Lü (Wanderer) to Ding: five years in the life of a coal mine

1884 (Meiji 17) · Takashima himself, at the request of staff of a Kyushu coal mine · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 56 Lǚ (The Wanderer), line 2 moving, changing to Hexagram 50 Dǐng (The Cauldron).

Original text

明治十七年。余漫遊九州。一日往觀某石炭坑。其夜有社員過訪予寓。曰。君精於幹事。今日巡視敝坑。定有高見。幸請敎示。余曰。炭坑之業。余素所未諳。辱承諸君下問。敢爲一占以決之。筮得旅之鼎。爻辭曰。六二旅即次。懷其資。得童僕貞。斷曰。本社在東京出店。遠隔九州。營謀坑業。諸君皆行旅在外者也。故曰旅即次。懷其資。得童僕貞。知此坑業。有財有人。可大可久。其所經辦上下用人。皆正直無私。本可無憂矣。但三爻有焚次喪僕之象。明年防有火災。四爻曰。得其資斧。後年可以獲利。償其所失。五爻小失大得。坑業聲名。得以上達。是爲坑務全盛之時。惜上爻曰。鳥焚其巢。先笑後號咷。此象可慮。約應在五年之內也。宜預爲愼防。

In plain words

In 1884 Takashima was travelling in Kyushu. One day he went to see a coal mine, and that evening some of the company's staff called at his lodgings and said: you are a man of great practical ability, and you inspected our mine today; you must have some views; please tell us. Takashima said: I know nothing about coal mining, but since you ask, let me cast to decide. The cast gave Lü (the Wanderer) with its second line moving, changing into Ding. The line reads: "Six in the second place: the traveller reaches an inn, carrying his goods, and gains a loyal young servant; steadfast."

Takashima's judgment: your head office is in Tokyo and you run the mine far away in Kyushu, so you are all travellers living away from home; hence "the traveller reaches an inn, carrying his goods, and gains a loyal servant". The mine has both money and people and can grow and last; everyone involved, high and low, is honest and fair. There would be nothing to worry about.

But the third line has the image of "the inn burns down and the servant is lost": guard against fire next year. The fourth says "he gains money and an axe": the year after, there will be profits to make up the loss. The fifth, a small loss and a large gain, is when the mine's name reaches the highest quarters, its best period. Unfortunately the top line says "the bird's nest burns; the traveller laughs first and wails after". That image is worrying, and will likely come about within five years. Take precautions in advance.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the second line of Lü is read, but the four lines after it are laid out as a five-year timeline.
The hexagram is the traveller: the head office is in Tokyo and the mine in Kyushu, so the staff are all "travellers". The situation is matched straight to the name of the hexagram.
Years are counted by lines: the third line's "the inn burns" is a fire next year, the fourth's "money and an axe" profit the year after, the fifth the peak, and the top line's "the bird's nest burns" danger within five years. It is Takashima's fullest use of timing by lines.
He begins by admitting he knows nothing of mining; the whole judgment comes almost entirely from the line texts.

About the outcome

The text does not say whether the mine had a fire, reached its peak, or met disaster within five years. A string of year-by-year forecasts is the most specific kind of claim in the book, and the kind most in need of a follow-up record; here there is none.

Applying it to your situation

"Laughs first and wails after": even at the best of times, keep something back for the worst. If what you are doing reaches its peak, what should you most guard against next?

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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