Reading space (the position of the lines)

When we speak of space, we mean physical space and the space within relationships, shown through the position of the lines in the hexagram: the order of the lines (for Feng Shui and a career) and inner and outer (for most other matters).

The position of the lines in a career

As to a career, we have the following formula for ordering the people in the story. (Note: except for a Six Clashes hexagram, because with that hexagram the Self line is by default at line 6, and then a Six Clashes hexagram gives the information that there is rough weather ahead and that the matter cannot last long however good it is; and except for a Six Harmonies hexagram, because the Self line is by default at line 1, and that situation already reports that we suit the present work in our make-up, and not at all that we are in the lowest position in the work. But note here that Six Harmonies is not the opposite of Six Clashes such that one could read it as a lasting matter; it only tells us that this work suits one's personal make-up, while whether it goes well or lasts still depends on the nature of the Target line.)

And then we divide the order of the positions in an ordinary job as follows:

• Line 1 stands for the lowest position in the work
• Line 2 stands for a higher position, perhaps a long-serving staff member or a team leader
• Line 3 begins the level of management
• Line 4 is the person next to the highest
• Line 5 is the highest person in the work, or someone close to the highest, such as an assistant or a regional director
• Line 6 is not counted as any position

This ordering of positions stands not only for the Self line but for everyone in the company, those above one and those below; and note that this holds only for the position of the Self line — wherever the Officer line is does not count as the post being aimed at. The Self line stands for oneself at present, and wherever it lies, that is one's present position, while the surrounding positions stand for the ranks, the posts and the people around one. The tendency to like or dislike then lies in the tendency of the elements of the lines towards the Self line — for example, line 1 controlling the Self line means the lowest-ranking employee in the company is not happy with one; and if the company has many people, line 1 stands for the will of the majority of the group of employees in the lowest position in the work. Here we note movement and stillness: we know that only a moving line affects a still line, so in this relation the moving line is the one that holds the power to act on the other lines of the hexagram — that is, whichever position the line lies at, the person or the group of people at that position has a marked effect on our present work and on the other groups in the hexagram. For example:

Example: Retreat (Dun) changing into Standstill (Pi)

Retreat (Dun) changes to Standstill (Pi) Heaven (Qian) Palace · Metal

Parents	Xu Earth
Siblings	Shen Metal	Resp.
Officer line	Wu Fire
Siblings	Shen Metal			○		Wealth · Mao Wood
Officer line	Wu Fire	Self
Parents	Chen Earth

On a Geng Yin day, in the You month, reading a career: will there be a promotion coming?

With this hexagram, whether one rises or not need only be judged by the steps given in the first part. The Officer line sits on the Self line and is generated by the Day, so it counts as Prosperous; being Void, it is not yet obtained, and at the clash or the filling of the Void the promotion will come. That is all there is to it. Besides, in the hexagram line 3 moves and is the Hostile line of the Target line and of the Self line, so surely, as far as the work is concerned, this is the cause of our not being able to hold the post long after the promotion (since the Target line is Prosperous, the promotion comes), and it also makes one weary of the work (since the Hostile line of the Self line moves). So who is this?

Combining with Frame 1, we can easily describe this person from the characteristics of a Metal line that is Prosperous, coincides with the Month, is Yang, at Extinction at the Day, with the Green Dragon added: a person with fair skin and a bright face, who keeps their word, conservative, firm in temper, cheerful and sociable towards the outside, resolute in work, a man or a masculine woman (because Yang), but at present feeling weary of the work and without motivation although still going on (because at Extinction at the Day).

As to position, this is line 3, the management level, and it lies above the Self line (line 3 is above line 2, which is the Self line), so it is one's superior. One's feeling towards this person is: one is not happy with them (since in nature the Self line is still Fire and the moving line is Metal, and Fire controls Metal), but one can do nothing about it (because it is still). From this data we can easily know who this person is, and from there change the way we approach them and turn the matter from harm into benefit. So how is the change made?

Simply by acting on this person actively; acting actively changes the state of the line in the hexagram, and this can be done because the nature of the Self line is still Fire, and it can control Metal. The general formula will be given later, corresponding to each case of a moving line with the Self line in the parts that follow; here is an example of the notion, to make it easy to picture.

