People from Shu Arrive, Fulfilling the Hexagram

Yu Fan cleared the table, brought out the bamboo basket of yarrow stalks, and then performed the Great Expansion Divination for Lan Tian.

In ancient times, people placed great importance on sacrifices and revered the spirits of Heaven and Earth. For any major state affair, they first consulted the stalks, then performed divination with tortoise shells.

The Great Expansion Divination was not complicated. The I Ching's Appended Statements said: "The number of the Great Expansion is fifty, of which forty-nine are used. Divide them into two to symbolize the two primal forces; set one aside to symbolize the three powers; count them by fours to symbolize the four seasons; return the remainders to the fingers to symbolize the intercalary month. In five years, there are two intercalary months, so the remainders are returned twice before the stalks are set aside again."

By "randomly" dividing the stalks according to the Great Expansion method, one obtained one of four results based on the number remaining: Lesser Yang, Lesser Yin, Greater Yang, or Greater Yin. Each divination produced one line. After performing the Great Expansion Divination six times, the six lines were arranged from bottom to top to form a hexagram.

Diviners interpreted the hexagram by combining its image with the classic text, predicting how events would unfold.

Statistically, this could be viewed as a problem of probability. The probabilities of obtaining Lesser Yang, Lesser Yin, Greater Yang, and Greater Yin through the Great Expansion Divination were five-sixteenths, seven-sixteenths, three-sixteenths, and one-sixteenth, respectively. Thus, everything under Heaven was accounted for; it was just that the unknown algorithm was hidden too deeply, and would take time to uncover and understand.

Yu Fan worked for a long time before arriving at a hexagram. When he finished arranging the stalks, his expression turned grave. Seeing it,