Abstract
This paper offers an English-language introduction to I Ching Divination – Complete and Restored (Zengshan Buyi 增删卜易), one of the most influential manuals in the Na Jia based tradition of Six Lines (Liu Yao, Wen Wang Gua) divination. Based on an experiential manuscript left by the mysterious “Wild Crane Elder” (Yehe Laoren) and organised around 1690 by the early Qing scholar Li Wenhui (styled Juezi), with later appraisal by his fellow townsman Chujiang Li Woping, Zengshan Buyi stands at a key moment in late imperial Chinese divination culture, when long image-and-number traditions were tested against lived divinatory practice.
The article outlines the historical background of the Na Jia method, the internal structure of Zengshan Buyi, and its program of “augmenting and deleting” earlier rules on the basis of empirical verification. It highlights how the Na Jia framework differs from many modern oracle systems by building calendrical timing directly into each hexagram through stems, branches, and the Twelve Life Stages.
The final sections describe the first complete English edition of Zengshan Buyi, prepared as a four-volume set.
1. Introduction
Within contemporary practice of I Ching divination outside China, the classical yarrow-stalk method and the line statements of the Zhou Yi are relatively well known, largely through European translations of the canonical text. By contrast, the Na Jia based Six Lines tradition, often called Liu Yao or Wen Wang Gua, remains relatively inaccessible to readers who do not read Chinese. Yet in Chinese divination communities this integrated method, which combines Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and Five Elements with hexagram structures, has been one of the dominant systems for several centuries.
Among the core texts of this tradition, Zengshan Buyi occupies a distinctive place.
The purpose of this article is to introduce I Ching Divination – Complete and Restored (Zengshan Buyi 增删卜易) to an English-reading audience in a way that is useful both for divination practitioners and for scholars interested in late imperial Chinese divination. I summarise its historical background, its internal structure, its self-conscious program of “augmentation and deletion”, and its long-term impact on how Six Lines is taught and practised. I also briefly describe the principles behind the English edition, which aims to make this tradition accessible without sacrificing its technical depth.
2. Historical background: from Na Jia to Zengshan Buyi
The Na Jia method emerged from the broader image-and-number exegesis of the Zhou Yi associated with Han dynasty figures such as Jing Fang. The system allows diviners to read a hexagram simultaneously in several registers: elemental generation and overcoming, temporal cycles, directional indications, and the so-called Six Relationships (parents, wife and wealth, officials and ghosts, siblings, descendants).
Some branches emphasised dense systems of spirits and omens. Others combined Na Jia with techniques of astrology, calendrics, and physiognomy.
It is within this context that Zengshan Buyi appears. The figure of Yehe Laoren, the “Wild Crane Elder”, is partly veiled in legend. He is variously described as a reclusive adept who “studied the Dao for decades” and kept four decades of divination records, testing written doctrines against lived outcomes. Li Wenhui, styled Juezi, later obtained Wild Crane Elder’s experiential manuscript through his fellow townsman Chujiang Li Woping. Drawing on some forty years of his own divinatory practice, he collated, verified, and supplemented these materials, eventually organising them into the work now known as Zengshan Buyi. Chujiang Li Woping, in turn, wrote an appraisal and assisted in preparing the text for print.
The title itself, often rendered in English as I Ching Divination – Complete and Restored, signals a critical project. In this sense, the book is both a compendium and a polemic. It positions itself as a corrective to an overloaded and sometimes self-contradictory textual tradition.
3. Structure and organisation
I Ching Divination – Complete and Restored (Zengshan Buyi 增删卜易) is not a conventional commentary on the Zhou Yi. It is a structured manual of method and case-based application.
First, there are doctrinal chapters that lay out basic principles.
Second, there are critical essays on earlier doctrines. Here the authors directly engage earlier works, including highly regarded texts such as Huang Jin Ce (“Golden Strategy” or “Golden Yarrow Tally”). They identify rules that allegedly fail in practice, call out logical inconsistencies, and propose revisions. This material gives the book its “augment and delete” character.
Third, there is a large body of applied cases.
4. “Augmentations and deletions”: critique and simplification
The “augment and delete” program of Zengshan Buyi operates on several levels.
One target is the excessive weight given to elaborate systems of spirits and killing stars (shen sha).
A second target is the idea that a single chart can be used to answer all questions about a client’s life. Some traditions claimed that one hexagram could cover wealth, longevity, marriage, and offspring. Zengshan Buyi is critical of this approach, pointing out that it often leads to self-contradictory conclusions. Instead, the authors advocate a principle of “one matter per divination”, arguing that focused questions and focused interpretations are necessary for clarity and reliability.
A third area of critique concerns technical devices such as the hexagram body, additional “bodies” attached to stems, and complicated rules about mutual correlation that proliferated in some lines of transmission. Zengshan Buyi deliberately simplifies this landscape. It retains the host line, the corresponding line, and the significator line as central positions, and it treats many other devices as either unnecessary or secondary in actual practice.
This empirical attitude gives the work a distinctive voice within the wider tradition.
