Reading a hexagram

Principles of reading a hexagram

By Vi Nhật Sơn · Updated 2026-09-18

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Principles of reading a hexagram — what is it? Principles of reading a hexagram: only 4 things give the result — Target, Self, moving line, changed line — judged in the order result, moment, information.

Before going into the technique, we need a firm grasp of the following principles of reading a hexagram, so as to avoid mistakes when reading.

The general principles

First, these points have to be repeated. There are only 4 things that give the result of a hexagram of the Yi; however many moving lines there may be, and whatever the case, no hexagram of the Yi will ever get away from these 4: the Target line – the Self line – the moving line – the changed line. That is, the result of a hexagram of the Yi depends on how these factors are matched against one another. From this we see clearly that there is no case in which a still line interacts so as to change the nature of the Self line; the nature of a still line is still that of a still line, and even if it controls another line it only reports that that line dislikes the other line… (apply this to the Opposing line sitting on the Self line, or to the Self–Target relation…). And likewise once again, each changed line acts only on the moving line that produced it. Avoid the mistake
Every situation in a hexagram of the Yi has its own reason for appearing. Even though at the step of determining the result they all give the same result, when we come to the last step, that of determining the information of the factors acting on the hexagram: for example, the Self line controlling the Target line in a business means one is going the wrong way oneself, and this case differs from a Weak Wealth line, which means the market doesn't exist — like selling meat to a temple — although both lead to failure if nothing further comes from a moving line or from a special state of the Self and Target lines such as a clash or a combination ….
Nature: the nature of a line is its Strength, in 5 grades: Excessive strength – Prosperous – Resting – Weak – Rootless. When we speak of the nature of a line, we understand that we are speaking of whether that line is Prosperous or Weak…. The things that can act on the original nature of a line are: the Day, the Month, a moving line, and the changed line corresponding to that moving line. That is, we can see at once that there is no question of a still line acting on a moving line or on another still line. Even in the case of the Opposing line sitting on the Self line, this only carries the factor that concludes the result of the matter and cannot change the nature of the Target line. Meaning: the result is failure, because the road is wrong; but that has no bearing on whether that road is a good road or a bad one — good or bad rests on the nature of the Target line
State: the state of a line covers the things that act directly, or indirectly, so as to change the nature of a line or to shift the point of timing of the lines in the hexagram, namely: Hidden movement, Month Break, Void, the life stages, the Flying line. With these states we have to be careful in the definitions so as to avoid mistakes in judging, whether by leaving out or by adding too much… States, like the Day and the Month, act on all the lines of the hexagram
Only what moves is judged, and only what moves can act on another still line, the Target line and the Self line included; and then the rule for judging a moving line will be the rule of the Target line and the satellites around it
And finally, the most important principle is the principle of order. Every Six Lines hexagram has to be judged on the footing of order, in the following parts:

The right asker, the right hexagram, the right reader

With a hexagram, to arrive at a correct result all three of the following are needed at once:

The right asker: meaning that the question must really be the question, the real desire and aim of the asker with regard to the matter. Someone asking about an inheritance is not the same as someone asking about money they earn themselves; asking about love is not the same as asking about marriage…. So the first thing is always to establish what the asker really wants
The right hexagram: meaning that the hexagram cast must answer to the story, through the method of casting, which includes: a quiet space, no stray thoughts, not asking 2 questions, matching the real nature of the matter
The right reader: only at this point does the technique of reading the hexagram come in

The order to keep in mind when reading: result – moment – information

Result: the first thing to attend to when reading a hexagram is the result of the event. Attending to the result from the start avoids getting absorbed in information or in other things such as the moment; for even if we know the moment the event happens, along with the factors acting between now and then, getting the result wrong will make all of that meaningless. Let everyone learning the Yi note that the result lies in the future, so everything of the past or the present is only a reference for confirming whether the hexagram answers or not. Don't cling to it and lose the road, or it will be hard to go deep. Of course most people will be over-confident, because in the ordinary hexagrams they meet there is only one moving line, so the result is simple to determine; but at this point nearly everyone will choose: to go further with several moving lines, or to stay with a single moving line for ever. This is the choice between the Yi as a tool and the Yi as a pleasure, and each will choose for themselves
Moment: meaning the moment the result happens and the moment the related factors in the story happen. It's like knowing that we shall be harmed — but when? Only by knowing clearly can one intervene rightly; otherwise one knows it only for amusement
The related information in the event: meaning rendering the situations of the hexagram into ordinary language. This step of translation gives us a sensible overall view of the event, and from that a suitable way of behaving and of intervening if the result is not what we want

