Xian to Da Guo: money lent to an inventor

Date not recorded · A member of the peerage who had lent money to an inventor friend · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 31 Xián (Influence), line 2 moving, changing to Hexagram 28 Dà Guò (Great Exceeding).

Original text

華族某君來謂余曰。頃者知己某。以數年刻苦。新創一技。特許專賣。余因貸之以資金。但不知新創之技。果得廣行否。亦不知貸與之資金損益如何。請筮之。筮得咸之大過。爻辭曰。六二咸其腓。凶。居吉。斷曰。咸者爲山澤通氣之卦。是二物相依。互爲用也。某友發明一物。藉君之資金。得以成業。是某友與君實相依爲用。其事業之廣行也可必矣。腓者足肚也。腓不自動。隨足之動而動。以喩資金之通用。全藉貨物之販運。而資金亦隨之而運動也。在此業新出。未免一時販售有碍。當居積以待。自能獲利。始雖凶而終吉也。

In plain words

A member of the peerage said to Takashima: a close friend of mine, after years of hard work, has invented a new technique and been granted a patent, and I have lent him money. But I do not know whether the invention will catch on, or whether the loan will make or lose money. Please cast. The cast gave Xian with its second line moving, changing into Da Guo. The line reads: "Six in the second place: feeling in the calf of the leg; misfortune. Staying put is good."

Takashima's judgment: Xian is the hexagram of mountain and lake exchanging their breath, two things depending on each other and each useful to the other. Your friend invented something and could only build it into a business with your money; the two of you truly depend on each other, and the business will surely spread.

The "calf" is the calf of the leg. It does not move on its own but moves as the foot moves, which is like money circulating only as goods are sold and shipped; as the goods move, the money moves with them. The business is new, so sales will be sluggish for a while. Hold stock and wait, and profit will come of itself. It starts badly but ends well.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the second line of Xian is read.
The hexagram is read as mutual response: mountain and lake exchanging breath become the lender and the inventor depending on each other.
The image is the calf: it moves only as the foot moves, like money that moves only as goods do. A part of the body is turned straight into an economic relationship.
"Misfortune; staying put is good" becomes a slow start in sales, which turns good if one holds steady.

About the outcome

The text does not say whether the invention caught on or the loan was repaid. "Bad at first, good in the end" is only Takashima's judgment.

Applying it to your situation

"Feeling in the calf" is a reminder that some things cannot move by themselves; they wait on another part moving first. For the result you are waiting on, which link actually has to move first, and until then, is holding steady wiser than adding more?

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