Why "Plum Blossom" I Ching Numerology?

The macrocosmic changes of the I Ching, those that exist on a cosmic as opposed to a personal scale, can be deciphered through the use of Shao Yong's Plum Blossom Numerology.

 Generally, this particular name is attributed to a story that Shao Yong realized this system in a flash of insight while observing a Plum Blossom.

However, some people in the West might not realize the depth of symbolism the plum blossom has in Chinese culture.

In Chinese cultural art and poetry, the plum blossom is associated with moral fortitude, with perseverance, and with auspicious good fortune. 


It is, in fact, taken as a symbol for the Superior Individual. It has these qualities because of it's beauty and ability to endure even in harsh climates, and its self-reliance in needing very little care.

The Plum Blossom was in fact associated with four qualities, which could be summarized as "yuan", "heng", "li" and "zhen"; the same four words which commence the I Ching, and which embody Virtue among spiritual cultivators.


In the plum blossom, these four words are associated with the four stages in the plum blossom's growth, and the cycle of the seasons:
Yuan: it is born in union with the new year.
Heng: when it blooms this marks the time of steady gain
Li: in its seeding time, there is harmonious bounty
Zhen: in its time of wilting it is the time of contemplation


Thus, the symbol of the Plum Blossom is not just a product of some coincidence, but an ideal image to represent the macrocosmic changes embodied by Shao Yong's numerological system.

At the same time, this sheds light on the significance of Yuan Heng Li Zhen in the larger context of the I Ching as well. As the first four words of the I Ching's text, and a summary of the entirety of the I Ching, the imagery associated with the plum blossom expresses how "Yuan Heng Li Zhen" is a depiction of the entire process of Time, from beginning to end.

More on the I Ching, Macrocosm and Microcosm

This is a follow up to the previous entry, where I touched on the difference between Macrocosmic and Microcosmic perspectives of the I Ching.

Some people wanted more clarification on this subject, which is not often touched upon in writings.

The type of divination you do when you cast the I Ching with the yarrow stalks, staves, or coins, etc. is a 'microcosmic' divination.  It is a casting influenced by two factors, on account of this: the first factor is the objective reading of Time in this present point in space. The second factor is the role of your place in that measurement, with regards to the specific question you are asking.


So this is why you could ask different questions, on different subjects, within the same time frame; it is also why you should not keep trying to ask the same question about the same subject; although in some specific situations, you might want to ask a follow-up question or something that results from the first casting.  In the case of getting Hexagram #8 as a result, the I Ching is explicitly ordering you to do so!  Conversely, if you get Hexagram #4, it suggests that your 'follow-up' questions are really being motivated by a desire to get a different answer than the one you got, and you absolutely should stop consulting on this subject.

This is the difference between ordinary casting and the Plum Blossom Numerology system; the latter is 'macrocosmic', it doesn't do a reading of your personal place regarding a situation, but of an objective measurement of time.  Your own place is not included in the casting, only the governing measurement of the point in time you are making a calculation for.

So when you use the Plum Blossom method you are getting a reading relating to the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness of a particular moment in time, which applies to all matters connected to that particular moment.

Understanding this difference can help you understand what situations are better suited to a 'regular' I Ching Casting, and which are better suited to the numerological system of the Plum Blossom method.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Today is the Chinese New Year, and congratulations and prosperity to all those reading this who celebrate it.

In the context of the I Ching, the Chinese calendar is significant in a number of elements related to I Ching study and practice.  There are many systems of Chinese Astrology that make use of the Hexagrams of the I Ching in relation to the houses and processes of the Chinese Zodiac, for example. 

Within the practices of the Yi Fa Society, the most significant aspect of the Chinese calendar is in the macrocosmic calculations of the Plum Blossom Oracle.  The Plum Blossom Oracle system is a completely different method of calculating I Ching hexagrams, based on a numerological system by which you can generate a Hexagram (with a changing line and resultant hexagram) that corresponds to a specific date and time. This is particularly useful to determine divination related to events related to particular points in time.

Some English-language books on the Plum Blossom system (and there are not many) suggest that you just use the western dates to calculate the oracle, but in fact this would result in completely different hexagrams. Western dating is not based on a cyclical calendar of years, but rather on a date from a fairly arbitrary starting point (the supposed birth year of Jesus Christ, although historians agree that this date is in fact incorrect by several years!).  The Chinese system works like a set of wheels, it calculates time along 60 year cycles.  It is representative of a macrocosmic process, based on the cycles of time and the Five Processes (sometimes incorrectly referred to as the 'five Chinese elements', although in fact they are not meant to represent elements equivalent to the five pentagram elements in the west).

In The Magician's I Ching, chapter 5 is dedicated to explaining the system of the Plum Blossom Method, and how to generate a Plum Blossom Oracle hexagram; and it uses the original Chinese calendar method.  In this year, the Year of the Monkey, the numerical value associated with the year now changes from 8 (Year of the Goat) to 9 (Year of the Monkey).  Yi Fa students (or purchasers of The Magician's I Ching) should take note of this when working with the Plum Blossom system from this point on.

For more information on the Plum Blossom system of Chinese Numerology, please consider purchasing The Magician's I Ching,  or joining the Yi Fa Society (if you are interested, please contact me in the comments, on Facebook or on Google+).