The I Ching: A Beginner's Guide to the 64 Hexagrams by Gavin - HTML preview
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Wind over Thunder
Increase describes a moment when what is above willingly gives to what is below, so growth becomes real only through honest, well-timed action.
THE JUDGMENT
益：利有攸往，利涉⼤川。
Increase: it is favorable to have a direction to go, favorable to cross the great river.
THE IMAGE
风雷，益；君⼦以见善则迁，有过则改。
Wind and thunder together: Increase. The wise person, seeing good, moves toward it, and, seeing fault in themselves, corrects it.
WHAT THIS HEXAGRAM MEANS
In the received sequence, Increase follows Hexagram 41, Decrease. The Judgment text notes that giving and taking move in cycles: a long season of restraint eventually turns, and what was withheld begins to ow again.
Hexagram 42 marks that turning point, when resources, attention, or opportunity are nally released downward.
The Chinese name 益 means to add, to benet, or to enrich, and the hexagram is also translated as Gain or Increase throughout most editions.
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Its picture is Wind over Thunder: the upper trigram moves down toward the lower, and the lower trigram rises up to meet it, so the exchange runs in both directions rather than trickling from a single source. This is not increase by accumulation. It is increase produced when a superior shares real capacity with those it serves, and that gift is met with genuine effort rather than passive reception.
Because the gain here is earned through use, not stored for its own sake, the hexagram rewards action taken while conditions are favorable.
Waiting past the moment when help is offered, or accepting benet without a plan to apply it, wastes the opportunity the gure describes.
THE FIGURE
Hexagram 42 joins Wind above Thunder. Wind is gentle, penetrating movement; Thunder is sudden, energizing force. Together they show two kinds of motion reinforcing each other: what stirs below is carried further by what circulates above, so a single impulse compounds into lasting momentum rather than dissipating.
In the six-line diagram, counted from the bottom, one yang line forms the base, three yin lines rise through the middle, and two yang lines close the top. The lower trigram Zhen, Thunder, supplies initiating force; the upper trigram Xun, Wind, supplies sustained, adaptable follow-through.
Read together, the gure favors a decisive start that is then carried by patient, continuing effort.
THE SIX LINES
Read a line only if it came out moving (a 6 or a 9 in the coin method).
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A bold start earns its gain BOTTOM LINE
初九：利⽤为⼤作，元吉，⽆咎。
It is favorable to undertake great work: supreme good fortune, no blame.
The rst line describes the earliest moment of increase, when fresh capacity has just arrived and the eld is genuinely open for something substantial. This is not the position for a cautious, half-scaled attempt; the line explicitly favors great work, undertaken while the opening is wide. Hesitation here does not preserve the gain, it forfeits it, since increase offered at the base only becomes good fortune once it is put toward something worth the risk. When this line changes, Observation follows: after the bold beginning, the wiser move is to watch closely, gathering evidence about what actually happened before adding anything further.
2
An unrefusable gift, held with integrity SECOND LINE
六⼆：或益之⼗朋之⻳，弗克违，永贞吉。王⽤享于帝，吉。
Someone increases him with a tortoise shell worth ten pairs of cowries, and he cannot refuse it. Lasting steadfastness brings good fortune. The king makes offering to the Supreme Being: good fortune.
At the second line, a gift arrives that is too signicant to decline — support, resources, or recognition offered by someone with real standing. The line's counsel is not to earn or negotiate for it, but to receive it and then hold to lasting steadfastness, letting the gift's value be proven through your continued conduct rather than through gratitude performed once. Offering something back in genuine acknowledgment, as the king offers to the Supreme Being, keeps the exchange honest. The change to Heartfelt Trust shows that what is received in good faith should be met with equally sincere, quiet reliability in return.
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Gain spent on a real emergency THIRD LINE
六三：益之⽤凶事，⽆咎。有孚中⾏，告公⽤圭。
Increase is used to meet a calamity: no blame. Holding good faith and walking the middle path, one reports to the duke bearing the ceremonial jade tablet.
The third line places increase under pressure: resources here are used to meet a genuine calamity, not banked for comfort. This is not a wasteful use of what has accumulated — meeting real hardship with real support, honestly reported through proper channels, keeps the exchange free of blame. The danger is spending increase on manufactured urgency or private advantage while dressing it as necessity. When this line changes, the result is Household: the discipline learned in meeting one crisis directly translates into the ordinary, daily governance of the people and matters closest to you.
4
Consensus enables a major move FOURTH LINE
六四：中⾏告公从，利⽤为依迁国。
Walking the middle path, one reports to the duke and is followed: it is favorable to rely on this to move the capital.
At the fourth line, walking the middle path and reporting honestly wins the following you need, and that following is substantial enough to justify something as large as relocating the capital itself. This line rewards patient consensus-building before a big structural change, rather than pushing a major decision through unilaterally. What makes the move favorable is not authority alone but genuine agreement earned through honest reporting. The change to Genuineness conrms this: once support is real and freely given, the resulting action can proceed from unforced, natural conviction rather than persuasion or pressure.
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Generosity that needs no proof FIFTH LINE
九五：有孚惠⼼勿问，元吉。有孚惠我德。
Holding good faith and a generous heart, there is no need to ask: supreme good fortune. Good faith answers my own generous conduct.
The fth line describes increase at its most complete: a generous heart so evidently sincere that it requires no questioning, no verication, no negotiation.
This is the position of someone whose giving is trusted precisely because their conduct has already demonstrated it, so good faith answers good faith without the delay of asking. The line warns implicitly against manufacturing displays of generosity for effect; only conduct proven over time earns this kind of unquestioned trust. When this line changes, Sustenance follows, turning attention toward how that trust is nourished and maintained day to day, not just granted once.
6
Resolve that will not hold TOP LINE
上九：莫益之，或击之，⽴⼼勿恒，凶。
No one increases him; someone may even strike him. His resolve is not constant: misfortune.
The top line marks the collapse of increase: no one adds to this person any longer, and some may actively oppose them, because their resolve has stopped being constant. Whatever gain was gathered through the earlier lines is now at risk of being lost entirely, not through bad fortune but through a failure of steady commitment at the very point it mattered most. This line is a direct warning against wavering once the initial support or momentum has faded. The change to Sprouting shows the consequence plainly: what should have been secure growth reverts to the difficult, uncertain conditions of a fresh beginning.
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Breakthrough
夬 · Guài