Hexagram 25, line 1
初九Line 1 of Without Falsehood
Nine at the beginning · 无妄 wú wàng
爻辭 The line text
无妄，往吉。The first line, undivided, shows its subject free from all insincerity. His advance will be accompanied with good fortune.
无妄之往，得志也。When 'he who is free from insincerity makes any movement,' he will get what he desires.
In plain words
The first line is the only one in Wu Wang that simply says 'go, and it is good'. It is a yang line in a yang place at the start of Zhen, the trigram of movement, and the Tuan commentary makes it the master of the whole hexagram: 'the firm comes from outside and becomes lord within' (剛自外來而為主於內). Movement that begins here has not yet been touched by calculation; it is innocence in its purest form, action because the time has come and not because of what one might get. The small Image says this is why it 'obtains its will' (得志) — a sincere beginning carries its own momentum.
If this line is changing
If the impulse to begin is honest and free of ulterior motive, act on it now; this is the one place in the hexagram where moving is plainly right.
Where the line stands
- A solid line, yang — written 九 (nine), the number of an old yang line that moves when cast.
- It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
- It belongs to the lower trigram 震 Zhen (the Arousing) (thunder).
- It has no correspondence (無應) with line 4: both lines are yang, so this line must find its support in its neighbours or in itself.
之卦 When this line moves
无妄 Without Falsehood becomes ䷋ 12 否 Blockage
Heaven and earth pulling apart: nothing communicates. The great departs, the small arrives; the unworthy prosper while the worthy keep still.
What it becomes12 · 否 BlockagepǐThe six lines of 无妄 Without Falsehood
- 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
Read 无妄 Without Falsehood for a question about
Questions about this line
- What does Nine at the beginning of hexagram 25, Without Falsehood, mean?
- The first line is the only one in Wu Wang that simply says 'go, and it is good'. It is a yang line in a yang place at the start of Zhen, the trigram of movement, and the Tuan commentary makes it the master of the whole hexagram: 'the firm comes from outside and becomes lord within' (剛自外來而為主於內). Movement that begins here has not yet been touched by calculation; it is innocence in its purest form, action because the time has come and not because of what one might get. The small Image says this is why it 'obtains its will' (得志) — a sincere beginning carries its own momentum.
- What does hexagram 25 become when line 1 changes?
- Without Falsehood becomes hexagram 12, 否 Blockage: Heaven and earth pulling apart: nothing communicates. The great departs, the small arrives; the unworthy prosper while the worthy keep still.
- Is line 1 of Without Falsehood in its correct place?
- It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).