5. Case-based pedagogy and classification by topic
One of the most practical features of I Ching Divination – Complete and Restored (Zengshan Buyi 增删卜易) is its extensive use of topic-based case collections. Rather than present only general rules, the authors provide numerous examples for each major sphere of life.
The marriage section discusses suitability of partners, hidden obstacles, family opposition, and questions of timing.
Crucially, these cases do not only answer whether something will happen. They also pay close attention to when it is likely to happen.
In addition to practical questions about wealth, marriage, and illness, Zengshan Buyi also preserves a number of weather divination cases.
Although such cases are not included in Zengshan Buyi itself, related materials such as Zhouyi Donglin preserve well-known examples.
Volume Four, Chapter on Seeking Wealth
The chapter opens with a succinct rule:
If both the wealth and descendants lines are absent, it is best to wait patiently. If the wealth and descendants lines are not present, or if they are present but in a state of rest and constraint, void, broken, tomb, or extinction, or if they are punished, overcome, clashed, or harmed, it is advisable to wait, as seeking wealth will be futile. Juezi said: If the daily or monthly branches act as wealth, or if they are hidden and prosperous, wealth can still be sought.
Case [364]: Seeking wealth when the wealth line is absent
K month, V G day (void: A and B) [1]. The hexagram obtained was Ge.
Judgment: In the hexagram, the wealth line is not present, and the M siblings line holds the host. The parents line coincides with the monthly branch and generates and supports the siblings line, making it as futile as climbing a tree to catch a fish. [2]
[Annotation from the Translator]
[1]
[2] The idiom “缘木求鱼” (yuán mù qiú yú) translates to “climbing a tree to catch a fish.”
It highlights the importance of using appropriate and sensible methods to achieve one’s objectives.
Case [365]: Lending money at interest
F month, III E day (void: A and B). The hexagram obtained was Wei Ji to Gui Mei.
Judgment: In this hexagram, the host line aligns with the monthly branch, and both the active and transformed lines are siblings. During the divination, everything seemed smooth. However, by the ninth month (L), when the siblings line (Fire) entered the tomb [1], financial losses occurred due to deceit. How can it be said that overly active siblings lines do not lead to financial loss?
[Annotation from the Translator]
[1] The palm mnemonic for the Twelve Life Stages (see the following figure) shows how, in this case, the siblings line naturally reaches its tomb position in the ninth lunar month, which is why the loss is expected to manifest at that time.
Case [369]: Profit and the hidden cost to a sibling
K month, III G day (void: C and D). The hexagram obtained was Shi to Kan.
When the G wealth line holds the host and the siblings line is active, it suggests a risk of financial loss. However, fortunately, the M Water line transforms into L Earth, causing the siblings line to be overcome and thus preventing it from robbing the wealth. This situation is favorable and indicates potential profit. Indeed, profit was gained. Later, in the ninth month, the querent’s younger brother suddenly fell ill and died. It was then realised that the M Water siblings line had transformed into the ghosts line, leading to this outcome.
Volume Four, Chapter on Marriage
The marriage chapter similarly combines concise rules with detailed stories.
Case [382]: Predicting the year of marriage
In the year of A, in the H month and on the VI H day (void: A and B), a divination was made regarding marriage. The hexagram obtained was Ming Yi to Feng.
Judgment: The B officials line holds the host, although it encounters both monthly and daily breaks. Fortunately, it transforms into a wealth line that returns to generate the host. Is this not because the wealth line generates the host, and the corresponding line overcomes the host?
Case [385]: Agreement now, regret later
In the month of F, on the V A day (void: G and H), a divination was made to inquire whether the marriage would be approved. The hexagram obtained was Heng to Jin.
Judgment: If the inner trigram has contradictory echoes, it indicates a situation of instability and change, where initial agreement may be followed by regret. He asked, “Is this truly as you say? Will it be successful in the future?” I replied, “Since the corresponding line is associated with wealth, is active, and generates the host, it will certainly succeed in the eighth or ninth month.” Indeed, it was accomplished in the month of K, which corresponds to the host line coinciding with the month and clashing away the D Wood.
The topic-based arrangement also makes the book a useful reference. This has contributed to the book’s status as a “must read” manual among modern Six Lines practitioners.
Weather divination as a training method (Case [201])
Zengshan Buyi also includes a section on weather divination, which the authors explicitly frame as suitable for beginners:
Descendants represent the sun, moon, and stars, and when they are active, they bring clear skies for thousands of miles. The “Golden Strategy” suggests that when wealth is active, it brings sunshine to all directions, but this is not entirely accurate. When the descendants are active, the skies will be clear and cloudless. Descendants are the source gods of wealth. Even if wealth is active and the skies are clear, if the descendants are in rest, in constraint, in void, broken, or present but inactive, it will not be completely sunny and there will be floating clouds or light fog.
For example: In the month of D, on the I G day (void: E and F), a divination was made regarding clear weather. The hexagram obtained was Da Zhuang to Guai. [201]
Some might ask: when recording divinations, should we not focus on rare and extraordinary verifications? Why record such an obvious case? I reply: this is recorded so that beginners can easily understand it, which is why I noted it first.
