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The Canon of Supreme Mystery

A scholar's study in Han China at night: on a black and red lacquer table lie a bundle of yarrow stalks and small heaps being counted, a roll of bamboo slips, a brush and ink stone, a bronze lamp and a mountain-shaped incense burner; through the lattice window, the moon over the rooftops of Chang'an.

About 4 BC, the scholar Yang Xiong wrote a rival to the I Ching. Where the I Ching uses six lines of two kinds, his Canon of Supreme Mystery uses four lines of three kinds, for Heaven, Earth and Man: 81 figures that follow the year from one midwinter to the next. You count yarrow stalks to find your figure, and the hour of the day tells you which of its verses to read.

How to consult

  1. Think of one clear question, and type it in if you like. It stays on your device.
  2. Check the time of day. The app picks it from your clock, but you can change it: morning, afternoon or evening.
  3. Tap Cast the stalks. The app counts 33 stalks in threes, the way Yang Xiong describes, and draws one line from each count, from the top down.
  4. Four counts give a four-line figure, one of the 81 Heads. You read its name and its Head text, then the three verses that belong to your time of day: one for the beginning, one for the middle and one for the end of your matter.
  5. Each verse is marked Favourable or Unfavourable, and a modern reading follows, with advice for love, work, home, health and journeys.
Heavena whole line · 7
Earthbroken once · 8
Manbroken twice · 9

Your question and answers stay on this device.

Your past answers
    How do we know?
    • ✔ A real book. Yang Xiong (53 BC–AD 18), a poet and philosopher at the Han court, wrote the Taixuan jing about 4–2 BC. It survives complete: 81 Heads, each with nine verses (Appraisals) and a short comment on each verse (the Fathomings).
    • ✔ Four lines of three kinds. 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 = 81 figures. The lines are read from the top down: Region, Province, Department and Family. The figures run in order through the year, beginning at the winter solstice, about four and a half days each.
    • ✔ The stalks. Yang's own "Numbers" commentary gives the method: 36 stalks, 3 set aside; take one into the hand, divide the rest into two heaps at random, count each heap off in threes, and keep the remainders. Do it twice, and the stalks left over, divided by 3, give 7, 8 or 9: Heaven, Earth or Man. The app does exactly this, so Man (9) comes up only about one time in nine.
    • ✔ The time of day. Yang says which three verses to read: in the morning 1, 5 and 7; in the evening 3, 4 and 8; at the "middle" times 2, 6 and 9.
    • ≈ What "middle" means. Yang does not say exactly which hours are morning, middle and evening. The app uses morning before noon, afternoon (the middle time) from noon to 6 pm, and evening after 6 pm. You can change it.
    • ≈ Favourable or not. Odd numbers are yang and even numbers are yin. When a verse matches its Head (both odd or both even), the sign is usually good; when they differ, usually bad. Yang broke this rule on purpose in some verses, to show that good conduct matters more than numbers, so read the words too.
    • ✔ Our translation. The English of the Head texts and verses is our own, made for this app from the Chinese. The modern readings are new interpretations.

    Chinese text: 揚雄《太玄經》, from Chinese Wikisource (public domain). Method and time of day: the "Numbers" (玄數) commentary, as explained in M. Nylan, The Canon of Supreme Mystery by Yang Hsiung (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993), pp. 12, 27–28. Also D. Walters, The Alternative I Ching (1983). English: our own.