More on the hexagram: since each position stands for a particular person or group of people, with this example we have the following:

• At present one is at the position of line 2, that is, team leader or a long-serving employee, with lower positions below one
• The relation between subordinates and oneself is shown through the nature of line 1, Chen Earth, towards the Self line: the Self line generates this line 1, so one has to humour the subordinates and run after them. And whether the employee is capable lies within line 1, that is, its nature; the nature of line 1 is at present Weak, so the employee is not capable, and one has to run after that. Besides, line 1 is controlled by the moving line 3, so there will surely be trouble and danger in the time to come from the position of line 3; this does not affect oneself, by the rule of the Target line and the satellites turning around it.
• Line 2 controls line 3: one is not happy with the higher management level right beside one. As to personal ability, the Prosperous Self line signals good personal ability in the work, but it is at present Void, so one is at present going round in circles without direction and weary (the property of Void). The ability of line 3 is good, because Prosperous, but that person is at present weary (because at Extinction at the Day)
• Line 4 is senior management, or the assistant of the highest person in the work. Here line 4 at Wu Fire is Prosperous, being generated by the Day, and is at Birth besides, so this is probably a new person or someone who has just taken up the post; it is of the same element as the Self line, so there is nothing special in the relation, except that it is Void, so this is a person who is not true, and relations afterwards should all be careful. As to appearance, this is a person of middling build, quick, with a hot temper, not sincere, who keeps proper manners but cannot stay calm when angry; in work their handling will be hard rather than yielding (Fire, Void, with the Vermilion Bird, a Yang line), and they are still acted on by the moving line, that is line 3, which gives rise to weariness and to nothing lasting here
• Last is line 5, standing for the highest person in the work, always. One note here: in the case where the Self line is at line 5, then besides meaning the highest person it may also be the assistant or the adviser to the highest person. Line 5 here is the Shen Metal line, Prosperous, that is, a capable person; with the Hooked Array added, a quiet, inward person who knows how to calculate; being Yang Metal, a person with fair skin or a bright face, conservative, firm in temper, keeping their word in work, resolute. As to the relation with oneself, that is the Self line, one feels not happy with this person, because the natures are different: oneself being Fire, one surely wants speed and is hasty in work, while the other side is slow and conservative, and from that arise the disagreements that make one unhappy
• Line 6 is not considered

Here we can see clearly that the nature of each of the 5 lines carries a meaning of its own, and at the same time is acted on by the moving line. From this we easily see the whole picture of the matter and the mutual action of the factors making up the present work beyond the career question, and from that we can prepare our stance beforehand for the situations that arise in the work.

A note on choosing the Target line: we are used to choosing Officer as the Target line for a career; but for someone whose work is saving lives, such as a doctor, or for departments connected with medicine, all emoluments and career come back to Offspring as the Target line. Note this.

And this ordering of the lines holds only for work one is already doing, not for the case of applying for a job; besides, it also holds for asking about future work and what the surroundings will be like — this is the complete chart for that.

All this is long-winded, but it is not superfluous: it leads to how we behave towards the people around us, and so avoids unpleasant things.

Example: Abundance (Feng) changing into Difficulty at the Beginning (Zhun)

Once there was a hexagram about matters like this:

Abundance (Feng) changes to Difficulty at the Beginning (Zhun) Water (Kan) Palace · Water

Officer line	Xu Earth
Parents	Shen Metal	Self		×		Officer line · Xu Earth
Wealth	Wu Fire			○		Parents · Shen Metal
Siblings	Hai Water			○		Officer line · Chen Earth
Officer line	Chou Earth	Resp.
Offspring	Mao Wood

On a Geng Shen day, in the Wu month: asking about the present work. The asker was the director of a department in a company, that is, close to the boss. This hexagram has a Metal Self line, so the asker is a person with fair skin, a bright face, conservative…; being Yin, they are not decisive in work, although their own expertise is good, and at the time of asking they were weighed down by the work (the Hooked Array). In the work they are supported and helped to the utmost from above, and the person above is just as described for a Yang Earth line with the Hooked Array, that is, a person of solid build, dependable, but slow to take things in, inclined to like helping those around them, quiet and inward, more decisive…

Basically, in this hexagram the Officer line is taken as the Target line, and to ensure "not being dismissed" we go by the nature of the line: if the line is Prosperous one will not be cut from the work, because what the asker seeks is to keep the work and not to be promoted. So the lasting of the work under the effect of decisions from outside is shown by the Strength of the Officer line; in hexagrams that seek promotion, the Officer line then shows that promotion, while otherwise it lies only in keeping the post. The decision from outside here is understood as a decision from a level higher than oneself, such as dismissal, shown by a Weak Officer line; if the Officer line is Prosperous, rest assured the boss will not dismiss one. Here the Self line changes into Officer; note that in a career the Officer line is the Target line, so we count it only as changing into the Target line, which generates the Self line, and we do not count it as changing into the Officer as a ghost. And since the changed line is not acted on by the Target line, in cases other than the Tomb, we take the nature of the changed line as Prosperous by default; so the first thing is: rest assured, no dismissal.

