Liu Yao Divination Chart
Liu Yao casts a hexagram about one specific matter and reads its structure. Unlike BaZi or Zi Wei, which describe a person, Liu Yao describes how a situation stands at a particular moment. This page walks through the full process from casting to attribution.
Casting the hexagram
The common method uses three coins tossed six times, building the hexagram from the bottom line upward. Each toss yields one of four values, two of which are moving lines. Moving lines change to their opposite, which produces a second, changed hexagram alongside the original.
Other methods exist, including time-based casting, number-based casting and the eighteen-change yarrow stalk procedure. The casting differs but everything after it is identical.
Attribution: Na Jia and the Six Relatives
Casting produces only six broken or unbroken lines, which is not yet enough to read. The first step of attribution is Na Jia, assigning a Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch to each line according to the palace the hexagram belongs to. The branch brings an element with it.
The second step takes the element of the hexagram palace as the self, and classifies each line by its generating or controlling relation to that self. The five resulting categories are the Six Relatives. This mapping is what lets Liu Yao address a concrete question rather than an abstract pattern.
Subject and object lines, Six Spirits, void branches
Every hexagram has a fixed subject line and object line. The subject stands for the querent, the object for the other party, and the relation between them frames the whole reading.
The Six Spirits are assigned from the stem of the day of casting and attach to the lines as qualifiers. Void branches are determined by which ten-day cycle the casting day falls in, and lines that fall void are handled separately in the reading.
Choosing the useful god
The decisive step is choosing the useful god, that is, deciding which of the Six Relatives represents the matter being asked about. A question about money takes one relative, a question about position takes another, a question about elders another again. If this choice is wrong, everything after it is wrong.
Once chosen, the line is assessed for strength, for whether moving lines generate or control it, and for whether it falls void or broken, then read together with the subject and object lines and the month and day branches.
How to use it
- Choose a casting method: coins, time-based, or specifying the lines manually
- Na Jia attribution runs automatically, adding Six Relatives, Six Spirits, subject and object lines and void branches
- Compare the original and changed hexagrams and select the useful god for the question asked