Bi (Grace) to Jia Ren: leaving trade for a garden in old age

Date not recorded · A friend of Takashima, long in business · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 22 Bì (Grace), line 5 moving, changing to Hexagram 37 Jiā Rén (The Family).

Original text

友人來。請占氣運。筮得賁之家人。爻辭曰。六五賁于丘園。束帛戔戔。吝終吉。斷曰。此爻爲五居尊位。崇尙儉德。將率天下而從儉也。故不賁宮殿。而賁邱園。束帛之禮。以誠相將。不尙豐厚。今占得此爻。知足下自幼從事商業。一番辛勤。得有今日。資產豐裕。亦足自樂。近來商業。多習歐美之風。全以欺詐爲術。華麗自誇。反以曩時樸素敦厚。爲可吝也。在吾輩敦尙古風者。不屑與之較也。足下唯當安閒。覓一山林佳處。脩築園榭。栽植花木。以娛心目。爲作養老之計也。人或以吾輩不事世事爲吝。然以此而娛老。以此而傳後。終得吉也。謂之賁于丘園。束帛戔戔。吝終吉也。友人從此占。亦足自樂。

In plain words

A friend of Takashima came and asked about his fortunes. The cast gave Bi (Grace) with its fifth line moving, changing into Jia Ren. The line reads: "Six in the fifth place: adorning the hill garden; the roll of silk is meagre. Shame, but in the end good fortune."

Takashima's judgment: this line is the fifth, in the seat of honour, which values thrift and leads the world in thrift. So it adorns not palaces but a hill garden; its gift of silk offers sincerity rather than lavishness. Drawing this line shows that you have been in trade since youth and reached where you are by hard work; your means are ample and enough to enjoy.

These days businessmen copy European and American ways, rely on deceit, and show off with finery, while treating the plain, solid ways of the past as shabby. Those of us who value the old ways do not stoop to compete with them. You should simply take your ease: find a lovely spot in the hills, build a garden pavilion, plant flowers and trees for the pleasure of the eye, and make that your plan for old age.

Others may think it shabby that we keep out of the world's affairs; but to enjoy old age this way and hand it on to one's heirs is good in the end. That is "adorning the hill garden; the roll of silk is meagre; shame, but in the end good fortune". The friend followed the reading and was content.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the fifth line of Bi (Grace) is read.
The line's place is the seat of honour held in thrift: the fifth line sits in the ruler's place but is yielding, read as preferring plainness to ornament.
The line is applied phrase by phrase: the "hill garden" is a retreat in the hills, the "meagre silk" a modest but sincere gift, "shame" how it looks to others, "good in the end" a contented old age.
The passage criticising "European and American ways" is Takashima's own view of Meiji business, hung on the line, not something the lines imply.

About the outcome

"The friend followed the reading and was content" only says he took the advice and was happy with it; there is nothing here to come true. The case reads more like advice about retirement, with the hexagram giving Takashima a way to say it.

Applying it to your situation

"Adorning the hill garden" is about turning back to what is plain and real. When you reach a point where you could stop, ask yourself: whom are you still competing with, and is that contest still worth your effort?

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