Hexagram 31 · Lower canon
Xian · Influence
Feel with your heart first; do not hurry to speak.
The figure
- Number
- 31 (Lower canon)
- Upper trigram
- Lake (Dui)
- Lower trigram
- Mountain (Gen)
- Keywords
- response · closeness · sincerity
- Reversed hexagram
- Sun · Decrease
- Inverted hexagram
- Heng · Duration
The meaning
What the name means Xian is response: the touch between one heart and another.
The picture A lake on a mountain, water wetting the mountain and the mountain receiving it, each feeling the other.
The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about moving each other. True response comes from sincerity and not from force. Lower yourself to listen and the other side has something to answer to.
In plain words: what this hexagram says
Two sides feel each other. Do not rush to conclusions; listen with your heart first. Sincere closeness moves people more than a deliberate show.
The upper trigram is Lake and the lower is Mountain: Lake above, Mountain 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
亨，利貞，取女吉。
The image
山上有澤，鹹；君子以虛受人。
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.
- 初六鹹其拇。
- 六二鹹其腓，兇，居吉。
- 九三鹹其股，執其隨，往吝。
- 九四貞吉悔亡，憧憧往來，朋從爾思。
- 九五鹹其脢，無悔。
- 上六鹹其輔頰舌。
To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".