Which direction a person came from to ask, and what object suddenly caught the eye: this is the working of heaven showing itself. Choose a direction on the compass or a trigram group of objects, and the system joins it with the present Branch hour to cast by the observation method of Thiệu Khang Tiết 邵康節.
Observe only when the mind has stirred: cast only when a phenomenon truly catches your attention at the moment something weighs on you.
Tap the direction the questioner appeared from, or where the matter happened, by the Later Heaven Bagua 後天八卦.
Tap the group holding the first object you saw, by the table of the categories of things.
Observation is the heart of Thiệu Khang Tiết's 邵康節 learning; he devoted a whole chapter, the Quan Vật 觀物, to it in his Hoàng Cực Kinh Thế 皇極經世. He held that everything under heaven carries number and image, and that a discerning person need only observe the phenomenon that appears at the moment the mind stirs to read the working of heaven. The best-known story tells how, watching plum blossom one evening, he saw two sparrows quarrel over a branch and fall to the ground; he cast a hexagram and foretold that the next evening a girl picking flowers would fall and break her leg. From that story his book takes the name Plum Blossom Numerology 梅花易數. This page recreates the two most widely used observation methods: casting by direction, and casting by the first object seen.
The eight directions answer to the eight trigrams by the Later Heaven 後天 arrangement: due North is Khảm 坎, number 6; Northeast is Cấn 艮, number 7; due East is Chấn 震, number 4; Southeast is Tốn 巽, number 5; due South is Ly 離, number 3; Southwest is Khôn 坤, number 8; due West is Đoài 兌, number 2; Northwest is Càn 乾, number 1. When someone comes from a direction to ask, or a matter arises in a direction, take that direction's trigram number as the upper trigram. For the lower trigram, add the number of the Branch hour and divide by 8 for the remainder; for the moving line, divide that same total by 6. A remainder of 0 counts as 8 for a trigram and 6 for a line.
The Shuo Gua 說卦 commentary sorts everything in the world into the images of the eight trigrams. Whichever group an object belongs to gives the upper trigram, and the Branch hour is then joined as in the method by direction:
| Trigram | Number | Representative categories of things |
|---|---|---|
| Càn 乾 ☰ | 1 | Heaven, the ruler, the father, a leader, the horse, gold and silver, round things, a mirror |
| Đoài 兌 ☱ | 2 | A marsh or lake, the youngest daughter, the goat, fish, speech and singing, chipped things |
| Ly 離 ☲ | 3 | Fire, a lamp, the sun, the pheasant and the peacock, documents, the eye, things hollow in the middle |
| Chấn 震 ☳ | 4 | Thunder, the dragon, vehicles, loud noise, bamboo, the foot |
| Tốn 巽 ☴ | 5 | Wind, birds, the cockerel, trees, rope, fragrance, long things |
| Khảm 坎 ☵ | 6 | Water, rain, the moon, the pig, rivers and wells, the ear, curved things |
| Cấn 艮 ☶ | 7 | Mountains, stone, the dog, the youngest son, narrow paths, doors, the hand |
| Khôn 坤 ☷ | 8 | Earth, the mother, an older woman, cattle, cloth, square things |
A horse running past in the Ngọ 午 hour and one running past in the Tý 子 hour are two different workings of heaven. The twelve Branch hours are numbered from Tý 子 as 1 and Sửu 丑 as 2 through to Hợi 亥 as 12. The trigram number of the object plus the number of the hour, divided by 8, gives the lower trigram; divided by 6, the moving line. The hexagram then carries both the image of the object and the Qi of the moment, and that is the subtlety of observation casting. The page works out the present Branch hour from your device's clock and shows it in the middle of the compass.
Thiệu Khang Tiết 邵康節 warned: do not divine when nothing has stirred. Not everything you see calls for a hexagram; only a phenomenon that catches your attention unbidden, at a moment when something weighs on you, is worth observing. The first object seen is the true one; do not look about for a more pleasing one. The result gives the main, nuclear and resulting hexagrams together with the Thể 體 and Dụng 用 analysis by season. It is for reflection and guidance; for anything weighty, consult someone qualified.