Xie to Wei Ji: a cast before visiting a Zen master

Date not recorded · Takashima himself, visiting the Zen master Imakita Kōsen at Engaku-ji in Kamakura · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 40 Xiè (Deliverance), line 6 (top) moving, changing to Hexagram 64 Wèi Jì (Before Completion).

Original text

鎌倉圓覺寺住僧今北洪川和尙。博曉釋典。當今之高僧也。予一日遊鎌倉。欲訪和尙。意予所談在易理。和尙所說在禪味。不知禪之三昧。與易之六爻。其旨果相符合否耶。試爲一占。筮得解之未濟。爻辭曰。上六公用射隼于高墉之上。獲之。无不利。斷曰。佛法以解脫爲宗旨。取解脫煩惱之義也。今得解上爻。不言解而言射。是用佛法。攝伏外魔。內性既定。外魔自消。與解所云三之狐爲內魔。上之隼爲外魔。其旨相同。知今日和尙。對余所談。大旨如斯。予乃就卦義。書道歌一首。懷之以訪和尙。和尙延予入禪堂。茗談移晷。佛法易理。各極其妙。遂出道歌示之。一笑而別。

In plain words

Imakita Kōsen, the abbot of Engaku-ji in Kamakura, was deeply versed in the Buddhist scriptures, one of the great monks of the day. One day Takashima was in Kamakura and wanted to call on him. He thought: what I talk about is the reasoning of the Changes; what the abbot speaks of is the taste of Zen. Do the samādhi of Zen and the six lines of the Changes really point the same way? So he cast, and got Xie with its top line moving, changing into Wei Ji. The line reads: "Six at the top: the duke shoots at a hawk on top of the high wall and takes it; nothing is unfavourable."

Takashima's judgment: Buddhism takes liberation as its aim, liberation from the passions. The top line of Xie, Release, speaks not of releasing but of shooting: this is using the Dharma to subdue outer demons. Once one's inner nature is settled, the outer demons fade of themselves. It matches the way Xie treats the foxes of the second line as inner demons and the hawk of the top line as an outer one. So what the abbot would say to him that day would be, in essence, just this.

Takashima then wrote a poem on the Way based on the hexagram's meaning, tucked it into his robe, and went to see the abbot. The abbot invited him into the meditation hall, and they talked over tea until the shadows moved; Buddhism and the Changes each showed their depths. Then Takashima brought out his poem and showed it to him, and they parted with a laugh.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the top line of Xie is read, with the second line's "catching three foxes in the field" brought in.
The name of the hexagram carries the meaning: "Release" is matched to Buddhist "liberation", linking the hexagram straight to another tradition.
Two lines are set side by side: the foxes of the second line are inner demons, the hawk of the top line an outer one; one sits in the inner trigram and one in the outer, which fits the inner-outer split exactly.
The question here was not about good or bad fortune but whether two kinds of learning could meet; the hexagram gave Takashima something to talk about.

About the outcome

There is nothing here that needed to come true. Takashima anticipated what the abbot would talk about; the conversation itself went deep on both sides, and they parted laughing. It reads more like a record of a meeting between two learned men.

Applying it to your situation

Before meeting someone from a different tradition, Takashima worked out what he wanted to say and even wrote a poem. The next time you talk with someone who sees things differently, will you bring arguments to win, or something you have understood and want to share?

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