How to Read a Wen Wang Gua Cast Table

Your task is to label every zone and row in a cast table without interpreting it.

We use the documented Case 00035 skeleton because it has two moving lines and a complete changed chart. The source question concerns that day’s clear or cloudy sky; this lesson does not repeat the source’s prediction or produce a current forecast.

The three zones

Zone	Case 00035 record	What you may say now
Date	Chen month; Ji-Mao day; Shen and You void	These are the date and void labels printed with the chart
Hexagrams	Hexagram 3, Water over Thunder → Hexagram 19, Earth over Lake	These are the primary and changed charts
Six-line table	Six rows numbered bottom-up; lines 2 and 5 move	These are positions and movement facts

The date is chart input, not a verdict. The hexagram names are identifiers, not an outcome. Movement marks activity in the chart, not proof that an event will occur.

Source note: Zengshan Buyi, volume 2, 天时章第三十五; checked composite printed p. 90/PDF physical p. 91; CText ctp:ws157683 displayed paragraphs 996–1003. The passage records Hexagram 3 → 19 with bottom-up moving lines 2 and 5. Case label 00035 is the UAYA catalogue identifier for that record.

Read the rows bottom-up

A hexagram is constructed from the bottom. Printed tables usually display line 6 at the top, which means visual order and line-number order run in opposite directions.

Display row	Line number	Case 00035 movement	Primary/changed columns
Top	6	Static	Read row 6 of Hexagram 3 beside row 6 of Hexagram 19
Second	5	Moving	The primary line is Officer / Xu Earth; record the changed-row assignment separately
Third	4	Static	Read row 4 in both complete charts
Fourth	3	Static	Read row 3 in both complete charts
Fifth	2	Moving	The primary line is Child / Yin Wood and World; its transformed branch is Mao Wood
Bottom	1	Static	Read row 1 in both complete charts

World and Response are position markers. In the primary Case 00035 chart, World is at line 2 and Response is at line 5. They do not by themselves say who will win, what will happen, or whether a line is favorable.

Primary, motion, and changed are different fields

For each row, keep three columns:

1. Primary assignment: what the line carries in the starting chart.
2. Movement: static or moving.
3. Changed assignment: what appears at that row in the complete changed chart.

Do not describe the changed chart as a list of only the two altered rows. Flipping lines 2 and 5 produces Hexagram 19 as a complete six-line chart. Its Na Jia branch rows come from the changed trigrams, and its changed-hexagram position can be looked up separately. Under the UAYA convention used here, transformed Six-Relative roles remain calculated against the primary chart’s palace element. Later lessons teach how much interpretive weight each changed field receives.

Observation drill

Create a blank table with columns line, primary, movement, changed, and markers. Then enter only these verified facts:

• six rows, numbered 1 through 6 from the bottom;
• primary Hexagram 3 and changed Hexagram 19;
• moving lines 2 and 5;
• World at primary line 2 and Response at primary line 5;
• Child / Yin Wood at primary line 2, transforming to Mao Wood.

Leave every unsupported cell blank. A blank is more accurate than a guessed assignment.

Error check

Reject the record if it contains any of these statements:

• “Moving line 5 means clouds will appear.”
• “World at line 2 means the source prediction was correct.”
• “Hexagram 19 proves the result improves.”

Each statement jumps from an observable label to interpretation or outcome. At this stage, the correct wording is only: line 5 moves; World is at line 2; the changed chart is Hexagram 19.

Your artifact is a labelled six-row skeleton with no prediction. Continue to Act 2: The Hexagram Skeleton to construct the palace, Na Jia, line-role, and World/Response layers.