Transformation · lines 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6
Innocence becomes Right Action
What this change means
Everything but the fifth line moves, and Innocence becomes 48 Right Action, water drawn up over wood. That still line guides the reading: you see the openings around you, and your motivation and resolve to act are what bring success. The resulting hexagram adds the warning side. Opportunities are on your side now, but putting off decisions wastes them; it isn't about chasing new things but about using what you already have. Seen through Innocence, the well is the honest resource that's already there: your skills, your people, your situation. Draw on it. Don't wait for a perfect moment that won't come, and don't scatter yourself looking elsewhere. Act on the opening in front of you with clear motives, encourage the people around you, and help them help one another.
What to read, in order
Marked ● is what Zhu Xi's tradition puts at the center for this number of moving lines.
- Line 5 of 48 Right Action, which stays still
You recognize the opportunities around you and feel motivated and determined to act, which will bring success.
The well is clear: the cold spring is drunk.
- The judgment of 25 Innocence
If you act with a pure heart, free of hidden motives and without straying from what is right, true to original human nature, you'll let the blessings of heaven reach you. Otherwise you'll meet obstacles and your affairs will become difficult.
Great success. Constancy is favorable. If it is not upright, there is calamity. It is not favorable to have somewhere to go.
- Line 1 of 25 Innocence
Follow the way of the heart: it will always know what is right at each moment. This will lead you to success.
Without falseness. Going brings good fortune.
- Line 2 of 25 Innocence
Doing your work without thinking about what you'll get from it is the way to succeed.
Not plowing with the harvest in mind, not clearing land with the ripe field in mind: then it is favorable to have somewhere to go.
- Line 3 of 25 Innocence
Watch and act at the right time, because a good deed done at the wrong moment turns out badly.
An undeserved calamity: someone tied up an ox; the traveler takes it, and the calamity falls on the villagers.
- Line 4 of 25 Innocence
No one can take from you what belongs to you, so keep doing the right thing at the right time, and you'll reap the fruits.
Constancy is possible. No fault.
- Line 6 of 25 Innocence
If you try to force things without waiting for the right conditions, you'll go astray and delay getting what you want.
Without falseness. Moving on brings calamity. Nothing is favorable.
- The judgment of 48 Right Action
You're at a moment when opportunities are on your side. But if you don't know how to use them because you keep putting off decisions and actions, being in the right place at the right time won't do you any good. It's not about looking for new things but about making use of what you have, or there will be loss.
The town is changed, the well is not. Nothing lost, nothing gained. They come and go, and draw from the well. Nearly there, the rope does not yet reach the well; if the jar breaks, misfortune.
The trigrams
The way back
48 Right Action → 25 Innocencelines 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6
Other transformations of Innocence
Make your own cast
The answer changes with the question. Toss the coins and see which lines move for you.