Hexagram 42 · Lower canon
Yi · Increase
See the good and follow; find your fault and mend it.
The figure
- Number
- 42 (Lower canon)
- Upper trigram
- Wind (Xun)
- Lower trigram
- Thunder (Zhen)
- Keywords
- gain · growth · amending
- Reversed hexagram
- Heng · Duration
- Inverted hexagram
- Sun · Decrease
The meaning
What the name means Yi is increase, being helped, and also helping.
The picture Wind and thunder helping each other: the thunder stirs and the wind grows, the wind’s force lifts the thunder, each completing the other.
The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about benefit and being of benefit. Go with the current, learn from what is good and mend what is wrong. When you have received, think also of giving back.
In plain words: what this hexagram says
Someone is willing to help you and there is a chance to grow. Learn from what is good when you see it, and mend what you got wrong.
The upper trigram is Wind and the lower is Thunder: Wind above, Thunder 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
利有攸往，利涉大川。
The image
風雷，益；君子以見善則遷，有過則改。
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.
- 初九利用為大作，元吉，無咎。
- 六二或益之十朋之龜，弗克違，永貞吉。王用享於帝，吉。
- 六三益之用凶事，無咎。有孚中行，告公用圭。
- 六四中行，告公從。利用為依遷國。
- 九五有孚惠心，勿問元吉。有孚惠我德。
- 上九莫益之，或擊之，立心勿恆，兇。
To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".