What this change means
The fourth and top lines move, and the upper Wind becomes Lake: water rising over the trees until they're submerged. The top line leads with a warning: if discouragement makes you drop your project because results aren't visible yet, you'll lose what you've gained. The fourth line offers the counterweight, telling you that you're able to act as the situation requires, at a steady pace, and that regret can fall away. The resulting hexagram, 28 Excesses, describes a situation that calls for extraordinary measures to keep what you've built from collapsing. Check and strengthen the foundations, take innovative action, and step outside your comfort zone. This is no time to give up or play it safe. Use the capacity you have, reinforce what holds your work up, and stay with it.
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 57 Gentleness
If you lose heart and drop the project because you don't see results yet, you'll lose what you've gained.
Yielding beneath the bed. Loses goods and axe. Even with constancy, misfortune.
- Line 4 of 57 Gentleness
You're able to act as the situation requires, so go ahead, without haste but without delay, and you'll succeed.
Regret vanishes. In the hunt, three kinds of game are taken.
- The judgment of 57 Gentleness
It's a time when you'll gain and succeed through gentleness. This isn't the time for big actions, or for using pressure or force. It's a time to choose a path and stay on it steadily. Even if you don't see much progress, success will show itself through the build-up of small actions and through seeking the support of those above you.
Small success. It is favorable to have somewhere to go. It is favorable to see the great person.
- The judgment of 28 Excesses
You're in a situation that calls for extraordinary measures to keep what you've achieved from collapsing. Check and strengthen the foundations that hold up your projects, take innovative action and step out of your comfort zone. That way your success is assured; otherwise, loss can't be avoided.
The ridgepole sags. It is favorable to have somewhere to go. Success.
The trigrams
The way back
28 Excesses → 57 Gentlenesslines 4 and 6
Other transformations of Gentleness
- 37The Tribelines 1 and 2
- 61Inner Integritylines 1 and 3
- 20Observinglines 2 and 3
- 1Activitylines 1 and 4
- 33Leaving Behindlines 2 and 4
- 6Conflictlines 3 and 4
- 26Great Achievementslines 1 and 5
- 52Abidinglines 2 and 5
- 4Immaturitylines 3 and 5
- 50The Vessel of Nourishmentlines 4 and 5
- 5Inactionlines 1 and 6
- 39Held Backlines 2 and 6
- 29Waterlines 3 and 6
- 46Going Uplines 5 and 6
Make your own cast
The answer changes with the question. Toss the coins and see which lines move for you.