Start Act 4 with one rule:

The question chooses the target line. The chart does not choose it by itself.

Two people can cast the same hexagram on the same date. Same branches, same roles, same moving line, same Month, same Day, same Void. If they ask different questions, they can still have different target lines.

That is not a special case. It is the normal order of the method.

Same artifact One cast

Same six lines, same primary hexagram, same changed hexagram, same moving line, same calendar.

Different intake Different question

The subject changes: promotion, loan, father, spouse, illness, document, opponent, travel.

Different anchor Different target line

The reading follows the line that represents the subject of the question.

Source basis: Zengshan Buyi, Yong Shen chapter; Bushi Zhengzong, target classification rules. Source-language formulas are kept out of the lesson flow here so the selection principle stays clear.

Same chart, different target

Use Case 1 as the shared chart.

Historically, the question was about a father’s recent illness. For that question, the target is a Parent line. Case 1 has more than one Parent candidate, and later in Act 4 we will explain the selection cascade. For now, just keep the result: the father is read through line 3, Parent / Chen / Earth.

Now imagine the same chart was cast for different questions.

Question A Will I get the promotion?

Subject: official rank and career authority.

Target type: Officer.

In Case 1: line 4, Officer / Wu / Fire.

Question B Will the loan come through?

Subject: money entering the querent's hands.

Target type: Wealth.

In Case 1: line 2, Wealth / Yin / Wood.

Historical question What about my father's illness?

Subject: the father as patient.

Target type: Parent.

In Case 1: line 3, Parent / Chen / Earth.

The cast did not change. The target changed because the question changed.

That is the point of this module. Chart features matter only after the question has selected the line we are reading.

The order of operations

Target selection is upstream of strength, movement, support, obstruction, and timing.

Step 1 Name the subject.

What is the question actually about: a person, role, object, document, illness, rank, payment, journey, place, opponent, or outcome?

Step 2 Name the relation.

Is it self, family, spouse, patient, counterparty, official authority, property, document, or unfamiliar other?

Step 3 Select the method.

Most questions use a Six Relative target. Some use World, Response, hidden retrieval, transformed carrier, or domain synthesis.

Step 4 Find the line.

Only now do we inspect the chart for the matching line, multiple candidates, or an absent target.

This is why Act 4 comes after the calendar. Act 3 can tell you how each line is treated by the Month and Day. Act 4 tells you which line those findings should be centered on.

The trap

The beginner error is reading the chart first and letting the most dramatic feature become the target.

Wrong order The moving line must be the answer.

Movement is important, but it does not automatically identify the question's subject.

Wrong order The strongest line must be the answer.

Strength describes condition. It does not choose what the question is about.

Right order The question picks first.

After the target is fixed, movement, strength, Void, Month-Broken, and Day pressure become meaningful.

Case 1 makes the trap obvious. Line 4 is the moving line. For a promotion question, line 4 would also be the target because it is the Officer line. For the actual father’s-illness question, line 4 is not the target. The target is Parent, and the chosen Parent line is line 3.

Line 4 still matters. It may support, obstruct, transform, or time something. But it matters in relation to the target. It does not replace the target.

What this module establishes

The analytical direction is:

question -> target type -> target line -> strength and interaction -> judgment -> timing

The chart answers the proposition you bring to it. It does not get to retrofit the proposition around whichever line looks most active.

Next we define the target line formally and walk the most common selection method.

-> 4.2 Yong Shen: The Useful Spirit