Ji Ji to Ming Yi: a timber bill that went unpaid

1868 (Meiji 1) · Takashima himself, having sold timber to a Yokohama furniture shop · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 63 Jì Jì (After Completion), line 5 moving, changing to Hexagram 36 Míng Yí (Darkening of the Light).

Original text

橫濱辨天通橘屋者。余之所知也。其鄰家有岩井屋某。專售西洋家具。明治元年。余因橘屋介紹。賣與材木。價値數千圓。豈知彼陽飾富裕。內實貧困。閱數日不償其價。余乃憂之。以一占決之。筮得既濟之明夷。爻辭曰。九五東鄰殺牛。不如西鄰之禴祭。實受其福。斷曰。爻言東鄰殺牛。不如西鄰之禴祭受福。卦以九五爲東鄰。以六四爲西鄰。五爲主爻。五與二應。是主不如應也。今就所占論之。則以岩井之賣主爲東鄰。以橘屋之介紹爲西鄰。如此疑橘屋有於中取利矣。我將向橘屋索價。橘屋必不能辭責。以橘屋當西鄰。爻位屬離。離火也。賣者爲材木。木以生火。火得旺勢。則坎水受煎。東鄰亦不能不出而償價也。且離爲女。可著女人而往索之。後余果與橘屋妻女相謀。乃得受値。

In plain words

The Tachibana-ya on Benten-dōri in Yokohama was a house Takashima knew. Its neighbour, a man of the Iwai-ya, dealt in Western furniture. In 1868, through the Tachibana-ya's introduction, Takashima sold timber to the Iwai-ya worth several thousand yen. But the Iwai-ya, for all its show of wealth, was in fact hard up, and days passed with no payment. Worried, Takashima cast to decide what to do, and got Ji Ji with its fifth line moving, changing into Ming Yi. The line reads: "Nine in the fifth place: the neighbour to the east slaughters an ox, but it is not as good as the neighbour to the west's simple offering; that one truly receives the blessing."

Takashima's judgment: the line says the eastern neighbour's great sacrifice is not as good as the western neighbour's modest one, which receives the blessing. The hexagram takes the fifth line as the eastern neighbour and the fourth as the western. The fifth is the ruling line and it answers the second, meaning the principal is not as good as the one who answers. Applied to this case, the Iwai-ya, the buyer, is the eastern neighbour, and the Tachibana-ya, which made the introduction, is the western. On that reading, one may suspect the Tachibana-ya of having taken a cut. I will ask the Tachibana-ya for payment, and it cannot disown responsibility.

With the Tachibana-ya as the western neighbour, its line belongs to Li, which is fire; what was sold was timber, and wood feeds fire. When the fire is strong, the Kan water above is brought to the boil, and the eastern neighbour cannot help coming forward to pay. Moreover, Li stands for women, so women could be sent to ask for the money.

In the end Takashima did talk it over with the wife and daughter of the Tachibana-ya, and was paid.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the fifth line of Ji Ji is read.
Lines stand for people: the fifth is the eastern neighbour (the buyer, Iwai-ya), the fourth the western (the introducer, Tachibana-ya); "the east is not as good as the west" becomes: go to the introducer.
The five elements' cycle is used: Li fire below, Kan water above; the timber sold feeds the fire, and a strong fire brings the water to the boil, so once the introducer is involved, the buyer has to pay. It links the elements' generating and overcoming to human affairs.
"Li is woman" suggests sending women to ask, and in the end the money came through the Tachibana-ya's wife and daughter.

About the outcome

This was a reading about Takashima's own business, and the outcome, that he was paid, is his own record. Pressing the person who made the introduction is a common way of recovering a debt, and the suspicion that Tachibana-ya took a cut is presented only as a guess. This site does not treat it as evidence.

Applying it to your situation

"The eastern neighbour's ox is not as good as the western neighbour's simple offering": show is not the same as substance. Takashima was caught out by a buyer who only looked wealthy. When you size up a partner, are you looking at their show or their actual situation?

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