Chapter Four: An Qimin

One Monday of a certain month, I was running my business as usual. Just as I opened the door, I saw an elderly man sitting on the steps outside the shop. I gently tapped him, but there was no response; it seemed he had fallen asleep. Softly, I called out, “Hey, sir, wake up, wake up…” I called several times without any reaction. Then, I gave his shoulder a firm pat. He stood up immediately but swayed slightly, probably because he had been sitting too long. I helped steady him and said, “Hello, sir, what brings you here?”

He replied, “I’m looking for you, for my daughter.” His voice was firm, clearly someone who had served in the military.

I said, “Looking for me? I’m your daughter?”

He shook his head. “No. I’m looking for you to help find my daughter.”

I said, “Then aren’t I still your daughter? Look carefully, how could I be your daughter?”

He insisted, “No. I’m asking you to help me find my daughter.”

I said, “Oh…I see. Let’s not stand here outside. Come inside and talk.”

We went inside. I invited him to sit and poured him some water. “To be honest, I can’t help you with this. As you can see, this is a place for naming and fortune-telling. To find a missing person, you should report it to the police.”

He said, “It’s not that I don’t want to report it, I’m just afraid.”

I asked, “Afraid? Did you offend someone?”

He sighed, “It’s all my fault, my foolishness…”

His name was An Qimin, a veteran who had served in the army. He married a military doctor and had a daughter named An Mingshan. After demobilization, he opened a small shop in another city. His wife passed away early, so he spent his days smoking and drinking, often beating his daughter. On her eighth birthday, he shockingly sold her for 100,000 yuan to pay off his gambling debts. He deeply regretted it soon after. But since he knew he had trafficked his own child, he dared not report it. When he heard that my fortune-telling was especially accurate, he sought me out to help find his daughter and vowed to repent and live a new life once she was found.

I said, “You’re something else, selling your own flesh and blood for a gambling debt of 100,000 yuan! Spare me the niceties; save them for your daughter, and hope she can forgive you. Alright, I’ll try to divine her whereabouts. Do you have her birth details? I’d like to see.”

He took a piece of paper and wrote down An Mingshan’s name and her birthdates according to both the lunar and solar calendars. I cast her Eight Characters (Ba Zi) chart and saw that she was born under the Huagai star and had a Day Master of Shi Ling, indicating she was well-suited to study Buddhism, Taoism, or metaphysical arts.

I said, “Her chart shows she’s very suited to studying Buddhist or Taoist mysticism.”

He replied, “Rest assured, once you find my daughter, I’ll feel at peace knowing she’s safe. As for her future, let her choose her own path.”

I said, “That’s reassuring. Now, let me cast a hexagram.”

The result was the Gen hexagram, also known as the Stillness hexagram. I said, “Gen hexagram, signifying stillness and stability. Using the ‘Zi Sun’ (offspring) line as the key element, the ‘Zi Sun’ line of Shen metal overcomes the ‘Shi’ wood line. From this, I deduce the chances of finding her are very high…”

Before I finished, he interrupted, “As long as you find my daughter, I’ll serve you like a beast of burden.”

I said, “You flatter me too much. Leave your phone number so I can contact you. By the way, do you have a photo? It’ll help me confirm.”

He handed me a photo of a little girl standing in front of an amusement park entrance.

I said, “You must be joking. Born that year, she should be twenty-six now, right? Looks like she’s a year younger than me.”

He said, “That’s a photo from her eighth birthday at the amusement park. The very next day, I… sold her. This is the last photo I have.”

I said, “Well… alright. I’ll contact you as soon as I have news.” I slipped the photo into my pocket. Then he took out a wad of cash from his jacket pocket and placed it on the table. I counted it—it was mostly red bills, about four to five thousand yuan.

I said, “I really can’t accept this money. I haven’t found her yet; it wouldn’t feel right.”

He insisted I take it. I folded the money and put it back into his pocket, saying, “I truly don’t want this. How about this: I’ll accept payment after I find her, okay?” He said nothing and quietly left.

Looking at the situation, I muttered to myself, “Great. I was hoping for some peace in the days to come, but forget that. What kind of mess have I gotten myself into? Damn!”

As the saying goes: blessings never come in pairs, and misfortunes never come alone. With this matter unfolding, one troublesome event after another began to follow. These troubles didn’t just solve the immediate problems; they uncovered even greater dangers. One by one, these incidents revealed a shadowy, sinister organization and their dark conspiracy gradually coming to light…

Reader Q&A:

Q: Author, do you believe in the study of the I Ching?

A: Yes, I do. But this “belief” is a rational trust, not blind superstition.

Q: So, is this superstition?

A: Of course not. I began studying the I Ching at the age of twelve, and the more I studied, the more profound its mysteries appeared. The I Ching is a great and classic philosophical work of China, hailed as “the beginning of all classics, the ancestor of myriad methods, the source of the great way.” From the ancient Fuxi who devised the Eight Trigrams, to King Wen in the middle ages who authored the Zhou Yi, to Confucius who wrote the Yi Zhuan, and the generations of inherited commentaries, the I Ching has endured nearly 7,000 years without a single word changed.

Like the roots of a great tree, the I Ching forms the foundation and origin of Chinese culture and philosophy. It marks the beginning of the Hundred Schools of Thought. After the Qin and Han dynasties, no one could truly master this ancient text. Alongside the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, these three are considered the three great ancient texts. Hence, the I Ching is called “the beginning of all classics,” “the ancestor of myriad methods,” and “the source of the great way.” The five arts of divination, medicine, destiny analysis, physiognomy, and palmistry are merely branches and leaves sprouting from this great tree.

As the saying goes, “The I Ching in the East, the Bible in the West,” it is revered as the pinnacle of Eastern culture, just as the Bible is in the West. This alone shows the importance of the I Ching among world cultural classics.

It should be understood that disciplines like alchemy, traditional Chinese medicine, Ba Zi (Eight Characters), fortune-telling, feng shui, and physiognomy all rest on solid theoretical foundations. They have professional theories supporting them. In contrast, feudal superstitions are baseless nonsense masquerading under the guise of fortune-telling or feng shui, aimed solely at emptying the pockets of ordinary people.

The I Ching encompasses all phenomena and holds profound influence and guidance over Eastern civilization. Those who dismiss it as superstition either have never read it, cannot understand it, or have been misled by malicious gossip. Only by truly reading, understanding, and appreciating the wisdom and mysteries within the I Ching can such rumors be naturally dispelled.