Transformation · lines 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
Passivity becomes Overflowing
What this change means
The lake rises up to heaven: five lines move, and only the top stays yielding. The reading rests on that single still line of the resulting hexagram, 43 Overflowing. It warns that success is no time to relax: some people are quietly eroding what you've built, and that could cost you. Your patience has paid off, and the Earth has turned almost entirely to strength. But tension is building, and not everyone around you wishes you well. Bring what's happening into the open, carefully and without provoking; watch your words. Stay alert to quiet damage. Act generously to ease the pressure, and don't rest on what you've done. Success protected with attention tends to last; success left unguarded tends to leak away.
What to read, in order
Marked ● is what Zhu Xi's tradition puts at the center for this number of moving lines.
- Line 6 of 43 Overflowing, which stays still
In a moment of success and achievement you can't relax, because there are people undermining what you've achieved, and they'll lead you to loss.
No cry. In the end, misfortune.
- The judgment of 2 Passivity
This is not the time to take the initiative to achieve things. It's better to let others guide you and to keep at your projects with patience.
Great success. The constancy of a mare is favorable. The noble person has somewhere to go: going ahead, they lose the way; following behind, they find someone to guide them. It is favorable to find friends in the southwest and to lose them in the northeast. Calm constancy brings good fortune.
- Line 1 of 2 Passivity
Things can decline without anyone noticing. It's time to take precautions so the decline doesn't become total.
Frost underfoot. Firm ice is on its way.
- Line 2 of 2 Passivity
Quietly, without a lot of fuss, you can succeed.
Straight, square, great. Without learning it, nothing that is not favorable.
- Line 3 of 2 Passivity
What you do with perseverance and without showing off will be appreciated and recognized.
Holding its brightness within; it can stay constant. If it serves in the king's affairs, no achievement of its own, but a good end.
- Line 4 of 2 Passivity
Staying away from the noise, out of sight, is the best way to get what you want.
A bag tied at the neck. No fault, no praise.
- Line 5 of 2 Passivity
Right now success depends on acting with reserve. Your light shines from within.
A yellow skirt. Great good fortune.
- The judgment of 43 Overflowing
It's a time of excessive buildup: some situations are about to get out of control and overwhelm you, both personally and in your relationships. You need to bring what's happening into the open, but without speaking about it directly; watch your words so you don't provoke reactions. It's a time to act generously to ease the tension that's there.
It is proclaimed in the king's court. A sincere cry: there is danger. Word comes from one's own city. It is not favorable to take up arms. It is favorable to have somewhere to go.
The trigrams
The way back
43 Overflowing → 2 Passivitylines 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
Other transformations of Passivity
Make your own cast
The answer changes with the question. Toss the coins and see which lines move for you.