Hexagram 61 for work
Hexagram 61 Inner Sincerity for work and career
At work Zhong Fu is credibility: the leader whose word is accepted because it has always matched his conduct, the proposal that carries because its author is believed. The Great Image shows the superior person who 'deliberates on cases and delays executions', slow to condemn, and the Tuan says the crossing of the great river is made 'in a boat that is empty', unloaded of pretence. For projects and negotiations the hexagram favours plain dealing over tactics: trust established at the centre does the binding that force cannot.
The lines show its working and its failures. The crane of line two is the reputation that spreads without being promoted; line four is the deputy who leaves an old alliance for the real centre; line five is the ruler who holds a team together by being consistent. Line three depends on one ally, and the top line is a reputation crowing above its substance. A changing line in the lower trigram asks whether your trust is well placed; one in the upper trigram asks whether your credibility still has substance.
The hexagram in brief
Wind over the lake: inner truth that moves even pigs and fishes. Good fortune, favourable to cross the great river — sincerity at the centre reaches what force cannot.
Let trust come from genuine inner alignment; it persuades the hardest audience, and it is wrecked by a single false note.
The judgment
中孚：豚魚吉，利涉大川，利貞。Kung Fû (moves even) pigs and fish, and leads to good fortune. There will be advantage in crossing the great stream. There will be advantage in being firm and correct.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 中孚 Inner Sincerity has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningsettled trust · no other · purpose unchanged
- 九二Nine in the second placethe calling crane · answered in kind · shared cup
- 六三Six in the third placedepending on another · drum and stop · weep and sing
- 六四Six in the fourth placemoon nearly full · losing the team-mate · mounting upward
- 九五Nine in the fifth placesincerity that binds · closest union · correct place
- 上九Nine at the topcock crowing at heaven · sound without substance · cannot last
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 61, Inner Sincerity, mean for a career question?
- At work Zhong Fu is credibility: the leader whose word is accepted because it has always matched his conduct, the proposal that carries because its author is believed. The Great Image shows the superior person who 'deliberates on cases and delays executions', slow to condemn, and the Tuan says the crossing of the great river is made 'in a boat that is empty', unloaded of pretence. For projects and negotiations the hexagram favours plain dealing over tactics: trust established at the centre does the binding that force cannot.
- What does Hexagram 61, 中孚 Inner Sincerity, mean?
- Wind over the lake: inner truth that moves even pigs and fishes. Good fortune, favourable to cross the great river — sincerity at the centre reaches what force cannot.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).