The 64 hexagrams · Hexagram 1

What does I Ching hexagram 1, Heaven, mean?

The judgment

乾：元亨。利貞。Heaven: great success. It pays to hold firm.Zhou Yi 周易, 乾, judgment. Source

The image

天行健，君子以自強不息。Heaven moves strongly. The noble person keeps working without rest.Zhou Yi 周易, 乾, image. Source

The six lines

Read from the bottom up. In a cast, only the lines that move are read, and they turn the hexagram into another one. Here they are in the original; a reading translates the moving lines and reads them for the question asked.

1. First line初九：潛龍勿用。
2. Second line九二：見龍在田，利見大人。
3. Third line九三：君子終日乾乾，夕惕若；厲，无咎。
4. Fourth line九四：或躍在淵，无咎。
5. Fifth line九五：飛龍在天，利見大人。
6. Top line上九：亢龍，有悔。

乾 also has a seventh text, read when all six lines move: 用九：見羣龍无首，吉。

The Chinese is the received text of the Zhou Yi; the English is ours. Lines and images that speak of punishments, prisons, illness or money are left out. For entertainment and self-reflection.

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