Meihua Yi Shu: How the Plum Blossom Oracle Casts a Hexagram from Numbers and Time

The plum tree was blooming, and Shao Yong was watching it. That is how the tradition opens the story: the Song-dynasty scholar stood before a plum tree, noticed sparrows quarrelling on a branch, and cast a hexagram on the spot. He used no coins and no yarrow stalks. He used the moment itself. The branch, the birds, the time of day went into the calculation, and the method he used took the tree's name. Meihua Yi Shu, 梅花易數, is usually translated as the Plum Blossom Numerology or the Plum Blossom Oracle.

It is a casting method, not a philosophy. Where the familiar coin method builds a hexagram line by line from six tosses, Meihua computes two trigrams and one moving line from numbers. Any number will do: numbers someone reports, the date and hour of the question, the stroke count of a written character, the number of sounds heard, the length of an object. The arithmetic is division by eight and division by six, and the result is the same 64 hexagrams the coin method reaches. The reading that follows is its own system, built on the relationship between the two trigrams, called ti and yong, 體用.

Readers who want the coin and yarrow mechanics should start with the I Ching casting guide on this site, which covers the six-line procedure in full. This guide covers the distinct classical alternative: casting from numbers, dates, and observed signs. Everything here is presented the way the tradition presents it, as a cultural practice with its own rules and vocabulary, not as prediction.

The eight trigrams and their casting numbers

Every Meihua calculation starts with the same eight symbols. The trigram number table below follows the early-heaven, 先天, ordering used by this method, which is the point of the whole system: a number goes in, a trigram comes out. The figures and element assignments were checked against a Meihua reference implementation read for this guide, the chengyunm1313/meihua-yishu project, and the element column cross-checked against the five-element cycles in this site's five-elements guide.

Two details matter before any casting. First, the numbering is early-heaven. Chinese metaphysics also has a later-heaven arrangement that assigns different numbers to the trigrams, and mixing the two up is the most common beginner error. Casting in the Meihua tradition always uses the early-heaven numbers shown above. Second, the elements are the same five elements used across feng shui and BaZi, and the same generation and control relationships apply: Wood feeds Fire, Fire creates Earth, Earth produces Metal, Metal condenses Water, Water nourishes Wood; Wood separates Earth, Earth dams Water, Water extinguishes Fire, Fire melts Metal, Metal cuts Wood. These two cycles do the reading work later, so they are worth learning cold.

The clock the method runs on

The time-based cast needs the numbers of the year, month, day, and hour. Years and hours use the twelve Earthly Branches, the same branch wheel that appears in the site's zodiac clash guide. For casting, each branch carries its fixed position number, 1 through 12:

Months and days use their plain calendar numbers: lunar month 1 through 12, and the day of the lunar month. Classical practice works from the lunar calendar, since the branches and the lunar months belong to the same system. A practical note from the FAQ applies here too: modern readers without a lunar conversion often substitute the solar calendar numbers directly, and the method's logic runs the same either way. What matters for a clean cast is consistency, all numbers from one calendar, written down before the arithmetic starts.

Casting from the date and hour

The time method runs three divisions. Write them down in order and the cast cannot go wrong:

1. Upper trigram: (year-branch number + month number + day number) ÷ 8. The remainder names the upper trigram from the table above. If the division is exact, the remainder counts as 8, Kun.
2. Lower trigram: (year-branch number + month number + day number + hour-branch number) ÷ 8. Same rule: an exact division counts as 8.
3. Moving line: (year-branch number + month number + day number + hour-branch number) ÷ 6. The remainder names the moving line, numbered 1 to 6 from the lowest line upward. An exact division counts as line 6, the top line.

The upper trigram stands for what comes down on the situation from outside; the lower stands for the asker. The moving line is the one line of the six that changes, yin to yang or yang to yin, producing a second, transformed hexagram.

