Tai to Ming Yi: reclaiming marshland in Hitachi

Date not recorded · A friend of Takashima in Tokyo · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 11 Tài (Peace), line 2 moving, changing to Hexagram 36 Míng Yí (Darkening of the Light).

Original text

東京友人某氏。在常陸欲開墾沼地。請占吉凶。筮得泰之明夷。爻辭曰。九二包荒。用馮河。不遐遺。朋亡。得尙于中行。斷曰。泰古字〔篆文〕。象人以左右手決大水之形。凡洲澤之地。由大雨驟降。山岳砂土。沖激崩墮。隨流壅積而成。其中低所。或爲湖水。或爲沼陂。足下今欲開墾沼地。其有利益於社會。以助國家之經濟。可知也。爻辭拔茅茹者。謂芟除蕪草。播種五穀。開墾之好結果也。又包荒。謂買荒地之象。用馮河。謂盡力乎溝洫也。蓋人有鉅多之財產。往往以安樂送世爲的目。使子孫可永享素餐。以爲上策。而不知此眞失策之大者。何則。凡世間富者。不計公益。貧者無由得衣食。貧者不得衣食。必至不顧禮義。敗壞廉耻。其極至犯禁令而罹法綱。謂之國家亂民。亂民之起。皆由遊手坐食而來也。足下能包容此輩。奮發而抛資財。欲爲衆人開墾沼地。藉以賑濟飢寒。其志氣操行。光明正大。誠有超絕於朋儕者也。故謂朋亡。足下之爲此事業。利己利人。謂之尙于中行。必光大也。

In plain words

A friend of Takashima in Tokyo wanted to reclaim marshland in Hitachi and asked whether it would go well. The cast gave Tai with its second line moving, changing into Ming Yi. The line reads: "Nine in the second place: embracing the wild, fording the river on foot, not neglecting what is far away, setting aside factions; one wins honour by walking the middle way."

Takashima's judgment: the ancient form of the character for Tai shows a person using both hands to channel a great flood. Wetland forms when heavy rain washes sand and soil down from the mountains and it piles up along the water's course; the low parts become lakes or marshes. Reclaiming such land will clearly benefit society and help the national economy. The first line's "pulling up the reeds" means clearing the weeds and sowing grain, the good result of reclamation. "Embracing the wild" is the image of buying waste land; "fording the river" means putting effort into ditches and drainage.

People with great wealth often aim at an easy life and think it the best plan to let their children live idle for ever, not knowing that this is the greatest mistake. When the rich ignore the common good, the poor have no way to feed and clothe themselves; without food and clothing they lose all regard for decency, and in the end break the law and fall into its net, becoming the unruly people of the state. Such unrest always grows out of idleness.

You are able to take these people in, and set out to spend your own money reclaiming marshland for them and relieving hunger and cold. Your resolve and conduct are open and upright, well beyond your peers; hence "setting aside factions". This undertaking benefits yourself and others; that is "one wins honour by walking the middle way", and it will surely go far.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the second line of Tai is read, with "pulling up the reeds" borrowed from the first line along the way.
The reading starts from the form of the character: the ancient form of "Tai", two hands channelling a flood, fits reclaiming a marsh directly.
The line is applied phrase by phrase: "embracing the wild" is buying waste land, "fording the river" is drainage, "setting aside factions" is standing apart from the usual crowd, and "the middle way" is benefiting oneself and others.
The long passage on rich and poor and on "unruly people" is Takashima's own social view, hung on the line text, not something the lines themselves imply.

About the outcome

This case does not record how the reclamation went. The book goes on with a second cast: the friend, too old to oversee the work himself, wanted to hand it to a trusted man; Takashima drew Kun changing to Yu and told him he must take it on himself rather than delegate. This site gives only the first cast.

Applying it to your situation

"Embracing the wild" means being willing to take on what is rough and unpromising. If you are thinking of putting yourself into something slow to pay off but good for many people, how much of the "wild" are you ready to take on, and how will you "ford the river", getting through the hardest stretch?

Original: Takashima Kaemon, Takashima Ekidan (expanded edition), recorded by Yanagida Ikusaku, Chinese text by Wang Zhiben, 1901. Translation, notes and reflection by this site.

These are historical records kept by the diviner himself. The outcomes are his own account; this site uses them to study how the lines were read, not as evidence that divination predicts events.

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