Qian (Modesty) to Xiao Guo: how an institution should raise up talent

1889 (Meiji 22) · A dignitary, asking about a certain council · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 15 Qiān (Modesty), line 4 moving, changing to Hexagram 62 Xiǎo Guò (Small Exceeding).

Original text

明治二十二年。某貴顯來請占某院運氣。筮得謙之小過。爻辭曰。六四无不利。撝謙。斷曰。此卦全卦中。唯九三一陽。爲上所任。爲衆所宗。有功而在下位者也。某院衆賢所集。今以陰居陰。運氣委靡不振。有望登用九三之象。故曰无不利撝謙。撝謙者。謂應心以求賢。進而信任之也。後未幾。果如此占。

In plain words

In 1889 a dignitary asked Takashima to divine the fortunes of a certain council. The cast gave Qian (Modesty) with its fourth line moving, changing into Xiao Guo. The line reads: "Six in the fourth place: nothing is unfavourable; spreading modesty."

Takashima's judgment: in this hexagram the third line is the only yang line. It is trusted by those above and looked up to by all: a person of real merit in a low position. The council is a gathering of able men, but the fourth line, yin in a yin place, shows it slack and listless, with the prospect of promoting the third line; hence "nothing is unfavourable; spreading modesty". "Spreading modesty" means seeking out talent with an open mind, raising that person up and trusting him.

Not long after, it turned out as the reading said.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the fourth line of Qian (Modesty) is read.
The ruling line is the third: in Modesty five yin lines surround a single yang line, "the noble one of toil and modesty", which Takashima maps onto a capable person in a low position.
The line's place is yin in a yin place: the weak fourth line explains why the institution is listless, and it sits right on top of the third, so everything turns on whether the third is raised up.
"Spreading modesty" is read as bringing forward: seeking talent with an open mind, promoting and trusting it.

About the outcome

The text does not say which council this was or who was promoted, only that "not long after, it turned out as the reading said". It is Takashima's own record, and this site does not treat it as evidence. What is worth reading is how the single yang line in the hexagram is read as the key person.

Applying it to your situation

When a team has gone slack, the problem is often not a lack of people but that the capable ones are not seen. Around you, who is the "third line", doing a great deal but still kept below?

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.

Cast a hexagram · All of Takashima's cases · The 64 hexagrams