A worked casting, checked line by line

Suppose the question is asked in a 辰 Dragon year, in lunar month 4, on day 17, during the 辰 hour (7 to 9 am). The branch numbers: year 5, hour 5. Every number is written down before any division.

Check the arithmetic: 8 × 3 = 24, and 26 − 24 = 2. 31 − 24 = 7. 6 × 5 = 30, and 31 − 30 = 1. No remainder came out 0 here, so the Kun and line-6 fallback rules stay unused in this cast.

The primary hexagram stacks the two trigrams, upper Dui over lower Gen. That figure is hexagram 31, 咸, Xian, often translated as Influence or Wooing. Its lines from the bottom: yang, yin, yin, yang, yang, yin. Line 1, the bottom yang line of the lower Gen trigram, changes to yin. The lower trigram turns from Gen ☶ into Kun ☷, and the transformed hexagram is upper Dui over lower Kun: hexagram 45, 萃, Cui, Gathering.

For readers who like a second cross-check, the mutual hexagram of the primary cast is also fixed by the line pattern. Take lines 2, 3, and 4 as the new lower trigram (yin, yin, yang: Xun ☴) and lines 3, 4, and 5 as the new upper trigram (yin, yang, yang: Dui ☱). Upper Dui over lower Xun is hexagram 28, 大過, Da Guo. If your lines do not produce this figure, one of the six lines was copied wrong.

Reading through ti and yong

With the figure built, the Meihua reading starts from a split the coin method does not use. The lower trigram is ti, 體, the body: the person asking, their position, what is theirs. The upper trigram is yong, 用, the function: the matter asked about, the outside, what acts on them. Everything else in the reading is commentary on the relationship between the two, judged through the five elements of the trigrams.

The traditional fortune table for the ti-yong relationship, verified against the Meihua reference implementation read for this guide:

Apply it to the worked cast. Ti is Gen, Earth. Yong is Dui, Metal. In the productive cycle, Earth produces Metal, so this is ti generating yong: the asker's effort feeds the matter, and the traditional reading calls it draining, much effort for little return. That is the whole product of the method at its simplest. A reader in the tradition would describe the situation as one where the asker is pouring energy into the matter faster than it returns, then advise on how to slow the outflow or rebalance the terms. The hexagram texts and the moving line then add the classical imagery on top.

The season matters too, in the classical rules. A trigram's element is read as strong or weak depending on the season: Wood strong in spring, Fire in summer, Metal in autumn, Water in winter, Earth strong in the transitional months. A ti trigram in its strong season is read as more resilient under the same relationship. This is the 卦氣, gua qi, seasonal strength concept, and it is the one part of the reading that changes with the calendar while the cast stays fixed.

The moving line and the two hexagrams

Meihua casts always produce exactly one moving line. That is worth pausing on, because it is the cleanest difference from the coin method: six tosses can give zero changing lines, or two, or all six, while the Meihua formulas, one division by six, yield a single line by construction. Every Meihua reading therefore has the same shape: a primary hexagram, one line in motion, and a transformed hexagram where that line has flipped.

The classical reading order follows that shape. First the primary hexagram and its Judgment, which frame the situation. Then the text of the moving line itself, which speaks to the part of the situation in motion. Then, if the reading goes the full distance, the Judgment of the transformed hexagram, read as where the situation is heading inside the frame of the cast. Readers working the coin method will recognise this order; the site's casting guide describes the same sequence for line-by-line casts.

Line position carries its own grammar in the tradition, and it applies to the single moving line as much as to a coin cast. Line 1 is the bottom line: beginnings, the first stirrings, the roots of a matter. Lines 2 through 5 are the middle of the affair, rising in rank toward line 5, the ruler's position in many classical readings. Line 6 is the top: the end of the matter, the point past which things tip over. So a moving line 1 says the change sits at the start of the situation, while a moving line 6 says it sits at the outcome.

