How to Cast a Hexagram with Mei Hua Yi Shu: Time, Numbers and External Signs
I first learned Mei Hua Yi Shu because of a meeting.
There were no bronze coins in the meeting room and no yarrow stalks either; a colleague was asking me about a decision she had to take the following week. I glanced at the time on my phone and cast a hexagram from that time.
Three minutes later I gave her a one-line reminder. She said: that is a very casual way to reckon.
Why Mei Hua Yi Shu Is Fast
Traditionally, divination with the I Ching (《易经》) was done by casting with yarrow stalks and judging from the hexagram and line texts; the two branches in common use among practitioners today are the Wen Wang Ke method and Mei Hua Yi Shu. Mei Hua Yi Shu is the simpler of the two, reasoning mainly from the inner and outer trigrams, the Ti and Yong trigrams, the nuclear and changed trigrams, and the line texts (Source 1).
It needs no coins and no six tosses. Anything to hand — a time, a set of numbers, one thing happening in front of you — can serve as the basis for casting.
Three Common Ways to Cast
One: casting from the time. Take numbers from the current year, month, day and hour, and derive the upper and lower trigrams. This is the most commonly used of the three, because it is even-handed for everyone and needs no extra equipment.
Two: casting from numbers. Give two numbers, or take a set of numbers visible in front of you, and divide them into upper and lower trigrams by an agreed rule. Telephone numbers, house numbers and page numbers have all been used this way.
Three: casting from an external sign. This means taking something that happens suddenly in front of you: a bird calls, someone pushes the door open, a cup tips over. The external sign is the most distinctive branch of casting within Mei Hua Yi Shu.
What the three have in common is the order they follow: first there is a "number", then a "hexagram", and finally it settles onto Ti and Yong and the line texts.
How to Understand External Signs
An external sign does not mean that "anything whatever counts as a hint". It is closer to fixing the single most conspicuous thing in the surroundings at that moment and treating it as the coordinate for this casting.
There is a self-protective test here: if you begin choosing your material before you cast — noting the bird call, pretending not to see the cat walking past — then the hexagram is skewed from its starting point. My own way is to settle the rule first and only then look for material; with the rule fixed in advance, the material can count for something.
One Character and One Chart
People who study Mei Hua Yi Shu often say, "one character, one hexagram". It sounds arcane, but it makes the same point: how much information you get does not depend on how many numbers you took, but on how clearly you asked the question and how cleanly you fixed the rule for taking numbers.
After that meeting, my colleague told me the next day that she had raised the matter at the time point I mentioned, and that things did go smoothly. I did not tell her how arcane that sentence really was — she had gone to talk it over early, so it would have gone smoothly in any case.
Tools on this site (for entertainment)
This site offers an entertainment-oriented process: describe your situation clearly → get a method suggestion → read the chart and the interpretation → export the result if you want to keep it. The content is for entertainment and self-reflection only; it promises no prediction and is not decision advice.
This article was last checked on 19 September 2026. Traditional divination has many schools and a long history, and their formulas and versions do not fully agree; the text relies on publicly verifiable sources, and for dates and calendars please refer to the latest official publication.
Disclaimer: This article covers traditional culture and folk custom. It is for entertainment and self-reflection only, and does not constitute medical, psychological, investment, legal or marital decision advice. Please do not submit sensitive personal information such as ID numbers or detailed addresses. If you experience persistent insomnia, anxiety or physical discomfort, please consult a doctor or a qualified professional.
Sources
- "Yao" (《爻》) — Wikipedia (the section on Liu Yao, covering the basis of Mei Hua Yi Shu in the inner and outer trigrams, the Ti and Yong trigrams, the nuclear and changed trigrams and the line texts): https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/爻 (accessed 19 September 2026)
- "Mei Hua Yi Shu" (《梅花易数》) — Wikisource, gateway to the original text: https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/梅花易数 (accessed 19 September 2026)
- Method page on this site: Mei Hua Yi Shu (Plum Blossom Numerology): https://zhanbumizhi.top/en/methods/meihua (accessed 19 September 2026)