Six Lines basics

Adaptable Target line (Thong Bien)

By Vi Nhật Sơn · Updated 2026-09-20

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Adaptable Target line (Thong Bien) — what is it? 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”.

On technique, no reading is sound unless the Target line has been determined. The Target line divides into two kinds: Direct and Adaptable.

Direct and adaptable

The direct kind covers those Target lines that can be related straight away — for money, the Wealth line; for renown, the Officer line — but there will be cases where it cannot be that direct. For example, someone asks whether there is any harm in withdrawing the consulting file of a project. So what is the Target line? Must it always be Wealth, that is, the harm shown in economic terms? The answer is no, and this opens a rule for choosing the Target line, otherwise called adapting in the choice of the Target line, which is the rule “pick what you fear”.

The rule is stated as follows:

For the choice of the Target line in a question set in a wide space, covering many sides of one matter, the Target line will stand for the outcome of what the querent is worried about, and does not rest on the reader's own view.

Suppose, in the story above, the querent is concerned with the economic harm, immediate or long term, that this will cause: then Wealth is the Target line. But if the concern is that, should the file be withdrawn, professional development or the scale of the company will be interrupted, then Parents is the Target line; or if the concern is whether personal safety is affected, say in point of law, then the Self line is the Target line. So self-questioning is an important step in the Yi; skip the step of self-questioning and one stays forever at the surface.

Beyond that, adapting in the Yi also lies in the forms, from which everyone draws their own formula; and note, there is no “unified theory” for choosing the Target line in an unbounded space:

For theft, choose the Target line from the moving lines first, then the still lines. If a moving line controls the Target line, that moving line is the Target line and the rest are satellites. If there is none, but there is a moving line controlling the Self line, that moving line becomes the Target line. If there is none, take the Officer line as the Target line, whether still or moving
On occupations: money stands for a person in spiritual work at the Offspring line, medicine likewise, but in the military, applying for the post is the Officer line and earning money is Wealth

The double Target line

Not in every matter do we have only one Target line; where several parties intervene, willfulness is not the right road. But that does not mean the matter will go however one wishes — it follows certain rules. For instance, in relations between people, all the parties involved weigh equally, which means that if one of the two sides is not sound, the matter is spoilt; and then the Target line standing for the person and the Target line standing for the matter asked about count as equal to each other.

But it divides into two kinds:

A person with no blood tie to oneself who is directly involved in the matter asked about. For example: can the money be borrowed or not? That covers whether the other side is sincere, whether one's own side can persuade well enough, and, importantly, whether the other party has enough money to lend. So all 3 must be sound at once; it will not come about even if one of the 3 lines that stand for them is Resting. And what are the 3 lines in this case? They are the Response line for the other party, Wealth for the source of the money, and the Self line for oneself. Strength of the Self and Response lines is not enough, the Six Relations must be weighed as well. In most cases it is fine, but if one of the two carries the Opposing line it is spoilt; though if the Self line is in the Void, some latitude is allowed for the situation where the Opposing line holds the Self line but the Target line is Prosperous and one acts fast — then it works, but this holds only for the Self line, nowhere else. If one of the two, Self or Response, is in the Void, that also reports one of the two as not genuine — wherever the Void is, that is where the falseness is — except in the special case just mentioned. As for the Tomb, that is spoilt too, but less badly: if one wants it to come about, press for it and it comes about
A person with a blood tie: here one drops the Target line standing for the matter asked about and looks only at the Target line standing for the person concerned. As in borrowing money from a relative, one does not look at Wealth but at the relation between Self and Response, and concludes from that. The hexagram is then read as with a single Target line, still governed by the rule that the Self line controlling the Target line means the wrong road, but at the same time Self and Target both need to be sound — Resting still spoils it, and as above, the Void spoils it

And in a relation directed at a specific matter rather than at the two-sided relation itself, Six Clashes is not read as a falling-out; only when the question is about the direct relation between the two sides does Six Clashes mean an ending through the two sides falling out.

The secondary Target line

The secondary Target line means those lines looked at in passing to supply information; the strength, the success or failure of such a line does not affect the outcome of a hexagram.

For example:

In matters of the heart, the Response line is read as the other party's family circumstances, and whether it is Prosperous or Weak does not affect whether the marriage can take place, the Void included
In illness, the Officer line is read as the ailment and its position as the seat of the illness, but whether the Officer line is Prosperous or Weak does not affect life or death; and note, we are speaking of reading for oneself, where the Self line is the Target line

Other matters follow from here.

The virtual Target line

The virtual Target line means the satellites around the Target line in the case where there is a moving line, and where it intervenes in the success or failure of the matter asked about. For example, asking about a relationship, a moving Draining line means there is a third person; the Draining line is then read as a virtual Target line standing for that third person, and it will show the character and the outlook towards the querent, or whether the bond is short or long…. so as to supply more information and help the querent decide. The virtual Target line differs from the secondary Target line in this: in the case above, a moving Draining line means the marriage is spoilt, whereas the Response line is the secondary Target line of the marriage, and if that is spoilt it hardly affects whether the bond lasts a hundred years or a day. This point must be kept clear to avoid error.