Advanced I Ching Studies

Traditional scholarly desk with a Wen Wang Gua chart and calendar tools

Wen Wang Gua An Advanced Six Lines Course

Liu Yao · Six Lines · Dated chart analysis

10acts

90+lessons

1auditable reading record

Wen Wang Gua, also called Liu Yao or Six Lines, analyzes an I Ching cast as a dated six-line chart. This course teaches how to construct that chart, select the line that represents a precise question, assess its condition and interactions, and record a bounded judgment.

This is an interpretive tradition, not a source of future certainty. It does not replace medical, legal, financial, safety, or other professional judgment. The course separates chart facts, received rules, interpretation, and later outcome review so that each claim can be inspected.

Is this course the right starting point?

Begin here if you can already record a primary hexagram and moving lines from a cast. You do not need Chinese, but you should be comfortable numbering hexagram lines from the bottom up.

Start elsewhere if you still need basic casting and hexagram literacy. WWG adds calendar, palace, line-role, strength, and timing layers; it is not a first introduction to the I Ching.

Your course artifact is a reading record with four visibly separate layers:

Layer	What you record	What it does not establish
Construction	Question, date, primary chart, changed chart, moving lines, palace, and line assignments	That an interpretation is correct
Selection	Target line and the rule used to select it	That the target is favorable or unfavorable
Analysis	Observable conditions, support, obstruction, motion, and timing states	A certain real-world outcome
Review	Judgment, confidence, stopping condition, and later result or unresolved status	Proof that the method is universally effective

Download or copy those four headings into a notebook before Act 1. Every later lesson adds a field to the same record.

The learning arc

Act 1Orient

Define the method, source stance, intake boundary, and visible cast-table zones.

Act 2Construct

Build the palace, Na Jia, line-role, World/Response, moving, and transformed layers.

Act 3Date the chart

Add month, day, void, Five Phases, and branch relationships.

Act 4Select

Choose the target line from the exact subject of the question and record the rationale.

Act 5Assess condition

Inspect strength, void, breaks, combinations, clashes, and other interactions.

Act 6Track movement

Separate relevant movement and transformation from visually impressive noise.

Act 7Judge

State a supported direction, confidence level, ambiguity, and stopping condition.

Act 8Bound timing

Apply timing rules without turning a symbolic window into a promise.

Act 9Route by domain

Apply stricter authority and safety limits when the question carries real consequences.

Act 10Review practice

Audit cases, preserve misses and ambiguity, communicate limits, and know when not to read.

The course anchor: a documented weather-observation record

00035 and 00115 are public UAYA course-catalogue labels for the cited records. They are not numbering found in the source editions.

The ordinary cumulative example is Case 00035, a textual record in Zengshan Buyi. Its question concerns whether the sky would be clear or cloudy that day. The record is dated to a Chen month and Ji-Mao day, gives Hexagram 3 changing to Hexagram 19 at lines 2 and 5, and records an observation at the Xu hour.

This case earns its place because the stated task is narrow and low consequence. It is studied as a historical teaching record. It is not evidence of predictive efficacy and is never used to produce a present-day weather forecast; current weather information comes from meteorological sources.

Source note: Zengshan Buyi, volume 2, 天时章第三十五; checked composite edition, printed p. 90 (PDF physical p. 91). The Chinese Text Project witness is ctp:ws157683, displayed paragraphs 996–1003. The passage records Hexagram 3 → 19 and moving lines 2 and 5; the course chart reproduces those construction facts without treating the recorded outcome as efficacy evidence.

Two controls prevent a success-only course:

Case 00115 is used only where its hidden-line and void mechanics are necessary. The source says 文书—an awaited document—but does not establish its type or stakes.
Learner records must preserve missed, ambiguous, unresolved, and do not read results. A compound prompt such as “When will the document arrive, and will an unrelated application be approved?” must be split or refused before casting.

Source and authority boundary

The course uses a checked modern composite of Zengshan Buyi together with identified transcription witnesses. It does not treat a title page, later attribution, or a successful-looking case as proof of uninterrupted lineage or predictive truth.

Deterministic mechanics are published as complete reader-facing calculations, tables, or chart derivations. Where a rule is a UAYA teaching convention rather than a located received rule, the lesson says so explicitly. Where source traditions disagree, the lesson names the rule it is using. Where a locator is unresolved, the claim is narrowed or removed.

Your first task

Create a blank reading record with the four layer headings above. Under Construction, add two more fields: question as asked and intake decision. Leave every interpretive field empty.

Then begin Act 1: Orientation. Its first lesson will show exactly what belongs in a WWG artifact before judgment begins.

Start Here Begin Act 1