The technical order for reading a hexagram

As to the technique of reading a hexagram, it must go in this order:

Determine the Target line
Determine the nature of the Target line
Determine the Self line
Determine the Self–Target relation
Determine the nature of the Self line
Determine the moving lines
Determine the changed lines corresponding to each moving line
Determine the nature of the moving lines
Determine the relation of the moving lines to one another and arrive at the final result
Determine the relation between the result of the cluster of moving lines and the Target line
Determine the relation between the cluster of moving lines and the Self line

One note on the order of reading a hexagram: we determine the nature of the Target line, the Self line and the moving lines in one pass, then go over the state of the lines concerned in another pass; only so is nothing left out.

An example following the order

The right asker: choosing the Target line for the question

Someone comes and asks how work will go; we then have to confirm back with the asker what "work" means in their sense:

If the question is about the road of promotion, then the Officer line stands for whether one gets the promotion to the hoped-for position; if the question is about the future of the work, then the nature of the Officer line stands for promotion or demotion. If the person works in medicine, we change Officer to Offspring
If what is coming up is a transfer to an equivalent position, we take Parents as the Target line; in the army or the police we change to an Officer Target line; and in medicine, even in an economic department within medicine, we take Offspring as the Target line. In this case we need both factors, the Self line and the Target line, to be perfect: if one of the two is spoilt, or has not yet reached the mark to become Prosperous, or if the Hostile line moves, it all reports that the matter fails
If the question is about relations with employees, we read only the Wealth line and the Self line to judge the employees, and then the nature of the question decides the nature of the Wealth line. For example: asking whether one and the employees will get on in the time to come, the Strength of the Wealth line answers this question: Prosperous means the employees are sincere about getting on. But the Self line also stands for oneself, and if the Self line controls Wealth, then although the other side is sincere, one is oneself approaching it the wrong way to make the relation better. In the case of the Opposing line sitting on the Self line, that is Siblings on the Self line, with Wealth clashing the Self line, we take the clash before the control: the nature of the Target line clashing the Self line is that the event comes unexpectedly, while success or failure rests on Strength. The conclusion here, if Wealth is Prosperous, is that the matter of concern, that is the relation with subordinates, will unexpectedly become harmonious, but one will still have things one is not happy about with the employees, since the Self line does after all control the Target line. The case of the Opposing line sitting on the Self line with Wealth combining is counted the same way. For the question of whether the employee is capable, the Target line stands for the employee's ability, while the Self line with the Target line stands for whether one can make use of this employee's ability. Countless examples in practice show that a good employee is not necessarily one the boss can use, as with Lü Bu and Dong Zhuo of old.. A Weak Self line means the employee goes over the boss's head; likewise in romance, a Prosperous Target line with a Weak Self line means one is turned on. If the Self line controls the Target line, it simply means we cannot use a capable person
If the question is about relations with the boss, we take Parents as the Target line, and read it as with the Wealth line. This case is grouped as reading people, that is, relations between people; from the actual situation we interpret it sensibly, and so gain an overall view of the matter in hand

This is an example of choosing the Target line for the question "How will work go?" — meaning that we have to really understand what this question is in its nature, and only then can we choose the Target line. The most basic thing when reading a hexagram is always to choose the right Target line; the rest comes after.

Step 2: the right hexagram

The place of casting must be quiet enough not to distract, and while casting one must not think of various other questions but concentrate on the single one. The number of throws is 6; but if reading for someone else, the caster should not count for themselves — the reader will count for them, to avoid distraction. If the asker is also the reader, it is best to film it and go over it afterwards to write the hexagram down, to avoid the distraction of counting.

