Gui Mei to Lin: holding stock until the time is right

Date not recorded · A merchant · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 54 Guī Mèi (The Marrying Maiden), line 4 moving, changing to Hexagram 19 Lín (Approach).

Original text

某商人來。請占賣買之機會。筮得歸妹之臨。爻辭曰。九四歸妹愆期。遲歸有時。斷曰。女子待時而嫁。猶貨之待價而賈也。愆期者。謂期限已過。遲久者。謂遲久可售也。足下占賣買之機會。得此爻辭。爻象與占象。辭意適合。歸妹愆期。由於姊猶未嫁。妹因不得先行。故宜遲歸待時。知足下必有前售之貨。未曾銷脫。故於後置之貨。行當遲遲有待。此所行不能不待。所售不能不遲也。遲之要自得利。可無憂焉。

In plain words

A merchant came to ask about the right moment to buy and sell. The cast gave Gui Mei with its fourth line moving, changing into Lin. The line reads: "Nine in the fourth place: the marrying maiden lets the date pass; a late marriage comes in its time."

Takashima's judgment: a woman waiting for the right time to marry is like goods waiting for the right price to sell. "Letting the date pass" means the deadline has gone by; "late" means it will sell after a longer wait. Asking about timing and drawing this line, the image and the question fit each other exactly.

The younger sister's marriage is delayed because her elder sister is not yet married and she cannot go first; so she should wait for her time. From this, you must still have earlier stock that has not been sold, and so your later purchases should be held back and wait. They cannot help waiting and cannot help being late. Selling later will still bring profit; there is no need to worry.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the fourth line of Gui Mei is read.
Marriage stands for trade: a woman waits for her time to marry, goods wait for their price.
Seniority stands for stock: "the younger cannot marry before the elder" becomes earlier stock still unsold, so later goods must wait. Here the reading infers something the merchant knew but had not said.
"A late marriage comes in its time": late, but its time will come, so there is no need to worry.

About the outcome

The text does not say when the merchant sold or whether he profited. "You still have earlier stock unsold" is Takashima's inference from the line; a merchant asking about timing is quite likely to be holding stock anyway.

Applying it to your situation

"A late marriage comes in its time": later does not mean missed. In what you are rushing to push forward, is there an "elder sister" not yet settled? Deal with what comes first, and what follows may go more smoothly.

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