Hidden Spirit: Retrieving an Absent Target
Last updated 10/7/2026
Use a hidden line (伏神, Fu Shen) only when the required Six Relative is absent from all six visible primary lines and the declared method calls for palace-primary retrieval.
The lookup is positional: compare the current hexagram with the primary hexagram of its palace. A missing palace-primary branch is retained at its original bottom-up line position beneath the visible line there.
Precedence before retrieval
Absence from the primary six lines does not establish a universal next step. In the checked Zengshan Buyi passage, day and month are considered before the palace-primary hidden line; Bushi Zhengzong chapter 32 checks the transformed line before Fu Shen. For the explicit Fu Shen exercises in this course, UAYA uses the following retrieval procedure only after those competing carriers have been ruled out or deferred. This teaching order is a UAYA course convention, not a classical consensus claim.
Retrieval procedure
- Select the Six Relative from the question.
- Confirm that no visible primary line carries it.
- Record that the declared exercise or exact source case calls for Fu Shen; otherwise inventory the competing carriers and stop if precedence is unresolved.
- Identify the current hexagram’s palace and its primary hexagram.
- Compare their Na Jia branches position by position, counted 1–6 from the bottom.
- Record the missing palace-primary branch as the hidden line at that position.
- Record the visible line above it as the flying or covering line (飞神, Fei Shen).
- Analyse the hidden/covering relation separately. Retrieval alone does not promise emergence or an event.
If the role is visible but weak, void, or Month-Broken, it is not “missing.” Do not replace it with a hidden line.
Mechanics-only record: Case 00115
Example type: documented textual case; historical stakes unknown.
The source asks 占候文书何日得领？, bounded here as: “When will the awaited document be received?” It does not say the document is official, legal, valuable, or low-stakes.
The text records:
- Mao month, Ren-Chen day; Wu and Wei void;
- static Hexagram 22, Mountain over Fire;
- the Parent role absent from the visible six lines;
- hidden Parent / Wu Fire beneath visible line 2 / Chou Earth;
- the hidden line described as void and pressed beneath the covering line.
This lesson stops at retrieval and source description. The text’s date statement and recorded receipt belong to timing study and are not evidence of predictive efficacy.
Position audit: line 2, not line 5
The accepted bottom-up position is line 2.
| Evidence | What it establishes | Disposition |
|---|---|---|
| Zengshan Buyi, “Flying and Hidden Spirits” | Parent Wu Fire is hidden beneath second-line Chou Earth | Accepted source record |
| Bottom-up line count in the displayed Hexagram 22 chart | Chou Earth is line 2 | Accepted reader-facing check |
| UAYA retrieval procedure above | Palace-primary Wu Fire remains at its original second-line position | Course convention stated above |
Do not renumber the line from the top or describe a positional mistake as a school variant. The source wording and the bottom-up chart count agree on line 2.
Read the cover without certainty
For every hidden pair, record observable mechanics first:
- hidden branch and element;
- cover branch and element;
- whether the cover generates, controls, drains, or matches the hidden element;
- calendar states already established in the chart-construction acts.
Then attribute any emergence rule to its source. “Hidden” does not establish later appearance, and a weak cover does not establish release.
Trap and stopping condition
Do not use Case 00115 as the course’s ordinary anchor. Its document type, owner, and consequences are unstated. Do not call its record a permit, approval, contract, or official notice.
Stop when palace, line order, or hidden position cannot be reproduced. A hidden target with an unresolved position is not ready for interpretation.
Claim sources: Zengshan Buyi, volume 2, “Flying and Hidden Spirits” (飞伏神章), checked composite printed p. 53/PDF p. 54; CText ctp:ws157683, displayed paragraphs 78–85. Cross-check: Bushi Zhengzong, chapters 27 and 32. The retrieval order is a UAYA teaching convention; certainty language not supported by those sources is excluded.
Next, practise the full selection system without predicting outcomes: Twelve Target-Selection Drills.