Plum Blossom Numerology (梅花易數, Mei Hua Yi Shu) is a way of consulting the I Ching without coins or yarrow stalks. Instead, the hexagram is built from numbers taken from the moment a question arises — the date and hour — or from anything that can be counted. It is traditionally credited to the Song dynasty philosopher Shao Yong (邵雍, 1011–1077).
The story behind the name
The method takes its name from its most famous example. Shao Yong, the story goes, was admiring plum blossoms when he saw two sparrows quarrel on a branch and fall to the ground. Treating the unusual moment as a sign, he cast a hexagram from the date and hour and predicted that a girl would climb the tree the next evening to pick blossoms, be startled by the gardener, fall and hurt her leg — which, the story says, is exactly what happened. Whatever one makes of the tale, it shows the spirit of the method: any striking moment can be read.
Early Heaven numbers
Plum Blossom uses the Early Heaven (先天) order of the eight trigrams, attributed to the legendary sage Fu Xi, and numbers them one to eight:
| Number | Trigram | Image | Element |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ☰ 乾 Qian | Heaven | Metal |
| 2 | ☱ 兌 Dui | Lake | Metal |
| 3 | ☲ 離 Li | Fire | Fire |
| 4 | ☳ 震 Zhen | Thunder | Wood |
| 5 | ☴ 巽 Xun | Wind | Wood |
| 6 | ☵ 坎 Kan | Water | Water |
| 7 | ☶ 艮 Gen | Mountain | Earth |
| 8 | ☷ 坤 Kun | Earth | Earth |
Casting by time
The classic method uses the date in the lunar calendar and the double hour:
- Add the number of the year's earthly branch (Rat = 1 … Pig = 12), the lunar month and the lunar day. Divide by 8; the remainder gives the upper trigram (a remainder of 0 counts as 8).
- Add the number of the double hour (the Rat hour, 23:00–01:00, is 1). Divide this new total by 8 for the lower trigram.
- Divide the same total by 6; the remainder (0 counts as 6) is the moving line, counted from the bottom.
Here is the story's own casting, worked through with Fate Hall's rules:
| Step | Working | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Upper trigram | Year branch Chen = 5, + month 12 + day 17 = 34; 34 ÷ 8 leaves 2 | ☱ 兌 Dui |
| Lower trigram | 34 + hour Shen (9) = 43; 43 ÷ 8 leaves 3 | ☲ 離 Li |
| Moving line | 43 ÷ 6 leaves 1 | Line 1 (counted from the bottom) |
| Primary hexagram | Upper over lower | 49. 革 Revolution (Ge) |
| Nuclear hexagram | Lines 2–4 below, 3–5 above | 44. 姤 Coming to Meet (Gou) |
| Changed hexagram | Line 1 flips | 31. 咸 Influence (Xian) |
| Body and use | The moving line is in the lower trigram, so it is the use | Body ☱ 兌 Dui (Metal), use ☲ 離 Li (Fire) |
The verdict — metal (body) controlled by fire (use) — is the classic reading of misfortune for the person the question concerns, matching the girl's fall in the story.
Casting by numbers
When a question comes with numbers attached — two numbers someone names, a count of objects, the strokes of a word — the first number gives the upper trigram, the second the lower, and their sum the moving line. Many teachers also add the number of the current double hour to the sum; Fate Hall does this by default and lets you switch it off.
Three hexagrams
A Plum Blossom reading looks at three hexagrams:
- The primary hexagram (本卦) shows the situation as it stands.
- The nuclear hexagram (互卦) is formed from the inner lines — lines two to four as the lower trigram, three to five as the upper — and describes the process or what is hidden.
- The changed hexagram (變卦) appears when the moving line flips, and shows where things are heading.
Body and use
The heart of Plum Blossom reading is not the text of the hexagrams but the relationship between two trigrams. The trigram without the moving line is the body (體), standing for you or the person asking. The trigram with the moving line is the use (用), standing for the matter, the other party or the outside world. Their five elements are compared:
| Relationship | Traditional verdict | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| Use feeds body | Great Blessing | The outside (use) feeds you (body): help arrives and things resolve easily. |
| Same element | Lucky | Body and use share an element, so things fit together smoothly. |
| Body controls use | Lucky | You have the upper hand over the matter: it takes effort, but you get there. |
| Body feeds use | Draining | You feed the matter, so energy and money easily drain away. |
| Use controls body | Unlucky | The matter presses on you: rushing will hurt. Wait for a better moment. |
Readers then look at the nuclear and changed hexagrams in the same way, to see whether the situation improves or worsens as it unfolds.
Common questions
Why does Fate Hall use the Korean lunar calendar? The method needs a lunar month and day. Fate Hall uses the Korean (KASI) lunar calendar, which is the same as the Chinese calendar on almost every date; on the rare days the two differ, a reading may come out differently from one cast with a Chinese almanac.
Can I ask the same question twice? Traditionally, no: the first casting is the answer. With the time method the result also changes as the hour changes.
How is this different from the coin method? Coins give six lines one at a time and can produce several moving lines. Plum Blossom always gives exactly one moving line and puts the weight on the elements of the trigrams rather than the line texts.
Related guides
- The 64 Hexagrams of the I ChingAll 64 hexagrams of the I Ching (Book of Changes) in King Wen order, with their trigrams and a plain-English summary, plus how a reading is cast with three coins and changing lines.
- The Five ElementsHow Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water feed and control one another, which stems and branches carry each element, and how to read the balance in your chart.
- The Chinese AlmanacWhat the daily entries of the Chinese almanac mean — the 28 lunar mansions, the twelve day officers, Yellow and Black Path days, clash and sha — and how Fate Hall calculates them.
- The Life Path NumberHow to calculate your Life Path number, why calculators sometimes disagree, master numbers 11, 22 and 33, how common each number is, the Personal Year and name numbers.