Qian · The Creative

The meaning

What the name means Qian is heaven, and also strength that does not tire: a force that keeps turning and will not slacken.

The picture Heaven over heaven, nothing soft anywhere, all of it rising.

The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about beginning and self-strengthening. When you have the strength, the hard part is not using it but using it at the right time: stay low while you are still gathering, and even at the top leave yourself a way back.

In plain words: what this hexagram says

Like heaven, it keeps turning. Now is for building yourself up step by step, with no hurry to be seen; and once you are high, leave some room.

The upper trigram is Heaven and the lower is Heaven: Heaven above, Heaven below. When you read it, first picture the two together as a scene, then set it against the original below. The plain words speak only of stance and do not foretell.

The judgement

元亨利貞。

The image

天行健，君子以自強不息。

The six lines

From the bottom up, the first line is the lowest. When you cast this hexagram and a line is changing, read the matching one. The original is classical Chinese.

1. 初九潛龍勿用。
2. 九二見龍在田，利見大人。
3. 九三君子終日乾乾，夕惕若，厲無咎。
4. 九四或躍在淵，無咎。
5. 九五飛龍在天，利見大人。
6. 上九亢龍有悔。
7. 用九見群龍無首，吉。

To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".