What Makes a Chart Wen Wang Gua?

Your task is to distinguish two artifacts that may begin with the same primary hexagram.

A general I Ching reading may work directly with the received hexagram and line texts, images, and ethical reflection. A Wen Wang Gua chart adds a date-bearing line-analysis structure: palace membership, fixed line assignments, line roles, World/Response positions, calendar conditions, movement, and a target selected from the exact question.

Neither artifact is made “more true” by this distinction. They answer and document different interpretive tasks.

Compare the artifacts

Field	General hexagram commentary	Wen Wang Gua line-analysis record
Starting object	Primary hexagram and any moving lines	Primary and changed hexagrams plus a dated six-line table
Main evidence	Received text, images, and the reading’s context	Chart construction, selected target, calendar conditions, interactions, and stated lineage rules
Required date	Depends on the practice	Month and day are part of the working chart
Line labels	Hexagram line positions and text	Na Jia assignments, Five-Phase roles, movement, and World/Response markers
Output	Interpretive reflection or guidance	A structured analysis with confidence and stopping conditions
Limit	Interpretation is not certainty	Technical detail is not certainty either

Copy the table headings into your reading record. Underline the fields that must be visible before interpretation begins.

A documented chart, not a forecast

Case 00035 in Zengshan Buyi asks about clear or cloudy skies on the same day. The source record supplies these facts:

Fact type	Recorded value
Date	Chen month, Ji-Mao day
Primary chart	Hexagram 3, Water over Thunder
Changed chart	Hexagram 19, Earth over Lake
Moving lines	Lines 2 and 5
Selected role in the source	Child line at line 2, Yin Wood, changing to Mao Wood
Source outcome layer	The text records that at the Xu hour the stars had no light / were obscured

The first four rows are chart-construction facts. The selected role is a rule-guided source interpretation. The last row is a reported observation in the text. Keeping those layers separate prevents a historical record from being presented as proof.

This course uses the case to teach structure and later to reconstruct the source’s reasoning. It does not use it to issue current weather information.

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

The minimum WWG record

Before judging a chart, record:

1. the question exactly as asked;
2. the intake decision;
3. month, day, and void branches;
4. primary and changed hexagrams;
5. moving lines, numbered from the bottom;
6. palace and line assignments;
7. World and Response;
8. selected target and selection rule;
9. observed conditions before interpretation;
10. interpretation, confidence, and stopping condition in a separate section.

The order matters. If the judgment is written before the facts, it becomes difficult to see whether the reader selected evidence to fit a conclusion.

Error control

Take the Case 00035 rows above and label each chart fact, source rule, or reported outcome. If a label mixes categories, split it into two sentences.

Do not add whether the source was “right.” That question cannot be answered by the chart alone, and the source record is not independent outcome verification.

Your completed artifact is a two-column comparison plus a ten-field blank WWG record. Next, mark what the course can and cannot responsibly say about its lineage: Sources and Received Lineage.