Hexagram 63, line 6
上六Line 6 of Already Crossed
Six at the top · 既濟 jì jì
爻辭 The line text
濡其首，厲。The topmost line, divided, shows its subject with (even) his head immersed. The position is perilous.
濡其首厲，何可久也。'His head is immersed; the position is perilous:'—how could such a state continue long?
In plain words
The top line is yin at the extreme of the water and of the hexagram, and the fox that wet its tail at the first line now 'wets its head'. The crossing is over, the order is complete, and this line has kept going until it is in over its head; the text says peril. It is the Judgment's 'disorder at the end' and the Tuan's 'when the end is a stopping, there is confusion' — not because anything attacks the finished order, but because the one who completed it did not know when to stop. The small Image asks 'how could it last?' (何可久也). The last line of the completed hexagram is already the first of its undoing.
If this line is changing
You are past the finish and still pushing; step back onto the bank now, because what you are holding onto cannot be held much longer.
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 3: 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 ䷤ 37 家人 Household
Wind coming out of fire: the household. Favourable for steadfastness within the home; when the roles in a family are right, the wider world is set right.
What it becomes37 · 家人 Householdjiā rénThe 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 at the top of hexagram 63, Already Crossed, mean?
- The top line is yin at the extreme of the water and of the hexagram, and the fox that wet its tail at the first line now 'wets its head'. The crossing is over, the order is complete, and this line has kept going until it is in over its head; the text says peril. It is the Judgment's 'disorder at the end' and the Tuan's 'when the end is a stopping, there is confusion' — not because anything attacks the finished order, but because the one who completed it did not know when to stop. The small Image asks 'how could it last?' (何可久也). The last line of the completed hexagram is already the first of its undoing.
- What does hexagram 63 become when line 6 changes?
- Already Crossed becomes hexagram 37, 家人 Household: Wind coming out of fire: the household. Favourable for steadfastness within the home; when the roles in a family are right, the wider world is set right.
- Is line 6 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).