Life
Jing Fang (born Li, styled Junming) studied the Yijing under Jiao Yanshou in the Western Han and entered court service as a specialist in hexagram omens and calendar lore. He developed a system that pairs the sixty-four hexagrams with heavenly stems and earthly branches (najia) and with the musical pitch-pipes, linking divination to cosmology and politics. Fragments survive in the Jingshi yizhuan tradition. Later six-line (liuyao) and fire-pearl methods claim descent from his school. He was executed in a court intrigue at age forty; ORDL presents the transmitted system, not a full biography of the politics.
The system
- Najia: attaching stems and branches to hexagram lines.
- Hexagram qi and calendar correlations.
- Ancestral source claimed by later liuyao divination.
Key works
- Jingshi yizhuan (Jing Fang's Tradition of the Changes; transmitted fragments)
Where to start
- Start with a history of Han image-and-number Yijing studies, then a modern annotated Jingshi yizhuan.
Ask Orin
A question to start with. It opens in Orin ready to edit; nothing is sent until you press Send.
What is Jing Fang's najia system, and how does it relate to later six-line divination?Ask Orin this question