How to Assign Ti and Yong in Plum Blossom
Last updated 10/7/2026
This lesson teaches the bridge from a calculated hexagram to a bounded interpretation. It begins with a checkable operation: assign Ti and Yong from the moving line.
Prerequisite: use the supplied workshop cast below, or bring a primary hexagram with exactly one moving line and its changed hexagram. Your output is a two-column note separating observations from interpretations.
The course uses four layers:
- Trigram image.
- Ti/Yong, or body and function.
- Five Phase relationship.
- I Ching hexagram and line text.
If one layer contradicts another, record the conflict. Do not flatten it into a single slogan.
Trigram Images
| Trigram | Received image/quality | UAYA reading prompts |
|---|---|---|
| Qian ☰ | Heaven | strength, direction, authority, initiative |
| Dui ☱ | Lake | exchange, speech, pleasure, opening |
| Li ☲ | Fire | clarity, visibility, attachment, recognition |
| Zhen ☳ | Thunder | shock, activation, beginning, movement |
| Xun ☴ | Wind | penetration, gradual influence, entry |
| Kan ☵ | Water | danger, depth, difficulty, hidden flow |
| Gen ☶ | Mountain | stillness, boundary, stopping, restraint |
| Kun ☷ | Earth | receptivity, support, field, capacity |
The received image/quality column follows the Shuo Gua. The prompt column is UAYA synthesis; it is not a translation of the primary text. Do not read the trigrams as fixed personalities.
Fire over Heaven is observably Li above Qian. “Visibility above strength” is one interpretive prompt, not an additional structural fact.
Claim source: received Yijing, “Shuo Gua,” for the core trigram images and qualities. The English prompts in the third column are UAYA teaching language.
Ti and Yong
Ti (體) is the body or subject of the reading.
Yong (用) is the function, matter, or active side being considered in relation to it.
For the single-moving-line convention taught in this course, assignment is mechanical:
| Moving line | Ti | Yong |
|---|---|---|
| Lines 1–3 | unchanged upper trigram | changing lower trigram |
| Lines 4–6 | unchanged lower trigram | changing upper trigram |
Assign Ti/Yong before interpreting the result. Do not default to lower=Ti, and do not borrow WWG’s Yong Shen or Six Relatives logic. Plum Blossom’s body/function distinction works here at the trigram level, not as a six-line target-selection chart.
Claim source: received Meihua Yishu, vol. 2, “General Instructions for Ti and Yong,” treats Ti as the principal/body and Yong as the matter/function. In this course's single-line procedure, the trigram containing the moving line is Yong and the unchanged trigram is Ti; the line-position rule above makes that assignment reproducible.
Five Phase Direction
The Five Phase relation tells you how the active force behaves toward the body.
| Relation | Reading |
|---|---|
| Yong generates Ti | The active matter supports the body or subject. |
| Ti generates Yong | The body or subject feeds the active matter, but may be drained by doing so. |
| Yong controls Ti | The active matter pressures, restricts, or disciplines the body or subject. |
| Ti controls Yong | The body or subject can manage, restrain, or use the active matter. |
| Same phase | The two sides share nature, but may compete or reinforce. |
This fixes a common confusion. Generation is not always “good” and control is not always “bad.” If the body feeds the function, the outcome may be productive, but the body pays a cost. If the body controls the function, the situation may be difficult, but manageable.
These are symbolic lineage rules, not physical causes or guaranteed outcomes.
Claim source: received Meihua Yishu, vol. 1, “Five Phases Generate and Control” and “Eight Palaces' Five-Phase Associations”; Sun's modern presentation, pp. 44–45, supplies a checkable later example of the same trigram-phase mapping. UAYA rejects that article's predictive and energetic overclaims.
Course Case
Example type: invented teaching case. The structure is checkable; the interpretation is not an observed outcome.
The workshop proposal case produced Fire over Heaven, Hexagram 14, changing at line 2.
Line 2 is in the lower trigram, so the lower trigram is Yong and the unchanged upper trigram is Ti:
| Layer | Reading |
|---|---|
| Ti | Li, Fire, the proposal’s visible subject |
| Yong | Qian, Heaven/Metal, the delivery vehicle being acted on |
| Phase relation | Ti Fire controls Yong Metal |
| UAYA interpretation | The proposal may be able to discipline its delivery structure, but that effort could become rigid or consume attention. |
| Changed hexagram | Fire over Fire, Clarity |
| Direction | The question moves further into visibility, attachment, and the need for clear form. |
This does not settle “good” or “bad.” A bounded reading is: the visible idea and its delivery structure are in tension; clarify the vehicle, then review whether the interpretation fits later evidence.
The Text Still Matters
Plum Blossom is not only trigram math. Once the hexagram and moving line are known, read the received I Ching language.
Use the text to constrain the imagination:
- Primary hexagram: the moment’s main image.
- Moving line: the turning point.
- Changed hexagram: the direction of change.
- Trigram and Five Phase frame: the lineage’s symbolic relation.
If the layers do not support one coherent reading, record the result as ambiguous rather than forcing agreement.
Next, apply the framework to observed events. Continue to The External Event Method.