Draining line (Xie Shen)

The Draining line drains the Target line; with a moving Draining line, it indicates loss in the Target line.

The forgotten Draining line

The Draining line is a regrettable thing in the Six Lines system, among the most forgotten of all, with few people mentioning it or holding a clear and correct view of it; in most cases a moving Draining line is turned into another Target line parameter in order to draw more information for the process of reading the hexagram, but it has to be said again and again that there is only one Target line to a hexagram if one wants to go far, and otherwise one only goes round in circles. Why has it come to this contradiction, when only the Target, the Source and the Opposing lines are much spoken of? Because the action of the Draining line and of the Hostile line is not direct and does not change the nature of a line immediately, as in the remaining cases.

A moving Draining line: two cases

With a moving Draining line, indicating loss in the Target line, two cases follow:

• Where the Target line is Prosperous, a moving Draining line reports a loss of about 8/10, that is from 10 down to 8, but on the whole the final result is still a success, and a Prosperous line with a moving Draining line is still counted as Prosperous when referred to the other lines. So in this case the value of the Draining line lies only at step 3, the step of interpreting the information in the hexagram, reporting that there is a loss because of the person or the factor corresponding to this moving line. There is, however, one single exception in which a moving Draining line certainly spoils the matter of the Target line, and that is in romance: a moving Draining line certainly spoils it, and likewise with the Self line.
• Where the Target line is Resting–Confined, it is spoilt outright, and the nature of the Resting–Confined line drops from Resting–Confined down to being read as a Weak line

A moving Draining line in relation to the Self line

The relation of a moving Draining line divides into five cases as follows:

• Generates the Self line: in this case the Self line lies at the Hostile line, and this makes the Self and Target relation one of the Target line controlling the Self line, reporting pressure on oneself from the matter asked about, pressure mainly of a psychological kind. Here the moving line plays the part of draining the Target line while generating the Self line: generating the Self line means someone helping one, but draining the Target line means causing loss, that is, the person helping one causes money to be lost if the reading is about business, yet one still takes a profit if the Target line is Prosperous, while if it is Weak the person helping one causes everything to be lost
• Sits on the Self line: in this case the Target line generates the Self line, that is, the matter asked about comes to one of itself, but oneself falls on the Draining line, which drains the Target line away, so the loss comes from oneself and from no one else; this case is easy, so look at oneself and reduce that loss, and if the Target line is Weak it is spoilt outright, because of oneself
• Drains the Self line: in this case the Target line sits on the Self line, that is, one is obsessed with the matter asked about, and the moving line then drains both oneself and the Target line; draining oneself surely reports that one has trusted the wrong person, which leads to this loss, and in this case one should review the relationships around oneself. In matters of health this is the image of health growing worse and worse because of another person; in a career, of having to depend on the will of others…
• Is the Hostile line of the Self line: in this case the Source line sits on the Self line, and the Source line on the Self line reports longing, being carried along by the matter asked about, while a moving Hostile line always reports the indirect cause of one's weariness and dejection, because the moving Hostile line controls the Source line, like a tree cut at the root: it lives on but withers more each day; this is then the cause of the weariness and dejection, so find out who it is and step in to end it early.
• Is the Opposing line of the Self line: a case in which one should worry about one's own life first; if the Self line is Prosperous and the moving line Resting, it only reports a hitch that wearies one, but nothing serious; if the moving line is Prosperous, however, end the matter asked about quickly to avoid disaster; and if the moving line is Weak, it is only that someone means harm but has not the ability

See also

• Single moving line — a moving Source, Target or Opposing line
• Hostile line, Source line, Opposing line
• Target line — the Five Roles
• Self line — the Self line falling on the Draining line