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Chapter 2
The 12 Dates

There are 10 upper astrological dates and 12 lower dates:

The 10 upper dates are: I, II, III, iV, V, Vi, Vii, Viii, iX, and X.

The 12 lower dates are: t, c, y, m, cn, e, w, wa, s, yo, sh, and h.

The 10 upper dates are not as important as the 12 lower dates. So there really is no need to talk about the 10 upper dates in detail.  Let's focus on the 12 lower dates.   From now on, we call the 12 lower dates 'the 12 dates'.

The 12 dates

The elements of the 12 dates

So out of the twelve dates, t and h are water. (Remember these two as "tea" and "hydrogen".)

c, cn, wa, and sh dates are soil. (Remember c and cn as "crop" because both of them start with the letter "c". Crop grows out of the field. The field is full of soil. Remember wa as "way", which is the road. The road is paved on soil. Remember sh as "shake". Only the earth will shake (earthquake))

y and m are wood dates. (Remember y as "yard stick", and remember m as "measure". Both has to do with wood working.)

s and yo are metal dates. (Remember s as "steel" and yo as "Toyota." Why Toyota? Because cars are made out of metal.)

e and w are fire dates. (Remember e as "energy".  Fire is energy, right?  Remember w as "fire Work".)

You must remember the above dates well before you proceed to the next chapter, or else you will be confused later.

The twelve dates are also the twelve years, or the twelve months, or the twelve hours. We Chinese use twelve different animals to represent the twelve astrological years. In the traditional Chinese clocks, there are only twelve hours. Which means, each Chinese hour consists two of the regular hours. The 12 letters are 12 years, 12 months, 12 dates, or 12 hours. Each letter represents one of the five elements.

After you have threw the coins and got your hexagrams, you need to check the Chinese calendar to get the year, the month, and the date characters. The year, month, and the date will effect the strength of your hexagram's lines and stars. Each of the five elements kills or produces another element. Identifying the elements of the month and the date will allow you to measure the strength and weakness of your position on the hexagram.

Healthy, strong, weak, buried, and disappear

Fire kills metal.  Metal kills wood.  Wood kills soil.  Soil kills water.   And water kills fire.

You need to identify the strength of the elements.  For example:  Wood is healthy in the month of h, t, and c because these three months are watery.  Wood is the strongest in the month of y and m because these two months are the months of spring.  Wood is weak in e and w because these two months are the months of summer.  Wood is buried in wa because wa is the month of autumn.  Wood disappears in s, yo, and sh because these three months are the month of cold winter. 

Wood is the strongest in y and m.  But when is wood the weakest? 

• Answer:  Wood is the weakest in the month of s and yo because s and yo are metal elements.  (Metal kills wood.)

• When you toss the coins, you need to look up the Chinese calendar and record the month and the date.  If both the month and the date are metal, the wood element is considered dead.  If the month is metal and the date is water, the wood is still healthy.  If the month is metal and the date is fire, the wood is pretty weak.   If both the month and the date are water, the wood is extremely healthy.  If both the month and the date are wood, the wood is very strong.  If both month and date are soil, the wood is not weak and not strong.

A man threw coins asking if his sister will give birth safely. He got [Advance].

                         Advance
                        R   e    -
                        P   wa  - -
            Sister star B   yo   -  Self line
                        G   m   - -
                        R   e   - -
                        P   wa  - - U

The sister is appointed with the B yo line (metal) . The month (fire) is killing the B yo line, but the date (soil) is producing it. The sister will definitely be safe.  Tomorrow in the m hour, the baby will be born.

Result: Next day, the baby was born in exactly m hour. The reason why the baby was born in m hour is because the appointed sister star B yo is bounded to the date cn. In m hour, the bondage was struck loose. Thus the sister gave birth in that hour. Based on "The Golden Text", when there is a bondage, it must be broken with a strike for it to become effective.

A man asked about his son's illness. He got [Strip].

             G   y    -
             K   t   - - J (self line)
             P   sh  - -
             G   m   - -
             R   e   - - U
             P   wa  - -

Since this man is asking about his son, the main character here is the K star because K represents a child.  The self line K star bounds to the month. According to the ancient text, if the appointed is bounding to the month or to the date, the appointed is considered strong.  This is not true especially in this case. Although the month is bounding to the appointed, the month is a soil element which is killing the appointed K. The date is burying the K. By the way, if one throws the coins asking about illness or about marriage, bounding to the appointed by the date or by the month is a sign that the Lord is taking this person away. How can the kid live?  Wild Crane said that the kid will not live through the cn hour.

Result: Wild Crane was right again.

The 12 Dates

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If you would like to write your own I-Ching book after you have mastered I-Ching, please ask the author for permission to use all of our element symbols, date symbols, calendar indications, charts, and the names of the hexagrams.  We encourage an unification of English I-Ching symbols so more people can learn about I-Ching.