Hexagram 25 as yes or no
Hexagram 25 Without Falsehood as a yes-or-no answer
Wu Wang answers a yes-or-no question with a question of its own: is the thing you want to do straight? The judgment is unusually two-sided — 'great success, favourable to be correct' on one side, 'if not correct, there is error, not favourable to go anywhere' on the other. The hexagram does not reward cleverness; it rewards doing what the situation plainly calls for and refusing what would need a bent motive. If you can say honestly that the step is sincere and in season, the answer leans yes.
The changing line decides the timing. Line one is the clearest yes in the hexagram; line two says go, provided you are not doing it for the payoff. Line three and line five both describe trouble that is not your fault, and both advise against reacting — the answer to 'should I intervene?' is no. Line four says hold what you have and do not expand. The top line is a plain no: the moment has passed, and acting on principle now only produces error.
The hexagram in brief
Thunder under heaven: things moving by their innate nature. Great success for what is correct and unplanned; scheming brings misfortune, and some misfortune simply arrives undeserved.
Act from sincerity without calculation; when the unexpected strikes, don't medicate what needs no medicine.
The judgment
无妄：元亨，利貞。其匪正有眚，不利有攸往。Wû Wang indicates great progress and success, while there will be advantage in being firm and correct. If (its subject and his action) be not correct, he will fall into errors, and it will not be advantageous for him to move in any direction.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 无妄 Without Falsehood has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningsincere start · go forward · the will fulfilled
- 六二Six in the second placeno harvest in mind · unforced work · ready for anything
- 六三Six in the third placeundeserved loss · the tethered ox · wrong place
- 九四Nine in the fourth placehold firm · no partner · what is yours
- 九五Nine in the fifth placeunprovoked trouble · do not meddle · it passes
- 上九Nine at the toptime exhausted · do not act · innocence overstretched
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Does hexagram 25, Without Falsehood, mean yes or no?
- Wu Wang answers a yes-or-no question with a question of its own: is the thing you want to do straight? The judgment is unusually two-sided — 'great success, favourable to be correct' on one side, 'if not correct, there is error, not favourable to go anywhere' on the other. The hexagram does not reward cleverness; it rewards doing what the situation plainly calls for and refusing what would need a bent motive. If you can say honestly that the step is sincere and in season, the answer leans yes.
- What does Hexagram 25, 无妄 Without Falsehood, mean?
- Thunder under heaven: things moving by their innate nature. Great success for what is correct and unplanned; scheming brings misfortune, and some misfortune simply arrives undeserved.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).