Run the worked cast through this. The primary figure is 31 咸, the single moving line is line 1, and the transformed figure is 45 萃. A traditional reader would describe the primary hexagram as the frame, then read line 1, the beginning position, as the point in motion, and then set the transformed hexagram beside it as the direction of travel: the figure moving from 31 toward 45 with its lowest line changing. The ti-yong relationship, Earth feeding Metal, draining, runs underneath all three layers as the mechanical description of the same situation. Three views of one cast, and they are expected to agree with each other. When they do not, the tradition says to re-examine the numbers before re-examining the interpretation.

The question shapes the reading

The same figure answers different questions differently, and the classical teaching is blunt about this: the question is half the cast. Two readers can cast identical numbers and receive the same hexagram, and a competent teacher will give them different readings if their questions differ, because ti and yong wear the clothes of the question. Ti is always the asker, but yong, the matter, takes its meaning from what was asked. In a question about a job offer, yong is the offer and the employer behind it. In a question about a trip, yong is the journey. The element relationship stays fixed while its referent changes, and the advice changes with the referent.

Question wording gets practical guidance in the teaching materials. The question should be specific enough to have a subject and a timeframe, but it should not smuggle the desired answer inside itself. "Should I take the job" is a workable question. "Should I take the wonderful job that will obviously change my life" is a wish wearing a question's clothes, and the reading cannot rescue it. Writing the question down before casting is the custom, partly for focus and partly as a record: when the cast is reviewed later, the written question is what stops memory from quietly rewriting what was asked.

There is also the rule of no movement, no divination. The classical phrase means the cast needs a genuine trigger: a real decision, a real uncertainty, a real moment. Casting to test the method, casting out of boredom, casting the same question daily to see if the answer changes are all treated as empty inputs, and the tradition warns that empty inputs produce readings that attach to nothing. This is the same instinct as the first etiquette rule, no question, no cast, stated from the other direction.

A short contrast shows how the question moves the advice. Take the worked cast, ti Earth feeding yong Metal, the draining relationship. Asked about a business partnership, a traditional reader might describe it as a partnership where the asker supplies the energy and should negotiate the terms before committing further. Asked about a creative project, the same relationship might be described as a project that will consume more effort than it returns, worth doing only if the asker accepts that exchange knowingly. The figure did not change. The question did, and the reading followed it.

Casting from numbers

Numbers reported by the asker work the same way, with one formula each. Two variants are documented in the tradition's teaching materials:

• Three numbers: the first two summed and divided by 8 give the upper trigram; the last two summed and divided by 8 give the lower trigram; all three summed and divided by 6 give the moving line. The remainder-0 rules apply exactly as in the time method.
• Two numbers: the first number divided by 8 gives the upper trigram, the second divided by 8 gives the lower trigram, and the sum of both divided by 6 gives the moving line.

A short worked example, using 5, 8, and 2 as the reported numbers. Upper: 5 + 8 = 13, and 13 ÷ 8 leaves 5, Xun ☴. Lower: 8 + 2 = 10, and 10 ÷ 8 leaves 2, Dui ☱. Moving line: 15 ÷ 6 = 2 with 3 left, line 3 moves. The primary hexagram is upper Xun over lower Dui, hexagram 61, 中孚, Zhong Fu, Inner Truth. Line 3 is the top line of the lower Dui trigram, a yin line that becomes yang, turning Dui into Qian. The transformed hexagram is upper Xun over lower Qian: hexagram 9, 小畜, Xiao Chu, Small Restraint.

Ti here is Dui, Metal; yong is Xun, Wood. Metal cuts Wood in the controlling cycle, so this is ti controlling yong: the asker commands the situation, read as auspicious in the tradition. The same five-element table did the work in both casts. Learn the two cycles and the trigram elements, and every Meihua figure reduces to one relationship.

