Completing the Setting of WWG

After we apply the Adoption of Earthly Branches and Relatives into a specific hexagram, there are few things we need to check in order to complete the Setting.
1. We will be using “、” to represent Shao-Yang (少陽) and “、、” to represents Shao-Yin (少陰), both of which are not subjected to change. We will also be using “○” to represent Lao-Yang (老陽) and “✕” to represent Lao-Yin (老陰), both of which are subjected to change.
2. Is there any Relative missing? In order to properly decipher WWG, we need to have all the Relatives: the Parent (父母), Sibling (兄弟), Child (子孫), Asset (妻財), and Officer (官鬼). If there is any Relative missing, we need to look it up from the Originating Hexagram of the Chamber (本宮卦, or Ben-Gong Gua).
3. If any of the lines in a hexagram becomes an Active Line (動爻, or Dong-yao), we need to figure out what is the Adoption of Earthly Branches as well as the Relatives of the Changed Line (變爻, or Bian-yao) and recorded it alongside the Active Line.
4. We need to record the date of casting and figure out the Six Celestial Figures (六獸, Liu-shou), namely in sequence, Azure Dragon (青龍, Qing-long), Vermilion Bird (朱雀, Zhu-que), Curved Array (勾陳, Gou-chen), Flying Serpent (螣蛇, Teng-she), White Tiger (白虎, Bai-hu), and Murky Warrior (玄武, Xuan-wu).
Using Zhun-to-Sui (屯之隨) as an example, whereas Water-Thunder Zhun (水雷屯) is the Original Hexagram and River-Thunder Sui (澤雷隨) is the Changed Hexagram. The fourth line of Zhun is changed from a Broken Line (陰爻) into a Solid Line (陽爻). Assuming the date of casting is the day of Wu-shen (戊申).

The Building Boxes

Through the previous blogs which I have revealed the secret of WWG, we now know the Eight Chamber theory, the Adoption of Earthly Branches, the Six Relatives. We can in fact put these together.


Let’s take the hexagram Sui 隨 as an example.


Sui literally means to follow. In ancient Chinese, when a couple went out of their house, the husband will take the lead and the wife will follow.


The outer trigram of Sui is a Dui 兌 ☱ and the lower trigram of Sui is a Zhen 震 ☳. According to the introduction of Congenital Ba-gua in “Shuo-gua”, Dui is referred as River 澤 and Zhen as Thunder 雷, Sui is therefore referred as River-Thunder Sui 澤雷隨.


From the Table of Eight Chamber, we know that Sui is the Returning Spirit of the Zhen Chamber 震宮歸魂卦. From the Table of Adoption of Earthly Branches, we have Zi 子 for the initial line 初爻, Yin 寅 for the second line 二爻, Chen 辰 for the third line 三爻, Hai 亥 for the fourth line 四爻, You 酉 for the fifth line 五爻, and Wei 未 for the uppermost line 上爻.


Since Sui is a member of the Zhen Chamber, it has the same Wu-xing property as Zhen, i.e. Wood. Hence, we have the Six Relatives relationship as shown.


We were talking about Six Relatives, but in fact, we know there are only 5. Is there any relative missing in the hexagram? What if there is any relative missing? What else still missing here for deciphering?

How WWG works?

There are totally three steps that you would require to decipher a Yi-shi (易蓍), or the hexagram which you casted: the Casting (起卦, or Qi-gua), the Setting (裝卦, or Zhuang-gua), and the Interpreting (解卦, or Jie-gua). This is applicable to all kinds of Yi-shi, not just WWG.

Casting is easy. All you need is 49 milfoil stalks or 3 rounded coins, through which you “randomly” generate six numbers. Not just any number, but the numbers of 6, 7, 8, or 9. The first number is always for the initial (bottom) line (初爻, or Chu-yao). The second number from the bottom for the second line, and so forth. This is used to determined the Lao, Shao, Yin and Yang, i.e., the Change.

Jing Fang’s 8 Chambers Theory

It requires two basic steps for Setting. The first step is to determine which “Chambers” the original hexagram before change (本卦, or Ben-Gua) belongs to. It is called the “8 Chambers Theory” and is believed to be initiated by Jing Fang (京房) of Han (漢) Dynasty.

For Acquired Ba-gua, we have different properties for different trigrams, which are associated with the weathers they represented. For example, Kan ☵ (坎) for Winter, so the property of Kan is Water. Similarly, we have Wood for Zhen ☳ (震) and Xun ☴ (巽), Fire for Li ☲ (離), Metal for Dui ☱ (兌) and Qian ☰ (乾), and Earth for Gen ☶ (艮) and Kun ☷ (坤). Jing Fang was using it as the base for his “8 Chambers Theory”. See the following Table.

What is WWG?

There are different methods of “Divination using Yi-jing”, for short, let’s call them “Yi-bo” (易卜). In fact, we should call it “Yi-shi” (易蓍) since “Bo” (卜) is related to “Gui-bo” (龜卜) and is from the cracking sound of an expanded tortoise shell due to heating while “Shi” (蓍) is the milfoil stalks used for Divination of Yi-jing. Both of which are used for “Casting” (起卜 or 起卦).

Among them, “Wen-wang-gua” (文王卦, or WWG) is one of the Yi-bo methods which was believed to be developed during Song Dynasty. People mistakenly refer WWG as its earlier derivative, Huo-zhu-lin-fa (火珠林法), as both of them are quite similar in terms of Casting and “Setting” (裝卦). However, there are major differences in terms of Deciphering (解卦, or Interpretation).

“Wen-wang” (文王) refers to Emperor Wen (文) of Zhou (周) Dynasty. In fact, Emperor Wen never took the throne. He was named as Emperor only after his son Emperor Wu (武) overthrew Emperor Zhou (紂) of Shang (商) Dynasty and become the first emperor of the Zhou (周) Dynasty. It is also believed that Wen-wang completed his interpretations of the 64 hexagrams as their associated 384 lines (or “Yao” 爻), which are called as “Gua-ci” (卦辭) and “Yao-ci” (爻辭) respectively, when he was jailed as prisoner of Emperor Zhou. Using the hexagram of Qian (乾) as an example:

乾：元亨。利貞。
　　初九：潛龍勿用。
　　九二：見龍在田，利見大人。
　　九三：君子終日乾乾，夕惕若，厲，無咎。
　　九四：或，躍在淵，無咎。
　　九五：飛龍在天，利見大人。
　　上九：亢龍有悔。
　　用九：見羣龍無首，吉。

Conficius interpreted Qian as Strong (健). His followers further interpreted Qian as Hard or Unyielding (剛). According to ancient Chinese dictionary, Qian mean Key (鍵). Yes, as key for lock. Obviously, the meaning would be quite different if you use key to interpret Qian.

We don’t know why WWG is named as there is no direct relationship between this special Yi-bo method and Wen-wang, but we are accustomed to call it WWG.