Hexagram 55 as yes or no
Hexagram 55 Plenty as a yes-or-no answer
Feng answers a yes-or-no question with 'yes, now' — and with a clock running. The judgment is 亨, success, and tells the one who has reached fullness not to worry but to be the sun at noon; the Tuan's warning is that noon does not last. So the hexagram favours acting in the present abundance over waiting for a better moment, since there will not be one. What it warns against is overgrowth: the top line's house that got too large.
The changing line sharpens the answer. In the lower trigram: one says yes, with the partner who matches you; two says not by approaching, but by sincerity; three says no, you cannot be used under this darkness. In the upper trigram: four says yes, act with your equal; five says yes, by drawing the brilliant to you; six says no, and the thing you are asking about has already become an empty house.
The hexagram in brief
Thunder and lightning together: abundance. The king reaches it; no sorrow — be like the sun at noon. But the sun at noon begins to set: fullness is a moment, not a possession.
Use the peak to act and to be generous, and prepare for the natural decline without grief.
The judgment
豐：亨，王假之，勿憂，宜日中。Făng intimates progress and development. When a king has reached the point (which the name denotes) there is no occasion to be anxious (through fear of a change). Let him be as the sun at noon.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 豐 Plenty has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningmeeting one's match · equals · ten days
- 六二Six in the second placescreened · stars at noon · sincerity moves
- 九三Nine in the third placebanner-dark · broken arm · not for great things
- 九四Nine in the fourth placescreened again · meeting one's equal · act now
- 六五Six in the fifth placebrilliance comes · blessing and praise · the receptive ruler
- 上六Six at the tophouse too large · no one at the door · three years unseen
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Does hexagram 55, Plenty, mean yes or no?
- Feng answers a yes-or-no question with 'yes, now' — and with a clock running. The judgment is 亨, success, and tells the one who has reached fullness not to worry but to be the sun at noon; the Tuan's warning is that noon does not last. So the hexagram favours acting in the present abundance over waiting for a better moment, since there will not be one. What it warns against is overgrowth: the top line's house that got too large.
- What does Hexagram 55, 豐 Plenty, mean?
- Thunder and lightning together: abundance. The king reaches it; no sorrow — be like the sun at noon. But the sun at noon begins to set: fullness is a moment, not a possession.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).