Korean Yihak - Genius Young Master Cheongjae
Explore the principles of all things through 64 hexagrams
Fate via Chinese characters
Cezi(測字) is a traditional Chinese divination method that analyzes the strokes, structure, and five elements of a Chinese character to reveal fortune. Using the three methods of observing character form (觀字形), transforming into hexagram (字衍化易卦), and assessing the moment (占機), along with ten techniques including adding/removing strokes and structural decomposition, the character's hidden meaning is revealed.
Cezi is a traditional Chinese divination belonging to the bu (卜, divination) category of the Five Arts (五術: mountain, medicine, fate, physiognomy, divination). The asker writes down a single Chinese character, which is then decomposed and recombined to read the matter's fortune. It is also called chaizi (拆字), xiangzi (相字), or pozi (破字).
Cezi flourished greatly in the Song dynasty, when masters like Xie Shi (謝石) won fame for divining even affairs of the imperial court from a single character; the techniques were systematically compiled in the Qing dynasty's Cezi Bidie (測字秘牒) by Cheng Sheng (程省), regarded today as the standard manual of the art.
It is a divination built on the fact that a Chinese character holds not only meaning (義) but also form (形) and number (數). Even the same character reads differently depending on when it was written, what is asked, and the circumstances surrounding it.
Three methods form the foundation of cezi. Guan zixing (觀字形) judges by observing the character's shape and structure itself — whether the character stands upright or tilts, whether top-bottom and left-right balance — the first clue to fortune.
Zi yanhua yigua (字衍化易卦) converts the character's stroke counts into Yijing hexagrams: the strokes determine the upper and lower trigrams and draw a moving line, reading the direction of change the character carries in the language of the sixty-four hexagrams.
Zhanji (占機) reads the 'omen-moment' (機) in which the character appears — the principle that even the same character yields an accurate judgment only when the moment of writing, the content asked, and the circumstances at the instant of writing are read together.
The first scroll of Cezi Bidie enumerates the Ten Techniques. Zhuangtou (裝頭) adds strokes on top of a character to surface hidden meaning; baolong (包籠) wraps the character in another form; jiejiao (接腳) attaches strokes below; chuanxin (穿心) pierces through the middle; pojie (破解) splits and unfolds it — these are the first five.
The latter five are tianbi (添筆), adding strokes; jianbi (減筆), removing strokes; duiguan (對關), reading head against tail; zhaizi (摘字), reading only extracted strokes; and guanmei (觀梅), the free-association method handed down as Shao Yong's inner knack. The ten techniques form a system that refuses to take a character at face value — drawing out its true meaning through addition, subtraction, decomposition, and recombination.
After setting your question, write or enter a single Chinese character; the service looks up its stroke count, five-element, radical, and meaning, and decomposes its structure into left-right, top-bottom, inner-outer, standalone, or composite forms.
The stroke count is converted through zi yanhua yigua into an upper trigram, lower trigram, and moving line — one of the sixty-four hexagrams — then fortune is judged in five grades from daji (great fortune) to daxiong (great misfortune), weighing elemental balance and structural stability, followed by a detailed interpretation.
Cezi is a traditional art of reading that synthesizes a character's form, number, and meaning. The grade is only the character's bearing on this question at this moment — not the fortune of the character itself.
The same character reads differently when the matter and the time differ — that is the very principle of cezi. Please use the result as material for self-review and a reference for direction.
Cezi Bidie (測字秘牒) — three methods (觀字形·字衍化易卦·占機), ten techniques (裝頭·包籠·接腳·穿心·破解·添筆·減筆·對關·摘字·觀梅), character stroke, five-element, and structure analysis, traditional Chinese 五術 卜 divination
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Cezi is a traditional Chinese divination belonging to the bu (卜, divination) category of the Five Arts (五術: mountain, medicine, fate, physiognomy, divination). The asker writes down a single Chinese character, which is then decomposed and recombined to read the matter's fortune. It is also called chaizi (拆字), xiangzi (相字), or pozi (破字).
Three methods form the foundation of cezi. **Guan zixing (觀字形)** judges by observing the character's shape and structure itself — whether the character stands upright or tilts, whether top-bottom and left-right balance — the first clue to fortune.
The first scroll of Cezi Bidie enumerates the Ten Techniques. **Zhuangtou (裝頭)** adds strokes on top of a character to surface hidden meaning; **baolong (包籠)** wraps the character in another form; **jiejiao (接腳)** attaches strokes below; **chuanxin (穿心)** pierces through the middle; **pojie (破解)** splits and unfolds it — these are the first five.
Cezi(測字), Korean Yihak - Genius Young Master Cheongjae, Jiaobei(擲筊), Liushijiazi(六十甲子籤), Xiao Liu Ren(小六壬), Ziwei Doushu, Meihua Yishu