Hexagram 32, line 6
上六Line 6 of Constancy
Six at the top · 恆 héng
爻辭 The line text
振恆，凶。The topmost line, divided, shows its subject exciting himself to long continuance. There will be evil.
振恆在上，大无功也。'The subject of the topmost line is exciting himself to long continuance:'—far will he be from achieving merit.
In plain words
'Shaking constancy: misfortune.' The top line is yin at the summit of Zhen, thunder at its most violent, and it tries to be constant by constantly moving — 振 is to shake, to rouse, to agitate. This is the end of the hexagram, where duration has become its own caricature: a person who cannot stay still mistakes their restlessness for perseverance. The small Image judges it: 'agitated constancy at the top — great lack of achievement' (大無功也). Cheng Yi observes that what should be enduring, the ruler's steadiness, is here replaced by an anxious need to keep doing something, and nothing lasts because nothing is allowed to settle.
If this line is changing
If your way of being steadfast is to keep stirring things up, it is not steadfastness; stop generating movement and let what you have built stand still long enough to hold.
Where the line stands
- A broken line, yin — written 六 (six), the number of an old yin 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 upper trigram 震 Zhen (the Arousing) (thunder).
- It corresponds (應) with line 3: one yin and one yang, the two lines answer each other across the hexagram.
之卦 When this line moves
恆 Constancy becomes ䷱ 50 鼎 Cauldron
Fire over wood: the cauldron that cooks the offering. Supreme success — the vessel that turns raw into cooked, nourishing the wise and settling the new order after a revolution.
What it becomes50 · 鼎 CauldrondǐngThe 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 Six at the top of hexagram 32, Constancy, mean?
- 'Shaking constancy: misfortune.' The top line is yin at the summit of Zhen, thunder at its most violent, and it tries to be constant by constantly moving — 振 is to shake, to rouse, to agitate. This is the end of the hexagram, where duration has become its own caricature: a person who cannot stay still mistakes their restlessness for perseverance. The small Image judges it: 'agitated constancy at the top — great lack of achievement' (大無功也). Cheng Yi observes that what should be enduring, the ruler's steadiness, is here replaced by an anxious need to keep doing something, and nothing lasts because nothing is allowed to settle.
- What does hexagram 32 become when line 6 changes?
- Constancy becomes hexagram 50, 鼎 Cauldron: Fire over wood: the cauldron that cooks the offering. Supreme success — the vessel that turns raw into cooked, nourishing the wise and settling the new order after a revolution.
- Is line 6 of Constancy 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).