Bốc Dịch Dictionary

The Adaptable Target line: the Target line divides into two kinds, Direct and Adaptable, and the adaptable kind is chosen by the rule “pick what you fear”.

The Advancing line (Jin Shen): the moving line and the changed line share an element while the branches go forward, as Yin to Mao, Chou to Chen, Shen to You.

Boc Dich and the stock market: the game of the Yi with the market is in substance playing with the Six Lines Wealth line. One slip and all can be lost.

The break in the Yi: each hexagram runs only from A to B, A being the moment of asking and B the moment the event occurs in the future, nothing more.

Business partnership: to know whether another will cheat you, the first question must aim at the querent, weighing the person above the matter.

A Career reading in Liu Yao attends to three things: the potential for promotion, position and relations with colleagues, and how one feels about the work.

Casting a Six Lines hexagram from the time uses the ordinal numbers of the Earthly Branches: add the lunar day, the lunar month and the year, then the hour.

A Changed line (Bian Yao) appears to match each moving line, and acts only on the moving line that produced it, never on the other lines of the hexagram.

Combination and clash of lines (He, Chong) in Liu Yao: a combination is two branches symmetrical about an axis, a clash two opposed through the centre.

Core and satellites: the core of the Yi is the outcome together with its timing, the satellites are the pieces of information appearing in the hexagram.

Day Branch and Month Command (Ri Chen, Yue Ling): the Day is the cycle of one day, the Month of one month, both acting directly on the lines in Six Lines.

A Destiny reading (Nhan Menh) takes the lifetime hexagram like an hour hexagram, at the birth date, with the year branch replaced by the year stem.

Double appearance (Liang Xian) is two Target lines in one Six Lines hexagram; priority goes to a moving line, then the Self line, then a line combining.

The Draining line (Xie Shen) drains the Target line; when it moves there is loss — a Prosperous Target line still succeeds, a Resting–Confined one is spoilt.

The eight palaces (Ba Gong) — Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen and Kun — hold eight of the 64 Six Lines hexagrams each, every one with its line chart.

The Eight Trigrams (Ba Gua) are Heaven, Lake, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain and Earth — the ground of the Yi and of every Six Lines hexagram.

Essentials of Boc Dich: Six Lines is a separate discipline that predicts from the hexagram, gathered here as the core points on lines, strength and timing.

Feng shui in the Yi: the view is simply “where it is faulty, mend it there”; the reading rests on the Self and Parents lines, and the Officer line if moving.

The Five Elements (Wu Xing) are Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, the ground of Liu Yao: Metal generates Water generates Wood generates Fire generates Earth.

The Flying line (Fei Shen) sits at the same position as the Hidden line in the primary hexagram; it only holds the Target line down and cannot control it away.

Following the Officer into the Tomb (Sui Gui Ru Mu) is an Officer line on the Self line entering one of three Tombs: the Day, a moving line, the changed line.

The Hidden line (Fu Shen): when a Six Lines hexagram has no Target line, go by the Pure hexagram heading the palace; the line standing in for it is hidden.

Hidden movement (An Dong) in Liu Yao is a still, Prosperous line set moving by a clash from the Day; all three of those conditions must hold at once.

The Hostile line (Chou Shen) controls away the Source line of the Target line; when it moves, a Six Lines matter has neither head nor tail and cannot last.

How to cast an I Ching hexagram by the three-coin method: a correct Liu Yao result needs all three — the right asker, the right hexagram, the right reader.

Principles of reading a Six Lines hexagram: only 4 things give the result — Target, Self, moving line, changed line — judged as result, moment, information.

Inner and outer trigram (Nei Gua, Wai Gua): the Upper trigram's 3 lines are the outer, the Lower's 3 the inner. Inner is near matters, outer is outside ones.

The Land Vein: every piece of land has a vein, and whether that vein is good or bad is judged by the Self line when the land is one's own.

Life and death means leaving oneself out of the question; in substance it is whether the Target line holds or is spoilt: holds is life, spoilt is death.

The Life stages (Chang Sheng) in Liu Yao: apart from Conception, read only for pregnancy, only Birth, Peak, Tomb and Extinction affect Strength.

Month Break (Yue Po) in Liu Yao is the Month clashing a line: a still line in Month Break counts as Rootless, a moving one as an ordinary line with its timing.