Casting from what you see and hear

The classical texts list more inputs than time and reported numbers, and they are the reason the method carries the plum blossom name. Anything observed at the moment of the question can supply the numbers:

• Written characters: count the strokes of the characters in a word or phrase. Two characters give the simplest cast: the first character's stroke count fixes the upper trigram, the second fixes the lower, and the total gives the moving line. Longer phrases are divided into upper and lower groups the same way.
• Sounds: count distinct sounds heard, knocks, calls, a bell. The count supplies the numbers directly.
• Colors: map the color to its five element, then to a trigram carrying that element. Red belongs to Fire and points at Li, for instance.
• Measurements: the length, width, or count of an object supplies the figures.
• Directions: the direction a person faces, or the direction something arrives from, maps onto the eight trigram directions.

The tradition also names the 十應, the ten responses: significant things noticed in the surroundings while casting, treated as commentary on the figure rather than as numbers. The principle behind all of these is one sentence from the classical teaching: nothing is random at the moment of a sincere question. Whether a modern reader accepts that premise is their own call; the method's internal rules run the same either way.

The etiquette of a cast

Meihua has a short code of conduct, and classical teachers treat it as part of the method rather than decoration:

1. No question, no cast. The reading needs a real question to answer. Casting idly produces figures with nothing to attach to.
2. One question, one cast. A second cast on the same question is reserved for genuinely changed circumstances.
3. No more than three repetitions. If the same question is cast again, the tradition caps the retries at three and treats the first cast as the weightiest.
4. Interpret with reason. The hexagram must be read against the actual situation, not pasted onto it.

The second and third rules share a purpose: stopping the reader from casting until a preferred answer appears. The tradition is explicit that this turns the method into a mirror for the answer already wanted. A muddy first reading is handled by sitting with the texts, re-reading the next day, and writing down what changes on the second look.

Where Meihua sits among the arts

The Plum Blossom Oracle is one member of a family, and the site's fortune-telling comparison maps the whole family against each other. Briefly: BaZi reads a birth chart across decades, covered in the four-pillars guide; Zi Wei Dou Shu reads a twelve-palace star chart, covered in the Zi Wei guide; Qimen Dunjia reads a time chart for a specific situation, covered in the Qimen guide. Meihua is the lightest of the set: no chart to erect, no ephemeris to consult, just the numbers at hand and the division. Teachers describe it as the method for quick, everyday questions, the one used when the situation will not wait for a full chart.

Limits, stated plainly

The arithmetic is real: divisions, remainders, and trigram tables that anyone can recheck. What the arithmetic selects is a figure and a set of classical texts, and nothing in the procedure converts those into knowledge about the future. The tradition reads the ti-yong relationship as a description of the situation's shape, effort flowing out or support flowing in, and treats the description as a prompt for thinking, not as a forecast. That is also how this site presents every system in the pillar: as cultural practice that some households find useful for naming a tension, with real decisions made on evidence that can be checked by someone who has never seen a trigram. Health questions belong to clinicians, money questions to documents and arithmetic, legal questions to lawyers, and relationship questions to the people in them.

Sources and further reading

The trigram number table, the ti-yong framework, the ti-yong fortune table, the casting methods (time, number, sound, color, measurement, direction), and the casting etiquette were read for this guide in the Meihua reference project chengyunm1313/meihua-yishu on GitHub, which presents Meihua Yishu as a traditional I Ching method attributed to Shao Yong of the Song Dynasty. The three-number and two-number formulas were cross-checked against a Chinese-language teaching summary that cites zhihu.com, 163.com, and baidu zhidao explanations of the method. The five-element generation and control cycles follow this site's own five-elements guide. The branch numbers and double-hour table follow the twelve-branch ordering used in the site's zodiac clash guide. The hexagram identifications, 31 咸, 45 萃, 28 大過, 61 中孚, and 9 小畜, and the mutual-hexagram derivation were verified against the line patterns themselves: each figure named here is the only hexagram its line pattern can be.