Plum Blossom

Plum Blossom is a Chinese hexagram method centered on turning a meaningful moment into an image, traditionally attributed to Shao Yong of the Northern Song. It can form a hexagram from the time a thought arises, two supplied numbers, or an observed object and its direction, then reads Subject and Object, generating and controlling relations, and trigram imagery to assess how a specific matter may develop.

Casting from time: four numbers, one hexagram

Taking the numbers: year and hour use the branch ordinal (Zi 1, Chou 2, … Hai 12); month and day use the lunar calendar.

The arithmetic:

Upper trigram = (year + month + day)        ÷ 8, remainder;  if it divides evenly, take 8
Lower trigram = (year + month + day + hour) ÷ 8, remainder;  if it divides evenly, take 8
Moving line   = (year + month + day + hour) ÷ 6, remainder;  if it divides evenly, take 6

Each remainder maps to a trigram by its early-heaven number. The source text gives them directly: Qian one, Dui two, Li three, Zhen four, Xun five, Kan six, Gen seven, Kun eight.

A worked example found in the transmitted literature: a Chen year, twelfth month, seventeenth day, Shen hour.

• Chen is the fifth branch; Shen is the ninth
• Upper: 5 + 12 + 17 = 34; 34 ÷ 8 leaves 2 → Dui
• Lower: 34 + 9 = 43; 43 ÷ 8 leaves 3 → Li
• Dui over Li is Lake over Fire
• Moving line: 43 ÷ 6 leaves 1 — the first line moves, giving Lake over Mountain

Every school-level disagreement sits in these few steps. Branch ordinal or calendar number for the year? Lunar or solar for month and day? Zero or eight on an even division? Any Plum Blossom chart worth trusting should show its arithmetic, or there is nothing to check.

Casting from numbers: give two numbers

The chapter on image and number gives several ways of casting from numbers. The fullest account of how two numbers make a hexagram is the one for casting on written characters:

"When the count of characters divides evenly, split it in half — one half for the upper trigram, one half for the lower." "For eleven characters or more … if the count is even, take half for the upper and half for the lower. Then take the moving line from the total of the two."

So: the first number gives the upper trigram, the second the lower, and their sum gives the moving line — still by early-heaven number, still taking the full divisor on an even division.

The text then works an example — the "what is afoot today" cast:

"Splitting the phrase, the first three characters give the upper trigram: jin level tone, one; ri entering tone, four; dong departing tone, three — eight in total, giving Kun as the upper trigram. The next three give the lower … five in total, giving Xun as the lower. Then eight and five make thirteen; subtract twelve, leaving one — the hexagram is Sheng, Wind under Earth, with the first line moving, changing to Tai, the nuclear trigrams being Zhen and Dui."

That one example runs the whole rule through: how two numbers make the hexagram, that an even division takes the full divisor (8 ÷ 8 leaves 0, so take 8 and get Kun), that the moving line comes from the sum — and, into the bargain, how the nuclear trigrams are drawn.

You do the counting. Turning characters into numbers — tones, stroke counts, left and right as yin and yang — is image-work, not arithmetic; count them yourself and give us the two numbers.

The text has one further method, a cast from the number of objects ("add the trigram number to the hour number and divide by six for the moving line"), but it never says whether "trigram number" means the count of things seen or the early-heaven number of the resulting trigram — and it uses both kinds of figure elsewhere. We leave that one alone.

Casting from what you see: the direct method

This is what the text calls the later-heaven numbers: "In all the examples above, the trigram comes first and the number follows from it" — the reverse of the time method, where the number comes first and the trigram follows.

Upper trigram = the trigram of the thing you saw
Lower trigram = the trigram of the direction it was in
Moving line   = (upper early-heaven number + lower + hour-branch ordinal) ÷ 6;  if it divides evenly, take 6

The text works five examples, all of which you can check against the formula:

Which trigram a thing belongs to is yours to decide. That an old man is Qian and an ox is Kun comes from the Shuo Gua Zhuan and is well founded. But assigning whatever you happened to see to a trigram is itself an act of image-reading — have someone else do it and they have cast the hexagram for you. So you pick the two trigrams; once they are fixed, everything after is mechanical.

Timing: only this method has it

Of the three methods, only the direct one comes with a rule for timing. From the same chapter:

"In divination, the time of the response depends on your own posture, which decides whether the matter is quick or slow. Walking, the response is quick: halve the number that made the hexagram. Seated, the matter is slow: double it. Standing is half slow and half quick: use the number as it stands."

The unit is days. In the case of the old man, the diviner "happened to be walking on the road", so the number was halved to five days — "and on the fifth day it came about".

