Hexagram 63, line 3
九三Line 3 of Already Crossed
Nine in the third place · 既濟 jì jì
爻辭 The line text
高宗伐鬼方，三年克之，小人勿用。The third line, undivided, (suggests the case of) Kâo Žung, who attacked the Demon region, but was three years in subduing it. Small men should not be employed (in such enterprises).
三年克之，憊也。'He was three years in subduing it:'—enough to make him weary.
In plain words
Line three is strong in a strong place at the top of the fire, the last line of the lower trigram, where the inner order is complete and the outer, the water, begins. Its text is history: 'Gaozong attacks the Guifang and subdues them in three years' — the Shang king Wu Ding's long war on a distant border, the one great undertaking that a completed state can still face. Three years is the measure of the cost, and the small Image says just that: 'weary' (憊也). The last clause, 'small men are not to be used', warns that an exhausting campaign must not be handed to those who will profit from it.
If this line is changing
If you take on the one big task that remains, budget for it to take far longer and cost far more than it looks, and be careful whom you let near 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 belongs to the lower trigram 離 Li (the Clinging) (fire).
- It corresponds (應) with line 6: one yin and one yang, the two lines answer each other across the hexagram.
之卦 When this line moves
既濟 Already Crossed becomes ䷂ 3 屯 Sprouting
Thunder under water: a sprout pushing through hard ground. Beginnings are chaotic and effortful; the growth is real, but it needs order and helpers.
What it becomes3 · 屯 SproutingzhūnThe six lines of 既濟 Already Crossed
- 初九Nine at the beginningbraking the wheel · wet tail · restraint at the start
- 六二Six in the second placelost carriage screen · do not chase · seven days
- 九三Nine in the third placethe long campaign · three years · exhaustion
- 六四Six in the fourth placerags for the leak · all-day vigilance · doubt
- 九五Nine in the fifth placeeast and west neighbours · the lavish and the sincere · timing
- 上六Six at the tophead under water · peril · cannot last
Read 既濟 Already Crossed for a question about
Questions about this line
- What does Nine in the third place of hexagram 63, Already Crossed, mean?
- Line three is strong in a strong place at the top of the fire, the last line of the lower trigram, where the inner order is complete and the outer, the water, begins. Its text is history: 'Gaozong attacks the Guifang and subdues them in three years' — the Shang king Wu Ding's long war on a distant border, the one great undertaking that a completed state can still face. Three years is the measure of the cost, and the small Image says just that: 'weary' (憊也). The last clause, 'small men are not to be used', warns that an exhausting campaign must not be handed to those who will profit from it.
- What does hexagram 63 become when line 3 changes?
- Already Crossed becomes hexagram 3, 屯 Sprouting: Thunder under water: a sprout pushing through hard ground. Beginnings are chaotic and effortful; the growth is real, but it needs order and helpers.
- Is line 3 of Already Crossed 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.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).