At a glance
- Stalks
- Fifty with one set aside; use forty-nine
- Operations
- Three per line, eighteen per hexagram
Definition and terminology
Yarrow names a plant, while stalk divination operates counting rods rather than reading a grass shape. A traditional Great Expansion procedure begins with fifty, sets one aside and uses forty-nine. Division, removing one and counting fours receive cosmological meanings. Those associations document ritual theory, not a measurement of cosmic intention.
Structure and rules
A common reconstruction makes three operations per line: divide the current stalks, remove one, count each pile in fours, remove designated remainders and repeat. The final count divided by four yields six through nine; six lines take eighteen operations. State divisibility handling and removal choices because terse mnemonics can conceal operational differences.
Worked reading
A teaching path removes nine from forty-nine, leaving forty; then four, leaving thirty-six; then four, leaving thirty-two. Dividing by four gives eight, stable yin. A final count of twenty-four would give six, moving yin. This illustrates arithmetic, without predicting events or treating one path as the probability distribution of all paths.
Context and limits
The Xici documents eighteen operations and symbolic explanations; modern reconstruction adds explicit counting and randomness assumptions. These affect moving-line frequencies, so coin probabilities should not simply be copied. Equal-length rods can teach the arithmetic. Plant identity, historical ritual, textual dating and predictive validation are distinct questions rather than one established claim.
References & further reading
Historical sources document ideas and rules of their time, not empirical proof of predictive accuracy. Source notes identify the nature and scope of each reference.
- 《易传·系辞上》Primary / tradition source
Public-domain commentary; traditional accounts of polarity, taiji, images and stalk divination; traditional attribution is not settled authorship.