Hexagram 63, line 4
六四Line 4 of Already Crossed
Six in the fourth place · 既濟 jì jì
爻辭 The line text
繻有衣袽，終日戒。The fourth line, divided, shows its subject with rags provided against any leak (in his boat), and on his guard all day long.
終日戒，有所疑也。'He is on his guard all the day:'—he is in doubt about something.
In plain words
Line four is yin in its correct place at the bottom of the water, the first line of the outer trigram, where a completed order starts to meet the element that can undo it. Its image is a boat: fine silk and 'rags for stopping leaks', kept ready, and the one aboard 'on guard all day long'. Nothing has gone wrong yet; the whole text is about preparation against what might. This is the Great Image enacted — 'thinking of trouble and guarding against it in advance' — and the small Image gives its inner state as 'having something to doubt' (有所疑也). In Ji Ji, doubt at the right time is a virtue.
If this line is changing
Nothing has failed, and that is exactly when to check the hull; keep your patches ready and your attention on the small leak that has not appeared yet.
Where the line stands
- A broken line, yin — written 六 (six), the number of an old yin 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 upper trigram 坎 Kan (the Abysmal) (water).
- It corresponds (應) with line 1: 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 ䷰ 49 革 Reform
Fire in the lake: two that extinguish each other — change is forced. A revolution is believed only after it is done; supreme success when the time is ripe and the cause is right.
What it becomes49 · 革 ReformgéThe 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 Six in the fourth place of hexagram 63, Already Crossed, mean?
- Line four is yin in its correct place at the bottom of the water, the first line of the outer trigram, where a completed order starts to meet the element that can undo it. Its image is a boat: fine silk and 'rags for stopping leaks', kept ready, and the one aboard 'on guard all day long'. Nothing has gone wrong yet; the whole text is about preparation against what might. This is the Great Image enacted — 'thinking of trouble and guarding against it in advance' — and the small Image gives its inner state as 'having something to doubt' (有所疑也). In Ji Ji, doubt at the right time is a virtue.
- What does hexagram 63 become when line 4 changes?
- Already Crossed becomes hexagram 49, 革 Reform: Fire in the lake: two that extinguish each other — change is forced. A revolution is believed only after it is done; supreme success when the time is ripe and the cause is right.
- Is line 4 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).