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Published 1979, so far this seems to be the only reliable English presentation of the Plum Blossom system for consulting the Yijing (梅花易数, Meihua Yishu) which is attributed to the 11th century philosopher Shao Yong. This method is more popular in Chinese culture than the sticks and coins methods. It uses observation of the situation at hand (eg objects, directions, weather time, etc) to select the trigrams and find a moving line.
For anyone who uses this book: Note that Da Liu misses a step in his explanation of the “Later Heaven” formula. I quote I Ching scholar Harmen Mesker translation of the formula as stated by Shao Yong:
后天端法:以物为上卦,方位为下卦,合物卦之数与方卦之数,加时数以取动爻。
The Houtian rule: use Object as upper trigram, and Direction as lower trigram. Combine their numbers and add the number of the time to it to obtain the moving line.
Da Liu’s explanation leaves out the time element.