Plum Blossom

Plum Blossom

Plum Blossom, in Chinese Mei Hua Yi Shui, is one of the main methods of I Ching divination, meaning divination using the 64 hexagrams. The plum blossom blooms in early spring, and gives the first sign that this season has arrived. That is why the name is a metaphor for knowing how to read the signs that the universe constantly sends us and following our intuition. Although it is an excellent method for intuitive minds, it also needs a solid foundation of Chinese metaphysics. The basis of this form of divination is the casting of a hexagram with a changing line. This means that one of the six lines of the hexagram obtained changes from yin to yang or from yang to yin.

The Plum Blossom is said to have been developed by the famous Chinese I Ching Shao Yong, also nicknamed Shao Kangjie or Yaofu. He lived in the Song dynasty, around 1000 AD, a golden period where the I Ching and all other arts and culture flourished in China. After a life of study, meditation and personal growth, he went to live for Luo Yang and when he died the legend says that he smiled and said "life and death are the most common things".