But one must always be watchful that in every question, what we are concerned with is the Target line, while our own safety within the work is the Self line. A hexagram of the Yi shows the situation with natural behaviour and no intervention, and that is what leads to such a result.

This is a hexagram with several moving lines, and the order of reading it is as follows:

• The first thing is to judge the nature of the Target line; being a changed line, it is Prosperous by default
• Second, we judge the Self–Target relation; here the Target line generates the Self line
• Third, we judge the nature of the moving lines; here we have 3 moving lines: Siblings at Hai Water, generated by the Day, so Prosperous; Wealth at Wu Fire, coinciding with the Month, so Prosperous; Parents at Shen Metal, coinciding with the Day and generated by a moving line, so Prosperous
• Fourth, we judge each pair of changed line and moving line:
  • The pair Siblings at Hai Water changing into Chen Earth is changing into the Tomb and changing into control; but because it is Prosperous we count it as changing into the Tomb. This is like the pair Zi – Chou, an exception as to state. With this Tomb we divide into two stages: before the clash of the Tomb and from the clash of the Tomb onwards
  • The pair Wealth at Wu Fire changing into Parents at Shen Metal: by the rule, only the changed line acts on the moving line and the moving line cannot act on the changed line, so there is no effect; Wealth at Wu Fire stays as it is
  • The third pair: Parents at Shen Metal changing into the Officer line at Xu Earth counts as changing into generation, with no state in the way, so it stays as Shen Metal

Here we divide into two stages corresponding to the Tomb state of line 3, namely before the clash of the Tomb and from the clash of the Tomb:

Stage 1: the time before the clash of the Tomb, that is before Xu, when we do not consider the line in the Tomb in the chain of action; then there are only two moving lines, lines 4 and 5. Here the relation between these two lines is that Wealth at Wu Fire controls the Self line. When we take the Target line as the result of the event, that is the career, while the Self line stands for one's own safety in the matter asked about, then line 4 controlling the Self line surely means the matter is dangerous to one through a factor outside the story itself (in the case of a moving Target line controlling the Self line, it counts as our meeting a disaster because of the matter asked about, for example an accident at work..). Line 4 is a position below us, a subordinate manager or the boss's assistant, and we are at a disadvantage because of this person. This is happening at present within this month, because it coincides with the Month, and runs on until the moment the Tomb is clashed; what happens after the clash of the Tomb must be judged in stage 2. But here we have this asker being affected by the position of the subordinate, with danger and pressure on themselves, with the characteristics of Fire (from here on, when speaking of the characteristics of a line, we take it as understood that we look it up in the table above). So in this case, how is it to be resolved? Of course one cannot ask the person higher up, because that lies at the changed line, and the changed line acts solely on the moving line that produced it, so in the end that person is an outsider to the relation between oneself and the other positions in the work. So this can only be resolved by keeping out of the way, avoiding friction in the relation until the moment of Xu Earth; and this avoidance may be joined with space (in the part below), that is, not travelling far, but staying around the place of work or at home (because the Opposing line moves in the outer trigram).

Stage 2: from the moment the Tomb is clashed, that is from Xu onwards, it becomes a hexagram with 3 moving lines, and the method of reading a many-moving hexagram is as follows. We compare the pairs of lines in order from high to low; first the pair Parents at Shen Metal – Wealth at Wu Fire: in this pair Wealth is Prosperous and controls Parents away (the rule of line controlling line is that being of equal strength or above is enough to control — for example Resting – Resting, Prosperous – Prosperous, Prosperous – Resting — while if it is weaker it cannot control, for example Resting – Prosperous; here both are Prosperous), so the result left is Wealth.

We take the result of the Parents – Wealth pair, that is Wealth at Wu Fire, and compare it with the remaining line, Siblings at Hai Water; again Siblings is Prosperous and controls Wealth away, so the result of the chain of action left is the Siblings line at Hai Water.

Then we take this result against the Target line: the Target line lies at the changed line, so there is no action, because only a changed line can act on the moving line that produced it.

Finally, referred to the Self line, the Self line drains into the Siblings line at Hai Water (note that the chain of action of the moving lines is counted separately, and the referring of the final result of the chain of moving lines to the Target line or the Self line is counted separately, even if the Target or Self line is itself moving); since this Self line is Prosperous, there is only loss and the matter is not spoilt. So after the branch Xu, one can link with someone in a still lower position and so hold in check the position of line 4, and escape the danger to oneself in the work.

Line 3 is Hai Water with the Green Dragon, that is, a yielding person, intelligent or skilful, but also resolute, sociable with those around….. So here we sacrifice a little advantage and link up with the subordinate, and we shall escape.

