On the Great Expansion Milfoil Method: The Mathematical Ritual of Cosmic Genesis and Analysis of Authentic Divinations in the Zuo Zhuan
An in-depth analysis of the philosophical core, the detailed procedure of the Four Operations and Eighteen Transformations, and the mathematical mysteries of non-uniform probability in the Yijing's Great Expansion milfoil divination method, combined with the classic case of Duke Mu of Qin's campaign against Jin from the Zuo Zhuan (Duke Xi, Year 15) to reconstruct the hexagram-interpretation logic of the pre-Qin perspective.
VI. Conclusion
The Great Expansion Milfoil Method represents a grand attempt by the forebears of Chinese civilization to capture the rhythms of the cosmos through mathematical logic.
The fifty yarrow stalks in their hands were not mere plant stems but the physical embodiment of the "Number of the Great Expansion." Each division in two is a reenactment of Taiji giving rise to the Two Modes; each setting aside of one stalk is a symbol of humanity seeking its place between Heaven and Earth.
When we look back upon the divination performed before the Battle of Hanyuan by Duke Mu of Qin, what we see is not merely the miraculous prophecy of "capturing the male fox," but the courage of an ancient civilization that, facing the unknown tides of fate, sought to cast a net woven of reason (number) and intuition (image) to seize hold of the future.
Today, when we return to the study of the Great Expansion Milfoil Method, it is not necessarily to divine fortune and misfortune, but to feel, in the touch of our fingertips, that reverence and contemplation for the Great Way of Heaven and Earth that has traversed a thousand years to reach us.