Step 3: the right reader

Here is an example with a hexagram, to make the order clear: on a Geng Shen day, in the Wu month, asking about money in the time to come:

**Deliverance (Xie)** changes to **Duration (Heng)** Thunder (Zhen) Palace · Wood
Wealth	Xu Earth
Officer line	Shen Metal	Resp.
Offspring	Wu Fire
Offspring	Wu Fire		×	Officer line · You Metal
Wealth	Chen Earth	Self
Siblings	Yin Wood

The first thing is to determine the nature of the question before beginning on the technique. With this question, the asker wants to ask whether any money is coming, and since this person doesn't work in the special group of trades — the army, the police or medicine — we take Wealth as the Target line.

Step 1: determine the Target line as Wealth, and the nature of the Target line: generated by the Month and at Birth at the Day
Step 2: determine the Self–Target relation: the Target line sits on the Self line.
Step 3: determine the nature of the Self line: the Self line is generated by the Month and is at Birth at the Day besides, so it counts as Prosperous
Step 4: determine the moving line, here Offspring at Wu Fire; the nature of the moving line coincides with the Month, so it is Prosperous. Determine the interaction of changed line and moving line: the changed line neither generates nor controls the moving line, so this moving line stays as it is.
Step 5: determine the relation of the moving line and the Target line: the moving line generates the Target line; in this case it does not count as the Target line being of Excessive strength, only as Prosperous
Step 6: determine the relation of the moving line and the Self line: the moving line generates the Self line, so as above, the Self line is Prosperous.

Conclusion: what is sought will be obtained

The moment the matter happens: the Wealth line is still, so the moment is at the clash or the own branch of the Wealth line, that is Chen or Xu
Information: the Target line sits on the Self line, so one is obsessed with the matter asked about, here money. The Self line is Earth with the Black Tortoise added, so it is surely a stocky person who likes to help those around them, ambitious, and at present hoping for money. The moving line, Wu Fire with the Green Dragon, generates the Self line and the Target line, so it is the person who helps one find this sum; this is an acquaintance, of middling build, quick, hot-tempered, easy-going and sociable on the outside, a woman, or a man who is not decisive.

The basic procedure of reading a hexagram is like this. There will not be many examples in the book; we refer ourselves to this group of pieces to understand better the parts of the theory already set out.

This means that if we want to work with the Yi, we have to grasp it firmly; otherwise it is self-deception, and that does harm, very great harm. In the future we would be the equal of a blind person walking at night, everything only groping by feel; and setting the foot down in the wrong place will be a disaster. So thoroughness is the first requirement in dealing with what belongs to the future

So before going into the technique, remember three things:

Don't be greedy for information
Don't be hasty in establishing the order
Don't turn white into black for the sake of what the person opposite, or you yourself, would like

Intervention and the four kinds of matter

Technically, adjusting by direct physical means requires first of all that one have absolute power of decision over space, matter and time. For example:

Examinations: one can change the place of the examination, or the time of it.
Business: change the line of goods, the territory, the location…..

If one has no power of decision and has to take the above as given, it necessarily falls into another category, not the same as before.

The simplest thing is to quantify the time. In the Yi there is the notion of timing, so the timing will be the mark for us to choose by in some cases but not all — everyone must remember this point absolutely. There will be timings that run over a stretch of time, for example Hidden movement reporting a matter happening at present, and this will run on into the future; or a moving Opposing line coinciding with the Day, which still reports harm running from the present until the matter reaches its result.

As to matters, we divide them into 4 kinds:

Events happening once in the future, with the time not yet determined: for example, asking about promotion…
Events happening once in the future, with the moment already determined: for example, an examination
Events of a continuous character: such as one's present work, or a business
Matters concerning people: such as feelings, or relations between people

When reading, we are obliged to be clear which of these 4 kinds the situation falls into. This is as important as choosing the Target line: get it wrong, and don't expect to be right. That's how it is.

For direct physical intervention we follow this formula: "THE OPPOSITE OF WRONG IS RIGHT". Of course, if we want to check once more to be sure, we simply choose to cast the hexagram again and see the result.

With a simple hexagram, that is one moving line, there is nothing to say; what comes with this are the cases that are not so simple, so that everyone can understand how to intervene.

The reference tables

Before going deeper, we have the following reference tables, so as not to have to repeat them many times:

We have just been through the frame of space; in this part we come to time, and the frames of space will be understood by default as the notions and applications already made clear above.

Order

Judging the order is extremely important in everything to do with Six Lines. A wrong order means that at some point, in a special and unusual situation, a contradiction will arise, and the contradiction there will create a mistake.

