Hexagram 32, line 4
九四Line 4 of Constancy
Nine in the fourth place · 恆 héng
爻辭 The line text
田无禽。The fourth line, undivided, shows a field where there is no game.
久非其位，安得禽也。(Going) for long to what is not his proper place, how can he get game?
In plain words
'Hunting in the field: no game.' Four characters, and a whole situation: effort spent faithfully in a place where nothing can be caught. Line four is yang in a yin place, the first line of Zhen, strong and active but not where it belongs; its correspondent, the weak first line, is 'dredging' for depth below and cannot help it. The small Image draws the moral of the hexagram's shadow side: 'staying long in a place that is not one's own — how could one get game?' (久非其位，安得禽也). Constancy is not a virtue in itself; constancy in the wrong field is just a long way of failing.
If this line is changing
Persistence is not the answer here because the place is wrong; stop hunting where there is nothing, and move your effort to ground where it can land.
Where the line stands
- A solid line, yang — written 九 (nine), the number of an old yang line that moves when cast.
- It is not in its correct place (不當位): a yang line in an even position or a yin line in an odd one, which the tradition reads as a line under some strain — often the reason a text sounds a warning.
- It belongs to the upper trigram 震 Zhen (the Arousing) (thunder).
- It corresponds (應) with line 1: one yin and one yang, the two lines answer each other across the hexagram.
之卦 When this line moves
恆 Constancy becomes ䷭ 46 升 Ascending
Wood growing within the earth: ascending. Supreme success; see the great man; a march to the south brings good fortune — growth by steady, unforced effort.
What it becomes46 · 升 AscendingshēngThe six lines of 恆 Constancy
- 初六Six at the beginningdigging too deep · too much too soon · the start
- 九二Nine in the second placeregret vanishes · long in the centre · steady despite the place
- 九三Nine in the third placeinconstant · shame follows · nowhere welcome
- 九四Nine in the fourth placeno game in the field · wrong place · persistence wasted
- 六五Six in the fifth placeconstant in virtue · to follow one · to decide for oneself
- 上六Six at the topagitated constancy · shaking at the top · no achievement
Read 恆 Constancy for a question about
Questions about this line
- What does Nine in the fourth place of hexagram 32, Constancy, mean?
- 'Hunting in the field: no game.' Four characters, and a whole situation: effort spent faithfully in a place where nothing can be caught. Line four is yang in a yin place, the first line of Zhen, strong and active but not where it belongs; its correspondent, the weak first line, is 'dredging' for depth below and cannot help it. The small Image draws the moral of the hexagram's shadow side: 'staying long in a place that is not one's own — how could one get game?' (久非其位，安得禽也). Constancy is not a virtue in itself; constancy in the wrong field is just a long way of failing.
- What does hexagram 32 become when line 4 changes?
- Constancy becomes hexagram 46, 升 Ascending: Wood growing within the earth: ascending. Supreme success; see the great man; a march to the south brings good fortune — growth by steady, unforced effort.
- Is line 4 of Constancy in its correct place?
- It is not in its correct place (不當位): a yang line in an even position or a yin line in an odd one, which the tradition reads as a line under some strain — often the reason a text sounds a warning.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).