A Moving line (Dong Yao) appears while casting a Six Lines hexagram; at each moving position a changed line appears, and the hexagram gets a changed hexagram.

Near and distant matters go by four time axes in Liu Yao — Hour, Day, Month and Year. Near goes by Hour and Day, distant by Month and Year.

The Opposing line (Ji Shen) controls the Target line; in Liu Yao it counts only when it moves, sits on the Self line, or is the Flying line.

A pregnancy reading usually takes Offspring as the Target line; it differs little from an ordinary hexagram, but some points keep mother and child safe.

Reading people in Liu Yao: those involved in the story go by the Five Elements and the Six Spirits together, to know their appearance and character.

Reading space in Liu Yao: physical space and the space of relationships, shown by the order of the lines and by the inner and outer trigram.

The Response line (Ying) is the particular delight of Six Lines: sometimes a secondary Target line, sometimes the Target line for one with no dedicated line.

The Retreating line (Tui Shen) is like the Advancing line but with the branches reversed, as Mao to Yin; in a distant matter what was there comes to nothing.

Reversed repetition (Fan Yin) is the changed line clashing the moving line — Xun into Kun, Kun into Xun. In Six Lines it reports an event repeating.

The Self line (Shi) stands for you in the event; in Liu Yao its relation to the Target line shows your ability, your direction and the pressure you are under.

Several moving lines means 3 or more in a Six Lines hexagram: the lines cancel into at most two element groups, and the result is referred to Target and Self.

A Six Lines hexagram with a single moving line is the commonest case: judge whether that moving line is the Source, Target, Draining or Opposing line.

Six Clashes (Liu Chong): every hexagram in which line 1 clashes line 4 is a Six Clashes hexagram; lines 1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6 all clash by branch.

Six Harmonies (Liu He): every hexagram in which line 1 combines with line 4 is a Six Harmonies hexagram. It is not the opposite of Six Clashes; it informs.

The Six Relations (Liu Qin) are Siblings, Offspring, Wealth, Officer and Parents; a Six Lines hexagram refers them to the element of the palace it belongs to.

The Six Spirits (Liu Shou), also called the Six Beasts, carry supporting information in a Six Lines hexagram and do not affect Strength at all.

The Source line (Yuan Shen) generates the Target line; in Liu Yao it is read only when it moves, holds the Self line, or lies at the changed line.

Spiritual readings: the spiritual is taken as what is “not seen” by the eye; the Yi is the first step in settling whether a house or a person really has it.

Stagnant repetition (Fu Yin) is the changed line coinciding with the moving line — Zhen into Qian, Qian into Zhen. It reports tangle and weariness.

Stem-branch assignment (Na Jia) lays out a Six Lines hexagram: the order of the hexagrams in a palace, the branches, and the Self and Response lines.

A Still hexagram (Jing Gua) is the simplest Six Lines case, with no moving line: refer the Self line to the Target line, then judge Strength by Day and Month.

Strength (Wang Shuai) in Liu Yao: Prosperous, Weak, Rootless, Resting and Excessive make the scale for a line's nature. A Prosperous line is one you can use.

Sun and Moon in the sleeve (Tu Ly Nhat Nguyet): the Six Lines branches laid on the left hand, the last crease of the ring finger Zi, one branch per crease.

The Target line (Yong Shen) is chosen once the chart is out; in Liu Yao it is always the Target line that shows whether the matter will succeed.

The 64 hexagrams of the Yi, the ground of Six Lines: each is two trigrams stacked, an Upper and a Lower, and the name is formed from the Upper and the Lower.

The Three Harmonies frame (San He Ju): branches under set conditions form one group — Hai Mao Wei Wood, Yin Wu Xu Fire, Si You Chou Metal, Shen Zi Chen Water.

The Three Punishments (San Xing): a line is punished when the matching lines of a punishment group appear at a moving line, at the Day, or at the changed line.

Timing (Ying Qi) is the core of Six Lines: a still line answers at the clash or at its own branch, a moving line at its own branch or at its combination.

The Tomb (Mu) divides into two states, Prosperous and Weak; in Liu Yao a Prosperous line in the Tomb becomes usable once the Tomb is clashed.

The Void (Xun Kong) is the gap between the 10 Heavenly Stems and the 12 Earthly Branches: the 2 branches left without a stem are Void, still or moving.

A Wealth and fortune reading in Liu Yao attends to a few points: the Self line and the Target line, with no need to read the Response line.