Wonder how to make the right decision? The ancients figured out wealth fortune with a single hexagram.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a small merchant who dealt in silk fabrics. His surname was Wang, and people called him Wang Xiaosan. He wasn't particularly skilled, but he had a lot of nerve—he made every decision on a whim, sometimes making profits and sometimes suffering losses. He was a typical "luck-dependent player." That autumn, he was thinking about his business plan for the second half of the year two years later, and his heart was pounding: should he expand his shop, or stick to his old business and live a steady life?

Others might have gone to the street to find an old gentleman to divine for them, but Wang Xiaosan refused—he flipped through the *Book of Changes* himself, cast a hexagram using the three numbers 7, 8, and 9, and got "Mountain over Earth, Bo (Peeling Away)." The sixth line was a changing line, and the transformed hexagram was "Earth over Earth, Kun (The Receptive)."

Don't think that casting hexagrams is something mysterious. In essence, what the ancients played with was a set of decision-making models. Wang Xiaosan pondered over the hexagram for three days and actually sorted out his own financial fortune.

First, look at the original hexagram: upper Gen (Mountain) and lower Kun (Earth), both belonging to the earth element. Kun represents yourself, symbolizing your foundation, capital, and current state; Gen represents the matter, that is, the financial fortune you are asking about. Both are earth, which is called "mutual harmony"—to put it bluntly, you and this matter are compatible in energy, neither restrains the other, and there are no major obstacles. Some people always ask how to deal with difficult problems, but in fact, most of the time the difficulty is not in the matter itself, but in whether you are flustered. The greatest advantage of a situation where the body and function are in harmony is stability. If you don't court death, you won't die.

Then look at the composition of the lines: there are five yin lines and one yang line at the very top. What does it mean to have more yin lines? It means that now is not the time for you to charge forward recklessly; you must learn to hide. Just like wheat in the field, it has to be covered in winter and wait until spring to sprout. If you insist on pulling up the seedlings in winter, you can only eat roasted wheat seeds. Many people struggle with how to make the right decision, but the answer is actually very simple: first see if the general environment allows you to be reckless. When yin is dominant, you should hide your capabilities and bide your time, accumulate customers, capital, and connections, and don't try to get rich quick.

The inner hexagram is also Kun, exactly the same as the body hexagram. This is interesting—it means that during the intermediate process, you are not fighting alone. It might be partnering with peers, or old customers introducing new business; in any case, someone will give you a hand. Wang Xiaosan smiled when he saw this. He was usually loyal and had helped his peers a lot. It turned out that all these favors were waiting for him here.

The transformed hexagram is still Kun, with six neat yin lines. This means that when the matter develops to the end, it still returns to the word "stability." Don't expect the myth of getting rich overnight, and don't be afraid of the tragedy of losing everything. You reap what you sow; you get as much as you pay. If you want to make quick money, this hexagram is not for you; if you want to do business steadily and for the long term, this hexagram is a reassurance.

As for how to improve judgment, Wang Xiaosan later summed up an experience: don't fixate on "how much I can earn," first look at "how much I can bear." In a situation where the body and function are in harmony, what matters is not explosive power, but endurance. If you lay a solid foundation, wealth will come naturally. Just like farming, if you plow the land well and apply enough fertilizer, the harvest will never be too bad.

Later, in the second half of the year two years later, Wang Xiaosan did not expand his shop. Instead, he renovated the old shop and partnered with a few old friends to do wholesale business. He earned more money than in previous years and was not as tired as before. He told everyone he met that this hexagram was not about deducing financial fortune at all—it was clearly teaching you how to be a person: be steady, be able to bear burdens, know how to hide, and only then can you hold on to what you have in the end.

To put it bluntly, the wisdom of the *Book of Changes* never gives you a third eye to see the future; it hands you a mirror. When you sort out your thoughts through the hexagram, the answer is already in your heart.