Hexagram 53 for work
Hexagram 53 Gradual Advance for work and career
At work Jian is the hexagram of the career built in order: the apprentice, the promotion that waits for the previous role to be mastered, the project that advances stage by stage. The Great Image says the superior person 'dwells in worthy virtue and improves the customs' — standing that comes from steady presence. The Tuan says why gradual advance succeeds: the lines reach their correct places as they advance (進得位), a movement that does not exhaust itself.
The lines are the stations of that advance. One is the new arrival criticised for being new; two is competence that has found its footing and its sponsor; three is ambition leaving its own kind for a shortcut; four is a role that does not fit, held by its one workable part. Five is real standing whose plans are delayed by intermediaries and come through in the end. Six is the senior whose way of working has become the house style. A changing line in the lower trigram is about getting established; one in the upper trigram is about patience where the delays are not personal.
The hexagram in brief
A tree on the mountain: gradual growth. The wild goose advances stage by stage — shore, rock, dry land, tree, hill, the heights — good fortune for a marriage, success through correctness.
Advance in order, each step consolidated before the next; slow and proper beats fast and shaky.
The judgment
漸：女歸吉，利貞。Kien suggests to us the marriage of a young lady, and the good fortune (attending it). There will be advantage in being firm and correct.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 漸 Gradual Advance has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginningthe shore · the young one · talked about
- 六二Six in the second placethe rock · eating at ease · earned
- 九三Nine in the third placedry land · going and not returning · defend together
- 六四Six in the fourth placethe tree · a flat branch · yielding
- 九五Nine in the fifth placethe hill · three years · what is wished
- 上九Nine at the topthe heights · feathers for ceremony · unconfused
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 53, Gradual Advance, mean for a career question?
- At work Jian is the hexagram of the career built in order: the apprentice, the promotion that waits for the previous role to be mastered, the project that advances stage by stage. The Great Image says the superior person 'dwells in worthy virtue and improves the customs' — standing that comes from steady presence. The Tuan says why gradual advance succeeds: the lines reach their correct places as they advance (進得位), a movement that does not exhaust itself.
- What does Hexagram 53, 漸 Gradual Advance, mean?
- A tree on the mountain: gradual growth. The wild goose advances stage by stage — shore, rock, dry land, tree, hill, the heights — good fortune for a marriage, success through correctness.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).