But the text draws the line itself, in the very next breath: "Even so, there is still adaptation — as with the peony and the plum-viewing casts, where the flowers were a matter of a morning and an evening, how could they wait out the full number?" Those two were cast from time, and blossom comes and goes within a day; no hexagram number was going to govern them. So this rule belongs to the direct method, and does not carry over.

Subject and Object: which is me, which is the matter

Of the two trigrams in the primary hexagram, the one holding the moving line is the Object; the other is the Subject.

The source text is blunt about it: the Subject trigram is the principal, the Object trigram is the matter — the Subject is the querent, the Object is what is being asked about.

Each trigram has an element (Qian and Dui metal, Zhen and Xun wood, Kun and Gen earth, Li fire, Kan water), and how those two elements generate or control each other is how the matter stands with you. The source text gives one verdict for each of the five relations:

The changed hexagram governs the ending. The source text: the changed hexagram is the final phase, and further, if the Object is inauspicious but the change is auspicious, the matter is inauspicious first and auspicious later — and the reverse.

A disagreement, stated openly. Deciding Subject and Object by the position of the moving line has the source text and two independent sources behind it. But some practitioners hold that Subject and Object as a philosophical pair is a different thing from the Subject and Object trigrams, and treat the still-versus-moving rule as an entry-level device requiring more flexible judgement at depth. We follow the mainstream reading without presenting it as the only one.

The nuclear hexagram: the middle of the matter

Primary, nuclear and changed hexagram are three phases of one matter: the primary is where things stand, the nuclear is the middle stretch, the changed is the end.

The chapter on image and number gives the rule for drawing it:

"The nuclear hexagram uses trigrams only; there is no need to name the sixty-four. Take the doubled hexagram, remove the first line and the sixth, and divide the four middle lines into two trigrams — see what you get. And again: Qian and Kun have no nuclear; take the nuclear of their changed hexagram."

That is: drop the first and top lines; lines two, three and four form the lower nuclear, lines three, four and five the upper nuclear.

You can check the rule for yourself:

1. Try it on the text's own examples. The peony cast gives Lake over Fire, and the text records "the first line changes to Xian, the nuclear showing Qian and Xun". Work it out: the six lines from bottom to top run yang, yin, yang, yang, yang, yin; lines two to four give Xun as the lower nuclear, lines three to five give Qian as the upper. It matches. The earlier "what is afoot today" cast gives Sheng, where the text says "the nuclear trigrams are Zhen and Dui" — that matches too.
2. "Qian and Kun have no nuclear" needs no memorising. Qian is six yang lines, so the four middle lines are yang as well and both nuclear trigrams come out as Qian again; Kun the same. The nuclear is then indistinguishable from the primary — which is to say there is none, and you go to the changed hexagram instead.

All the text says about what the nuclear means is "the nuclear answers to the middle" — the middle stretch of a matter. More specific claims, such as "a nuclear trigram controlling the Subject means obstruction along the way", are not in the text; they were added later. So our reading stops at telling you which two trigrams came out.

Image: the root of Plum Blossom reading

Beyond Subject and Object there is image — what each trigram stands for, and whether that matches the matter.

The canonical source is the Shuo Gua Zhuan, one of the Ten Wings, which gives each trigram a long list:

• Qian: heaven, the circle, the ruler, the father, jade, metal, cold, ice, deep red, a fine horse, tree fruit
• Kun: earth, the mother, cloth, a cauldron, thrift, evenness, a great carriage, pattern, the multitude, the handle
• Zhen: thunder, the dragon, dark yellow, a great highway, the eldest son, decisiveness and haste, green bamboo
• Xun: wood, wind, the eldest daughter, the plumb line, work, white, length, height, advance and retreat, indecision
• Kan: water, ditches and channels, hiding, the bow and wheel; in people, anxiety, heart trouble, earache; also passage, the moon, the thief
• Li: fire, the sun, lightning, the middle daughter, armour, spear and blade; in people, the large belly
• Gen: mountain, footpaths, small stones, gateways, gatekeepers, the finger, the dog, the rat
• Dui: the lake, the youngest daughter, the shaman, mouth and tongue, breaking and snapping, attachment and severance; also the concubine, the sheep

So Dui as "mouth and tongue" and "breaking and snapping" reads, in a business question, as repeated negotiation and an agreement liable to come apart; Kun as "cloth", "cauldron" and "the multitude" may point to goods, equipment, or a matter involving many people.

We use only what the text lists. Modern embroidery — "Qian also signifies leadership", "Kan represents emotional turbulence" — reads smoothly but has no source, so we leave it out.

