The 64 hexagrams · Hexagram 12

What does I Ching hexagram 12, Blocked, mean?

The judgment

否之匪人，不利君子貞，大往小來。Blocked by the wrong people. It doesn't pay the noble person to hold firm. The great goes and the small comes.Zhou Yi 周易, 否, judgment. Source

The image

天地不交，否；君子以儉德辟難，不可榮以祿。Heaven and earth do not meet. The noble person keeps to plain virtue, stays out of trouble and doesn't seek honour from pay.Zhou Yi 周易, 否, 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初六，拔茅茹以其彙，貞吉。亨。
2. Second line六二，包承，小人吉，大人否。亨。
3. Third line六三，包羞。
4. Fourth line九四，有命，无咎，疇離祉。
5. Fifth line九五，休否，大人吉。其亡其亡，繫于包桑。
6. Top line上九，傾否，先否後喜。

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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