
The hexagram is read as duration, matching "long in high office".
The line's place is yang in a yin place, unsuited to its position: the Small Image says "staying long in the wrong place, how can one catch game?", and Takashima applies "long in the wrong place" straight to the dignitary.
The image "no game in the field", a fruitless hunt, becomes efforts that achieve nothing, and from there, the advice to retire.

About the outcome

The text does not say whether the dignitary retired. Takashima opens with "I will be frank; please do not take offence", so he knew the judgment would be unwelcome; the case is worth reading mostly for how he delivered it.

Applying it to your situation

"No game in the field" asks whether there is still anything to catch where you are hunting. Is a position or habit you are holding on to still working, or have you simply been there a long time?

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.

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