Xu to Ji Ji: whether to go to Hokkaido to collect a debt

Date not recorded · Nagai Taijirō, a friend of Takashima · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 5 Xū (Waiting), line 2 moving, changing to Hexagram 63 Jì Jì (After Completion).

Original text

友人永井泰次郎氏。貸與金於北海道商人。某踰期未返。發信督促。未得回報。因欲自赴彼地。請占一卦。筮得需之既濟。爻辭曰。九二需于沙。小有言。終吉。斷曰。需者坐而待時之卦也。不宜自進而赴彼地。於彖曰有孚見之。知彼非故意延緩。因商業上有意外紛紜。爲之奔走不遑也。謂之小有言。今後四月。即至第五爻之時。彼必可返還其金。謂之終吉。永井氏守此占。而不行。後至四月。果如所占。

In plain words

Takashima's friend Nagai Taijirō had lent money to a merchant in Hokkaido. The loan was overdue, and letters pressing for payment brought no reply, so he thought of going there himself and asked Takashima to cast. The cast gave Xu with its second line moving, changing into Ji Ji. The line reads: "Nine in the second place: waiting on the sand; there is some talk, but in the end it is good."

Takashima's judgment: Xu is the hexagram of sitting and waiting for the right time, so it is not the moment to rush off there. From "there is trust" in the judgment of the hexagram, he concluded that the merchant was not stalling on purpose but had run into unexpected trouble in his business and was too busy dealing with it; that is "some talk". Four months from now, when the fifth line is reached, the merchant would surely repay; that is "good in the end".

Nagai followed the reading and did not go. Four months later, it turned out as the reading said.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the second line of Xu is read.
The hexagram is read as waiting: better not to go in person.
The judgment's "there is trust" is brought in: Xu's judgment opens with it, and Takashima takes it to mean the debtor is honest and not defaulting on purpose, then reads "some talk" as a minor dispute in the debtor's business.
Time is counted by lines: from the second line to the fifth (second, third, fourth, fifth) gives "four months". Timing by line position is one of Takashima's habits, and the hardest to check.

About the outcome

This is the most "precise" kind of record in Takashima: a specific number of months and a note that it came true. But counting months by lines is very elastic, and the book records the time it worked. This site does not treat it as evidence; what is worth reading is how he got from waiting and "there is trust" to the view that the debtor meant no harm.

Applying it to your situation

When someone goes quiet, it is easy to assume the worst. This line suggests first asking whether they are unwilling or simply swamped. In what you are waiting for, could you set yourself a reasonable deadline, and not rush to act before it?

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