Hexagram 46 for love
Hexagram 46 Ascending in love and relationships
Sheng is wood growing inside the earth: a seedling pushing upward through soil, unhurried and unstoppable. The Tuan reads it as 'the soft ascending with the time' (柔以時升), compliant below and yielding above, with the strong line at two answered by the ruler at five. In a relationship this is a bond that deepens by steady accumulation — the Great Image's 'piling up the small to reach the high and great' (積小以高大) — a feeling that grows roots before it grows height.
For a question about love the hexagram is favourable and patient. Line one says the rise is welcomed by the other side; line two says sincerity matters more than display; line five is the bond that goes up step by step. The warnings are at the edges: line three's empty city is an advance no one resists, and the top line keeps climbing after there is nowhere to go. A changing line in the lower trigram is about how you are growing toward the other; in the upper, about where the two of you have arrived.
The hexagram in brief
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.
Rise step by step like a tree, accumulating small gains, and let those who can help see you.
The judgment
升：元亨，用見大人，勿恤，南征吉。Shăng indicates that (under its conditions) there will be great progress and success. Seeking by (the qualities implied in it) to meet with the great man, its subject need have no anxiety. Advance to the south will be fortunate.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 升 Ascending has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginningwelcomed ascent · trusted rise · same mind above
- 九二Nine in the second placesincerity · the small offering · joy
- 九三Nine in the third placethe empty city · unopposed · no hesitation
- 六四Six in the fourth placeoffering on Mount Qi · service that fits · the king's trust
- 六五Six in the fifth placeascending the steps · steadiness · great success
- 上六Six at the topclimbing in the dark · ceaseless steadiness · wealth that wanes
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Is hexagram 46, Ascending, a good sign for love?
- Sheng is wood growing inside the earth: a seedling pushing upward through soil, unhurried and unstoppable. The Tuan reads it as 'the soft ascending with the time' (柔以時升), compliant below and yielding above, with the strong line at two answered by the ruler at five. In a relationship this is a bond that deepens by steady accumulation — the Great Image's 'piling up the small to reach the high and great' (積小以高大) — a feeling that grows roots before it grows height.
- What does Hexagram 46, 升 Ascending, mean?
- 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.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).