With a hexagram of a single moving line, or a still one, judging the order is often passed over, because the factors in the hexagram do not yet show their relations and dependence on one another; then it is enough to attend to the single factors in the hexagram to arrive at the result and the information that goes with it. But for what one seeks, or for using the Yi as insurance for oneself, that much is not enough. Then the choice in the situation will be to cast several times to make the sense clear; but note that the first hexagram will be the one that covers the information broadly, while the later hexagrams only supplement the information, are not as general as the first, and nearly always give only the result one needs to know, sometimes without showing the moment of timing. So if one wants to go deep, to the final goal, the basic factors of order and of near and distant must never be passed over.

What is a contradiction in order? Look at this hexagram: on a Ding Si day, in the Yin month:

**Following (Sui)** changes to **Treading (Lü)** Thunder (Zhen) Palace · Wood
Wealth	Wei Earth	Resp.	×	Wealth · Xu Earth
Officer line	You Metal
Parents	Hai Water
Wealth	Chen Earth	Self
Siblings	Yin Wood		×	Siblings · Mao Wood
Parents	Zi Water

The question arises: does this Siblings line enter the Tomb at Wealth first, or does this Siblings line control the Tomb and so count as an ordinary line? If we judge both at once, a contradiction arises: Siblings cannot be both in the Tomb and controlling the Tomb at the same time; and if both happen side by side, do we judge Siblings as in the Tomb or as ordinary?

The answer, as a formula, is: STATE TAKES PRIORITY (over nature). State refers generally to the notions outside the nature of a line (Excessive strength, Prosperous, Resting, Weak, Rootless).

With this hexagram, because state takes priority, Siblings here is still in the Tomb at the moving line. Then at the moment of Chou, which clashes the Tomb, this Siblings line counts as controlling the Wealth line.

As to order, one must be extremely watchful if one wants to go far. Here is all the order with Six Lines that has to be remembered:

Order with the asker: the right asker – the right hexagram – the right technique of reading
Order of reading a hexagram: Target – Self – moving line ← changed line
As to the technique of reading a hexagram, it must go in this order:
1. Determine the Target line
2. Determine the nature of the Target line
3. Determine the Self line
4. Determine the Self–Target relation
5. Determine the nature of the Self line
6. Determine the moving lines
7. Determine the changed lines corresponding to each moving line
8. Determine the nature of the moving lines
9. Determine the relation of the moving lines to one another and arrive at the final result
10. Determine the relation between the result of the cluster of moving lines and the Target line
11. Determine the relation between the cluster of moving lines and the Self line
Order of what is judged: result – moment – information
Order of reading a hexagram: nature – state
Order of priority with a line: state – nature
Order with the asker: the nature of the question – the scale of time – the factors and the scale of space
Order for a hexagram with several moving lines: Target – Self – the result of the many-moving group referred back to Target and Self. Note that one must remember that state takes priority with a line, in order to take the marks in reading the hexagram.

The first lessons

With the Yi, there are two parts: the general part and the non-general part. The general part is the common framework for all matters, such as a Prosperous Target line with a Prosperous Self line meaning success; the non-general part is the formulas that hold within a narrow space, such as sun and rain, theft, or reading for someone else.....

One can take the framework and apply it to the branching cases to find the gap, and from that gather statistics and find the formula of each separate branching case — but don't do it the other way round.

What is learning correctly? The branching cases are a small minority and seldom appear, so if a beginner concentrates only on those cases they will for ever go round in the same circle. A human being is an animal, but animals are not only human beings; taking the small to measure the large means going round in circles for ever.

There are 5 main first principles:

The changed line acts only on the moving line that produced it
Only what moves has a changed line
Each hexagram has at most one Target line; all the other lines are only referred to the Target line and carry no meaning of their own. For example: asking about work, a moving Wealth line is the Source line of the Officer line and does not count as Wealth meaning money
The Hidden line does not act on the Flying line
The life stages are not counted at the Month

Those are the first principles for those just beginning to play, and the unchanging principles within the framework of those who already know. It is possible to judge a changed line against another line, but the technique for using it is not one to be used in the ordinary way, and the action here only means reporting additional information; it has nothing to do with Strength, generation or control at all.