Hexagram 31 for work
Hexagram 31 Sensing for work and career
In work the image of Xian is the mountain that stays still while the lake above it responds: an organisation, a team or a market that answers to a leader who listens. The Great Image says the superior person 'receives people with an empty heart' — influence at work comes from being open to what others bring, not from pushing. The judgment's promise of success is tied to steadiness, and the lines show what happens when response outruns substance: moving before one is called, following the crowd, or persuading with words alone.
For a project, a job or a negotiation, the hexagram favours building rapport first and keeping the initiative modest. The strongest position is the fourth line's steady centre; the weakest is the top line, all talk. A changing line in the lower trigram usually means the time to act has not arrived; one in the upper trigram asks whether the response you are getting is real or only polite.
The hexagram in brief
Lake on the mountain: the mountain yields and the lake moistens it — mutual attraction. Success; taking a wife brings good fortune; influence that comes from genuine, emptied-out receptiveness.
Let attraction be sincere and unhurried; influence others by openness rather than calculation.
The judgment
咸：亨，利貞，取女吉。Hsien indicates that, (on the fulfilment of the conditions implied in it), there will be free course and success. Its advantageousness will depend on the being firm and correct, (as) in marrying a young lady. There will be good fortune.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 咸 Sensing has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginningfirst stirring · intention · too early
- 六二Six in the second placerestlessness · stay put · wait to be moved
- 九三Nine in the third placefollowing others · impulse · regret
- 九四Nine in the fourth placethe heart · steadiness · scattered thoughts
- 九五Nine in the fifth placethe back · no regret · beyond feeling
- 上六Six at the topwords only · the mouth · shallow influence
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 31, Sensing, mean for a career question?
- In work the image of Xian is the mountain that stays still while the lake above it responds: an organisation, a team or a market that answers to a leader who listens. The Great Image says the superior person 'receives people with an empty heart' — influence at work comes from being open to what others bring, not from pushing. The judgment's promise of success is tied to steadiness, and the lines show what happens when response outruns substance: moving before one is called, following the crowd, or persuading with words alone.
- What does Hexagram 31, 咸 Sensing, mean?
- Lake on the mountain: the mountain yields and the lake moistens it — mutual attraction. Success; taking a wife brings good fortune; influence that comes from genuine, emptied-out receptiveness.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).