Wei Ji · Before Completion

The meaning

What the name means Wei Ji is not yet across: the thing is not finished.

The picture Fire over water, the fire going up and the water going down, each going its own way and not yet matched.

The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about the unfinished state. Because it is unfinished, everything is still possible. Tell things apart carefully, set them in place one by one, and be most careful with the last step.

In plain words: what this hexagram says

Not finished yet, still on the way. Do not lose heart, and do not hurry the ending; the last step needs the most care.

The upper trigram is Fire and the lower is Water: Fire above, Water 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，小狐汔濟，濡其尾，無攸利。

The image

火在水上，未濟；君子以慎辨物居方。

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. 初六濡其尾，吝。
2. 九二曳其輪，貞吉。
3. 六三未濟，徵兇，利涉大川。
4. 九四貞吉悔亡，震用伐鬼方，三年有賞於大國。
5. 六五貞吉無悔，君子之光，有孚吉。
6. 上九有孚於飲酒，無咎；濡其首，有孚失是。

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