This is the ideal situation, where the line that holds in check the one harming us is Prosperous and usable. In this case, supposing this Hai Water line were Weak, we should be obliged to make contact actively and sacrifice advantage, feeding up this line 3 so as to subdue this Wealth line at Wu Fire.

With the example above, all the information was verified as to the present facts and the marks of time; this too is an interesting hexagram.

In the case of medicine, we merely replace the Officer Target line with Offspring; the ordering stays as above.

The position of the lines in a house

For matters of housing in Feng Shui, we have the following arrangement for a house; but this holds only for a general question such as how the present house is. We then choose Parents as the Target line, standing for the state of the house, its Strength showing the quality of the house, including whether living in that house is advantageous for the future; the Self line stands for one's own safety and comfort living in this house — as with a house that is beautiful but unhappy to live in, which is likewise shown by Parents Prosperous with the Self line Weak, and then wherever the Self line is Weak, that is where the illness lies. The rule for judging the relations of the order is likewise as with the career hexagram above: a still line is actively affected by a moving line, and the lines we want to judge still follow the formula that a line's own nature is judged with its changed line, and it then undergoes the action of the result of the chain of interaction of the moving lines with one another, and not the action of single moving lines. For example, in the hexagram above, the Self line still has to be judged in the end against the result of the chain of action among the lines, and we do not conclude at the first interaction, namely the Self line, Parents at Shen Metal, being controlled by Wealth at Wu Fire; we have to wait for the result of the chain Shen Metal – Wu Fire, Wu Fire – Hai Water.

So what is the order for a house?

• Line 1 stands for the floor of the house, and for the grounds around the house, the area next to it. For example: at Water, we know the house is near a source of water; if this Water is Void or Weak, we know that this source of water was once plentiful and has now dried up — this may be a dry well, or one filled in, or a river or channel that has been filled in.

  We note here the strong and weak branches in reading the information, namely the earlier branch and the later branch counted forward within each pair of the Five Elements, Earth excepted: the earlier branch stands for "small", the later branch for "large". For example: with the element Wood we have the two branches Yin and Mao; so if line 1 coincides with Yin Wood, we judge that this land has many small trees, and if it is Mao, the land has big trees; if Wood is in Break, the trees have died, and if Wood is Weak, the trees have been cut down. What is this for? It is to add information for judging things correctly; because in Feng Shui there will be places that are faulty, and if that faulty place is a big tree among small ones, that is Mao, we can easily judge the origin of the source of the trouble

  The case of the strong and weak branches also tells us the tendency of a matter in the past. For example, with feelings, if the Target line coincides with the strong branch, we know that in the past this was a great love, much loved in the past; likewise with Yin, it was not great. That is the past; as for the future, it lies in the nature of the Target line at present.

  But in this case of housing, if line 1 coincides with Metal and is Weak, be absolutely careful that the land of the house is contaminated with heavy metals.

  As for what people often say about remains under the house, that is the phenomenon of the Officer line with the White Tiger at line 1; or an old grave, which is Parents on Earth. But that was in the past; nowadays it is very rare, since with modern technology foundations are dug deep and it is hard for an old grave to lie under a house. Still, the formula for judging it is as above. Matters like this belong to chapter 3; we are in no hurry.

• Line 2 stands for the space inside the house
• Lines 3 and 4 both stand for the doors
• Line 5 stands for the surrounding walls and the roof
• Line 6 stands for the space of worship

In general a house is divided like that; but note that this is a general division, while for particular problems and where they lie, the method of reading tends towards doing it by hand, of which more later. As with a house of a hundred doors, one line cannot stand for those hundred doors; we shall know that the problem is at a door, and then have to go by hand for each door. In theory this takes a great deal of time, an extreme amount of time, and that is why old books have a passage about rich households keeping a Feng Shui master in the house. People often hear the anecdote about keeping one in the house to seek out dragon veins; but in fact there is another kind, the master in the house to carry out the handwork like this to find the real problem of the house, so that it can then be repaired. The principle running through Six Lines is always: repair what is broken where it is broken, and don't do it carelessly just to be done. So at the simple level anyone can approach it, but for the fine parts one is obliged to have a system of thinking, along with a great deal of memory and practice, which is why few people go all the way. Part of it is the first impression most people have that the Yi is easy; and true, it is easy — but it takes a little effort to reach that easiness, so if you have your heart in it, don't be hasty.

See also

• Principles of reading a hexagram — the main entry
• Inner and outer trigram, Reading people
• Career — position and relations with colleagues
• Several moving lines