One-Page Glossary
The vocabulary looks dense the first time — self and other lines, the Six Relatives, void, timing, all crammed together. Here's every term broken down, one plain sentence plus what it means for wealth or markets.
Unpacked, it's simpler than it looks
Liuyao has plenty of vocabulary, but every term describes something plain — who's related to whom, who has more strength right now, and when something is likely to happen.
This page isn't the deep dive — it's the lookup. Hit a term you don't know, find it here, get one sentence. Want more on any of them? Longer pieces cover each one.
Six Relatives (Liu Qin)
| Term | In plain English | What it means for wealth or markets |
|---|---|---|
| Where the Six Relatives come from | Not literal family — each line gets compared against the hexagram's own element, producing five roles that borrow the name Six Relatives | Sets who plays wealth and who plays opponent in this particular reading |
| Wealth line (Qi Cai, 妻财) | The thing you control, or that yields to you | Money and income itself; in markets, price and capital flow |
| Offspring line (Zi Sun, 子孙) | The thing you generate | Earning power, income sources, good fortune; in markets, bullish momentum |
| Sibling line (Xiong Di, 兄弟) | The thing that competes with you | Rivalry, wealth drained away, overhead; in markets, selling pressure |
| Parent line (Fu Mu, 父母) | The thing that looks after, and constrains, you | Paperwork, effort, worry; in markets, news flow and the broader market itself |
| Officer line (Guan Gui, 官鬼) | The thing that governs you | Career, pressure, risk; in markets, regulation and leverage |
One line to remember: whether you get it comes from relationship first. How much comes from strength — a separate question.
Self line (shi) and other line (ying)
| Term | In plain English | What it means for wealth or markets |
|---|---|---|
| Self line (shi) | The line standing in for you, the querent | Central to a personal wealth reading — whether you can catch the money starts here |
| Other line (ying) | The line standing in for the other party | Tells you whether a partner is reliable; loosely, the market or counterparty in a trading reading |
Self and other clashing = opposition, a deal falling apart. Self and other combining = a partnership that can hold.
Generating and controlling, two loops
| Cycle | Order | What it means for wealth or markets |
|---|---|---|
| Generating (clockwise) | Wood -> Fire -> Earth -> Metal -> Water -> Wood | The source line feeding the line you care about = backup on the way, e.g. Offspring feeding Wealth means the income source keeps flowing |
| Controlling (skip one) | Wood -> Earth -> Water -> Fire -> Metal -> Wood | The line working against you = getting squeezed, e.g. Sibling controlling Wealth means selling pressure is eating into the capital |
Same element on both sides = parallel, neither generating nor controlling — roughly equal footing.
Five stages of strength, wood as the example
| Stage | When it shows up (using wood) | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Thriving (wang) | Wood's own season — spring | At peak strength, biggest scale |
| Supported (xiang) | Fed by the season's element — winter, water feeds wood | Strong, with backing |
| Resting (xiu) | Feeding the season's element — summer, wood feeds fire, draining itself | Stepped back, not weak exactly |
| Trapped (qiu) | Working against the season's element — late-summer earth month, wood strains against earth | Being worn down, on the weaker side |
| Dead (si) | Controlled by the season's element — autumn, metal controls wood | About as weak as it gets |
Strength decides how much you get — not whether you get it. That question belongs to relationship, and it comes first.
What's moving, and what it becomes
| Term | In plain English | What it means for wealth or markets |
|---|---|---|
| Moving line | A line actively shifting, about to become a different line | The heart of the reading — sets direction, and outweighs a line that's just sitting still |
| Changed line | What the moving line turns into | The payoff of the chain of change — good or bad depends on what it changes into |
| Primary hexagram | The hexagram as cast, right now | Stands for the present, the process underway |
| Changed hexagram | The hexagram after every moving line has finished changing | Stands for what comes later, the direction things are heading |
Void — more than just not there
| Term | In plain English | What it means for wealth or markets |
|---|---|---|
| The void, xun kong | Every ten-day cycle leaves two branches with no day to call their own — land a line there and it's void | Absent, not-yet, running at a discount, or unsettled — not a verdict, just a delay |
Voids split into real and false — real ones are done, false ones are just postponed. More on that in The Void (Xun Kong).
When something is likely to land
| Term | In plain English | What it means for wealth or markets |
|---|---|---|
| Timing, ying qi | The point in time a hexagram points to for when something plays out | Arrival, a filled void, a jolted void, a changed line coming due — all common timing types |
More on that in Timing (Ying Qi).
Azure Dragon to Dark Warrior — six ways something happens
| Six Spirit | In plain English | What it means in markets |
|---|---|---|
| Azure Dragon | The auspicious, orderly one | Rising in a normal, expected way, with the grain of the trend |
| Vermilion Bird | Talk, paperwork, news | Volatility driven by headlines or data releases |
| Hook, Gou Chen | Earth-natured, sticky, slow to move | Delay, drag, old capital and old themes |
| Snake, Teng She | Tangled, indirect | Paired with a void: a fake-out meant to lure you in; without a void: a long, slow grind up or down |
| White Tiger | Violent, an amplifier | Direction-neutral — just turns up the intensity, on rallies and selloffs alike |
| Dark Warrior, Xuan Wu | Murky, hard to see clearly | Quiet distribution, deceptive price action, nothing announced |
The Six Spirits only answer how it happens — never up or down.
This page is the map, not the territory — every term here has a longer piece behind it, with more logic and more examples. If something still doesn't click, go read the full piece. No rush.
A note: a hexagram is a mirror that helps you see where you stand — not a verdict, and never a buy or sell signal. Everything here is framed as "how to read it" and "what to watch for"; none of it is investment advice. Markets carry their own risk, and the decision, with its consequences, stays yours.