A six-line Wen Wang Gua chart organized as a construction diagram

Act 2

The Hexagram Skeleton

Construction before interpretation

This act has one job: construct every hexagram field that later lessons depend on. You will identify the palace, install the line labels, mark structural positions, and build the changed side. You will not decide what the chart means yet.

Keep a six-row worksheet with line 1 at the bottom and line 6 at the top. Each lesson adds one checked field.

The seven construction tasks

StepAdd to the worksheetCheckpoint
2.1Palace and palace positionThe hexagram appears once in the 8 × 8 lookup.
2.2Palace elementThe element comes from the palace, not from either visible trigram.
2.3Najia stem and branchLower-trigram assignments fill lines 1–3; upper-trigram assignments fill lines 4–6.
2.4Five line rolesEvery role can be recomputed from line element versus palace element.
2.5World and ResponseThe two positions come from palace position and remain three lines apart.
2.6Changed chart and transformed rowsOnly marked moving lines flip; every moving row has one changed-side partner.
2.7Six SpiritsThe day stem selects the line-1 start, then the labels rotate upward.

The cumulative construction case is documented Case 00035: Hexagram 3 changes to Hexagram 19 at lines 2 and 5. The source asks only whether that day’s sky would be clear or cloudy. Here it supplies chart inputs, not a present-day forecast and not evidence that interpretation works.

What to hold back

Do not choose a target line, rank strength, assign an outcome, or explain what a Spirit “means.” Those jobs depend on the calendar and the question. If an interpretation enters your worksheet during this act, move it to a separate notes column and leave it unscored.

Your Act 2 checkpoint is mechanical: another learner should be able to start from the same hexagram, moving lines, and day stem and reproduce your labels without hearing your interpretation.

Source note

This directory states the course sequence. Each claim-bearing lesson publishes the table or procedure needed to reproduce its chart fields. Historical attribution and predictive validity are outside this act.

Next: Continue to The Eight Palaces and enter the first two fields on your worksheet.