Hexagram 53, line 5
九五Line 5 of Gradual Advance
Nine in the fifth place · 漸 jiàn
爻辭 The line text
鴻漸于陵，婦三歲不孕，終莫之勝，吉。The fifth line, undivided, shows the geese gradually advanced to the high mound. (It suggests the idea of) a wife who for three years does not become pregnant; but in the end the natural issue cannot be prevented. There will be good fortune.
終莫之勝，吉；得所愿也。'In the end the natural issue cannot be prevented. There will be good fortune:'—(the subject of the line) will get what he desires.
In plain words
The goose comes to the high hill. Line five is the ruler, yang and central in the upper trigram, and it corresponds to the yin line at two — the proper match. But between them lie three and four, each clinging to the other, and the union is delayed: 'the wife for three years does not conceive.' The three years are the three lines of separation. Then: 終莫之勝, in the end nothing can overcome it, auspicious. The small Image says the ruler 得所願, gets what it wished for. This is the hexagram's thesis in one line: the proper correspondence is slowed, not stopped, by what comes between.
If this line is changing
The right connection is being delayed by things that stand between, not by anything wrong in it; keep faith with it for as long as it takes, because what is properly matched outlasts what obstructs it.
Where the line stands
- A solid line, yang — written 九 (nine), the number of an old yang 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 is central (中): the middle line of its trigram, the position the commentaries read as balanced and most favourable.
- It belongs to the upper trigram 巽 Xun (the Gentle) (wind).
- It corresponds (應) with line 2: one yin and one yang, the two lines answer each other across the hexagram.
之卦 When this line moves
漸 Gradual Advance becomes ䷳ 52 艮 Stillness (Mountain)
Mountain upon mountain: keeping still. Still the back so the self is not felt, walk in the courtyard without seeing the people — rest at the right time, move at the right time.
What it becomes52 · 艮 Stillness (Mountain)gènThe six lines of 漸 Gradual Advance
- 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
Read 漸 Gradual Advance for a question about
Questions about this line
- What does Nine in the fifth place of hexagram 53, Gradual Advance, mean?
- The goose comes to the high hill. Line five is the ruler, yang and central in the upper trigram, and it corresponds to the yin line at two — the proper match. But between them lie three and four, each clinging to the other, and the union is delayed: 'the wife for three years does not conceive.' The three years are the three lines of separation. Then: 終莫之勝, in the end nothing can overcome it, auspicious. The small Image says the ruler 得所願, gets what it wished for. This is the hexagram's thesis in one line: the proper correspondence is slowed, not stopped, by what comes between.
- What does hexagram 53 become when line 5 changes?
- Gradual Advance becomes hexagram 52, 艮 Stillness (Mountain): Mountain upon mountain: keeping still. Still the back so the self is not felt, walk in the courtyard without seeing the people — rest at the right time, move at the right time.
- Is line 5 of Gradual Advance 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. It is central (中): the middle line of its trigram, the position the commentaries read as balanced and most favourable.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).