Here the author is explicit that simple, repeatedly verifiable questions such as “Will it be clear tomorrow?” are pedagogically valuable. Students can practise reading descendants, wealth, and parents lines in different states and immediately test their understanding against observable weather.
Hidden-object divination (shefu) as practice: a case from Zhouyi Donglin
Case 23: Jin – Guo Pu Divines a Hidden Object (Tweezers) – 60. Jie to 21. Shi He
“Beitang Shuchao” cites “Donglin”: Shi An, Magistrate of Juan County, placed tweezers as a hidden object and asked Guo Pu to guess. He cast a divination and obtained “Jie to Shi He.”
Guo said, “It is not a hairpin and not an ornamental clasp; it is usually worn beneath the collar. It is an ornament for the hair at the temples, and it has two prongs.”
Judgment: Taiping Yulan cites it as, “This is a pair of tweezers; they have two prongs.” Hanshang Yi cites it as saying, “Hairpin, not a hairpin; clasp, not a clasp.” This is based on the inner trigram Dui, and Dui is Metal. In general, when interpreting a hexagram, one must begin from within.
It also says, “It is on the lower part of the head and used to trim the beard and moustache.” The term “head” refers to Qian within Kan. The “beard” lies below the head and is soft, and this corresponds to Kan. Zhu’s Jingyi Kao says that these three-character phrases do not rhyme with what follows. But “clasp” and “beard” are not in fact out of rhyme, so Zhu is mistaken.
In “60. Jie” the lower trigram is Dui; Dui opens its mouth in two prongs, and Dui is Metal, so the object is a metal thing with two prongs. The upper trigram Kan is the head, and the mutual trigram Gen is the beard, and the beard is below the head. A metal object with two prongs is again below the beard; therefore one knows that it is tweezers.
[Annotation from the Translator]
[1] Case 11 from Zhouyi Donglin.
[2] In ancient China, Shefu (Hidden Object Divination, Shefu, 射覆) was a type of game in which one attempted to divine the object hidden inside a container, such as a jar or box. Similar to weather forecasting, it also served as a method for honing one’s divinatory skills.
Shefu was not merely a form of entertainment—it was a practical training exercise for I Ching diviners. In historical records, even high-ranking officials and scholars participated in Shefu to test their predictive insight. Over time, it became one of the classic applications of I Ching divination in both scholarly and courtly circles.
[3]
6. Influence on modern Six Lines Divination (Liu Yao) and Wen Wang Gua practice
Many later manuals, whether introductory textbooks or advanced commentaries, assume familiarity with its terminology, structures, and canonical cases. Even authors who criticise the text for allegedly simplifying earlier image-and-number theories generally engage with it as a central reference.
The book’s emphasis on verification has also shaped expectations about what constitutes responsible divinatory practice.
At the same time, the text has played a role in bridging elite and popular divination.
7. The English edition: I Ching Divination – Complete and Restored
The English edition titled I Ching Divination – Complete and Restored (Zengshan Buyi 增删卜易) grew out of a desire to make this Na Jia classic accessible to readers who do not read Chinese, while preserving the technical precision that practitioners require. It is, to my knowledge, the first complete translation of the work into English.
Several principles guide the translation.
First, there is a commitment to one-to-one correspondence between the Chinese text and the English rendering.
Second, specialised terminology of Six Lines divination is translated in a stable and transparent way, so that the same technical phrase is always rendered by the same English expression. Wherever possible, this terminology is aligned across related classics, such as Fire Pearl Forest, Undersea Eye, and the Donglin materials, to support comparative study.
Third, the Na Jia framework itself is preserved in a clear, systematic notation, so that readers can see at a glance how Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and the Five Phases are embedded in each hexagram.
Fourth, the visual infrastructure that traditional readers would already know by heart is made explicit. The English edition includes:
- line structure diagrams showing Six Relationships, Five Elements, and Na Jia assignments for each hexagram
- charts of the Six Clashes and Six Compatibles with directional correspondences
- a Ten Heavenly Stems and Five Elements Growth Cycle chart
- a Seasonal Prosperity and Decline of the Five Elements chart
- visual mnemonics such as the palm diagram of the Twelve Life Stages, which help readers see why a line is considered prosperous, resting, constrained, or in the tomb in a given month
Finally, the case examples are kept complete. The English edition includes 465 cases, numbered in one-to-one correspondence with the internal numbering of the book.
8. Conclusion
I Ching Divination – Complete and Restored (Zengshan Buyi 增删卜易) stands at an important junction in the history of Chinese divination.
For scholars, it provides a dense snapshot of how technical knowledge, empirical observation, and critique of precedent interacted within one strand of late imperial divination culture.
The English edition aims to open this material to a wider readership and to invite further research on Six Lines divination within global conversations about divination, knowledge, and practice. For more information on the English edition and related study resources, readers may consult the I Ching Stream project at ichingstream.com.