Xu · Waiting

The meaning

What the name means Xu is waiting, and also needing: waiting well in the place where waiting is right.

The picture Cloud rising into the sky, the rain still up there; what is coming is on its way and for now you can only store up.

The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about patient waiting. Waiting is not idling: it is steadying body and mind and preparing what can be prepared. When the time comes the rain falls by itself, and whoever could not wait is the one who jumps into the danger.

In plain words: what this hexagram says

The time has not come, so wait. Waiting is not idling: it is steadying body and mind and preparing what can be prepared.

The upper trigram is Water and the lower is Heaven: Water 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

有孚，光亨，貞吉。利涉大川。

The image

雲上於天，需；君子以飲食宴樂。

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. 初九需於郊，利用恆，無咎。
2. 九二需於沙，小有言，終吉。
3. 九三需於泥，致寇至。
4. 六四需於血，出自穴。
5. 九五需於酒食，貞吉。
6. 上六入於穴，有不速之客三人來，敬之終吉。

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