The Creative
- In Chinese
- 乾 qián
- Above
- The Creative, heaven
- Below
- The Creative, heaven
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 1 means
Hexagram 1 is six whole lines, heaven over heaven. It stands for the strength that begins things and does not tire.
The judgment is all praise. In Legge it names “what is great and originating, penetrating, advantageous, correct and firm”.
The six lines follow a dragon from the deep to the sky. The top line is the one warning, a dragon that has gone too far.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
乾元亨，利貞。
THE CREATIVE works sublime success, Furthering through perseverance.
success things flow and come throughit furthers it is favorable
The image
天行健，君子以自強不息。
The movement of heaven is full of power. Thus the superior man makes himself strong and untiring.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment treats this hexagram as the source. In its words “All things owe to it their beginning”.
The image is heaven in motion. From it the commentary draws a rule for a person, who “nerves himself to ceaseless activity”.
Wilhelm gives the same rule in fewer words. The superior man “makes himself strong and untiring”.
Legge explains the dragon of the lines. It has been “from the earliest time the emblem with the Chinese of the highest dignity and wisdom”.
Legge also notes that the judgment can be read as four qualities or as two, and he does not hide the doubt. He writes that “Both interpretations are possible”.
The six lines
First line
潛龍勿用。
Hidden dragon. Do not act.
no verdict
The dragon is still under water. The text says “It is not the time for active doing”, and the commentary gives the reason, a strong line “in the lowest place”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 44, Coming to Meet
Second line
見龍在田，利見大人。
Dragon appearing in the field. It furthers one to see the great man.
it furthers it is favorable
The dragon comes into view. The commentary reads it as influence that has spread, since “the diffusion of virtuous influence has been wide”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 13, Fellowship
Third line
君子終日乾乾，夕惕若厲。无咎。
All day long the superior man is creatively active. At nightfall his mind is still beset with cares. Danger. No blame.
danger there is dangerno blame there is no mistake in it
This is the one line without a dragon. It shows a person “active and vigilant all the day”, in a place the text calls “dangerous, but there will be no mistake”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 10, Treading
Fourth line
或躍在淵，无咎。
Wavering flight over the depths. No blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
The dragon is “as if he were leaping up, but still in the deep”. The commentary allows the step, since “if he advance, there will be no error”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 9, Small Taming
Fifth line
飛龍在天，利見大人。
Flying dragon in the heavens. It furthers one to see the great man.
it furthers it is favorable
The dragon is “on the wing in the sky”. The commentary reads it as the moment when “the great man rouses himself to his work”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 14, Great Possession
Sixth line
亢龍，有悔。
Arrogant dragon will have cause to repent.
there is remorse there is something to regret
The dragon has passed “the proper limits”. Legge reads that the ruler has done all there was to do and “it is time for him to relax”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 43, Breakthrough
When all six lines move
There appears a flight of dragons without heads. Good fortune.
Hexagram 1 has a seventh text, for the case in which all six lines move and the hexagram becomes number 2. It says “If the host of dragons (thus) appearing were to divest themselves of their heads, there would be good fortune”.
Legge reads it as the opposite of the top line. In his note “Force would have given place to submission, and haughtiness to humility”.
Hexagram 1 unchanging
If none of your six lines is moving, you read the hexagram as a whole. That is the judgment and the image above, without any of the line texts.
The book gives the reason. Lines that do not move are “non-moving lines, which serve only as structural matter in the hexagram, without intrinsic meaning of their own”.
For hexagram 1 unchanging, what remains is the praise of the judgment and the image of heaven in motion, which asks for effort that does not stop.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 1 mean?
It stands for strength that begins things and keeps going. The judgment names “what is great and originating, penetrating, advantageous, correct and firm”.
What does hexagram 1 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 1 that is the praise of the judgment and the call to be “strong and untiring”.
What does hexagram 1 changing to 2 mean?
It is hexagram 1 with all six lines moving. That case has its own text, about a host of dragons without heads, and it ends in “good fortune”.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Khien in James Legge. The Creative in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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