What the source text leaves unsaid

Plum Blossom has few rules, and correspondingly few gaps — but there are some, and mostly they are places the text simply never addresses:

• Timing for the time and number methods. The text does not merely omit it; it says outright that the hexagram number does not govern these ("how could they wait out the full number?"). Of the three methods, only the direct one can speak to timing.
• Which month number a leap month takes. Not addressed. We use the number of the month itself (a leap sixth month counts as 6), and the chart says so.
• Which day the year starts on. Also not addressed. We take the first day of the first lunar month, likewise stated on the chart.
• Which trigram an outward omen belongs to. A cock crying, a branch falling — you take what prompts you into the hexagram. But assigning the thing in front of you to a trigram is image-reading, and only a person can do it; there is nothing to calculate.
• Anything beyond Subject–Object generation and control. Sayings like "the Subject wants to be generated, not controlled" circulate widely, but the text does not state them. The five lines above are its own words, quoted as they stand, without extrapolation.

On the leap month and the start of the year, Plum Blossom has several traditions and none has ever won out. We have to pick one; having picked, we say on the chart which one — so if you follow another, you can convert it yourself.

How it divides labour with Liu Yao

Both are hexagram methods, one heavy and one light. For detail use Liu Yao; for speed use Plum Blossom.

Sources

Mei Hua Yi Shu is traditionally ascribed to Shao Yong of the Northern Song, though its date of compilation and authorship remain disputed. The received text is organised into three parts: image and number, Subject and Object with the five elemental relations, and general rules of judgement. The trigram images come from the Shuo Gua Zhuan, one of the Ten Wings, which long predates Plum Blossom itself.

A note

Plum Blossom belongs to traditional culture and decision-making reference. It does not constitute medical, legal, financial or any other professional advice. Its strength is giving a quick sense of direction through image; it is not the tool for judgements that need precision.

Cast one at Guanyitang

The Plum Blossom caster currently offers two of the three: from time (the present moment, no input) and from numbers (give two).

It lays out every step of the arithmetic — each addend, sum and remainder — so you can check the working yourself, and see at a glance which tradition it follows. Primary, nuclear and changed hexagram are all shown. The Subject–Object verdicts are quoted from the source text, and the images come only from the Shuo Gua Zhuan. Where the text supplies no convention and we have had to choose one — the leap month, the start of the year — the chart says which.

The direct method is not open yet. The arithmetic and all five worked examples check out (they are set out above). What is holding it up is how to let you enter what you actually saw: asking you to pick the thing and its direction out of Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen and Kun means you first have to know the later-heaven directional chart by heart. It needs to be compass points and a list of everyday objects before it is usable.

FAQ

Plum Blossom or Liu Yao — which should I use?

It depends how much weight you want. Liu Yao takes six coin tosses and builds the full apparatus — stems and branches, family roles, self and other, spirits — dense with rules and highly derivable; it suits asking whether one specific thing will come off and where it is stuck. Plum Blossom is minimal to cast — from the present moment, from two numbers you give, or from something you happened to see — and reads only Subject against Object plus the images; it suits asking roughly where something is heading. Same family, one heavy and one light.

If I enter nothing, whose hexagram is this?

It belongs to the moment you cast. The premise of Plum Blossom is the prompt — something is already on your mind, and the time itself is part of the answer. So settle the question in your head before casting; if you are using a tool, write the matter down as well, so the reading can speak to the actual situation.

How exactly are Subject and Object decided?

Of the two trigrams in the primary hexagram, the one holding the moving line is the Object, standing for the matter asked about; the other is the Subject, standing for the querent. This reading has the source text and two independent sources behind it. In fairness, though: some practitioners hold that Subject and Object as a philosophical pair is a different thing from the Subject and Object trigrams, and regard the still-versus-moving rule as an entry-level device. We mark that disagreement rather than settle it.

Why do you print the whole calculation?

Because the disagreements between schools live entirely inside the arithmetic: whether the year is taken as a branch ordinal or a calendar number, whether month and day come from the lunar or solar calendar, and whether an even division yields zero or eight. Most tools show only the result, leaving you unable to tell which school they follow. We print every addend, sum and remainder so you can check it — and see which reading we use.

References

• Mei Hua Yi Shu, the source text (traditionally attributed to Shao Yong) — chapters on Subject and Object, on general judgement, and on image and number
• Shuo Gua Zhuan, from the Ten Wings of the Yi Jing — the canonical source of trigram images
• Guanyitang content protocol — every rule corroborated by two independent sources, or not published