Approach
- In Chinese
- 臨 lín
- Above
- The Receptive, earth
- Below
- The Joyous, lake
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 19 means
Hexagram 19 is the earth above the lake. Two whole lines stand at the bottom and move up toward the four broken lines above them.
Legge keeps the Chinese name, Lin, and explains what it denotes. In his note it is “the approach of authority,--to inspect, to comfort, or to rule”.
The judgment promises much and then sets a limit. Legge has “great progress and success”, and after it “In the eighth month there will be evil”.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
臨元亨，利貞。至于八月有凶。
APPROACH has supreme success. Perseverance furthers. When the eighth month comes, . There will be misfortune.
success things flow and come throughit furthers it is favorablemisfortune it goes badly
The image
澤上有地，《臨》。君子以教思无窮，容保民无疆。
The earth above the lake: The image of APPROACH. Thus the superior man is inexhaustible In his will to teach, And without limits In his tolerance and protection of the people.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment starts from the shape of the figure. It sees “the strong (lines) gradually increasing and advancing”, and it notes that “The strong (line) is in the central position, and is properly responded to”. Great success joined to firm correctness it calls “the way of Heaven”.
The same commentary explains the warning about the eighth month in plain terms. The meaning is that “(the advancing power) will decay after no long time”.
Legge draws the lesson from both halves of the judgment. The two strong lines are sure to succeed, yet their action “must be governed by rectitude, however, and by caution grounded on the changing character of all conditions and events”.
The image is the water of a marsh with the earth above it. From it the commentary draws a rule for the superior man, who “has his purposes of instruction that are inexhaustible, and nourishes and supports the people without limit”.
Wilhelm gives the same two duties. The superior man is “inexhaustible In his will to teach”, and he is “without limits In his tolerance and protection of the people”.
Legge also places the hexagram in the calendar. He writes that “Lin is the hexagram of the twelfth month”.
The six lines
First line
咸臨，貞吉。
Joint approach. Perseverance brings good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
The first whole line does not advance alone. It goes “in company” with the second, and the commentary puts its good fortune down to “his will being set on doing what is right”. Legge names the risk, that its subject “may be more strong than prudent”, and reads the call for firm correctness as a caution against it.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 7, The Army
Second line
咸臨吉，无不利。
Joint approach. Good fortune. Everything furthers.
good fortune it goes wellnothing that does not further everything is favorable
The second line advances with the first, and the text finds this “in every way advantageous”. Legge notes that a strong line should be in an odd place, but that here this is “more than counterbalanced by the central position, and its correlate in line 5”. The commentary gives a reason of its own, that those to whom the advance is made “are not yet obedient to the ordinances (of Heaven)”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 24, Return
Third line
甘臨，无攸利；既憂之，无咎。
Comfortable approach. Nothing that would further. If one is induced to grieve over it, One becomes free of blame.
nothing that would further nothing is favorableno blame there is no mistake in it
This is the first of the broken lines, and the text finds no advantage in its action. Its subject is “well pleased (indeed) to advance”, and Legge explains that the line is “weak, and neither central, nor in its correct position”. He traces the pleasure to the place of the line at the top of the lower trigram, “which means being pleased”. The way out is worry. In Legge's note “Anxious reflection will save him from error”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 11, Peace
Fourth line
至臨，无咎。
Complete approach. No blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
Legge has this line “advancing in the highest mode”, and Wilhelm calls it “Complete approach.” Legge gives the reason. The line “though weak, is in its proper place, and has for its correlate the strong 1”. The commentary says the same in fewer words, that the freedom from error “is due to the (various) appropriateness of the position”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 54, The Marrying Maiden
Fifth line
知臨，大君之宜，吉。
Wise approach. This is right for a great prince. Good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
The fifth place is the place of the ruler, and here a broken line holds it. Legge sees in it “a symbol of authority distrustful of itself, and employing fit agents”. The text calls this “the advance of wisdom”, and the commentary reads what befits the great ruler as keeping to “the course of the due mean”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 60, Limitation
Sixth line
敦臨吉，无咎。
Greathearted approach. Good fortune. No blame.
good fortune it goes wellno blame there is no mistake in it
The top line shows “the advance of honesty and generosity”, which Wilhelm names “Greathearted approach.” The commentary says the will of this line is set on the first two lines of the inner trigram. Legge places the line at the end of the upper trigram, “the height therefore of docility”, and adds that “it belongs to the Yin to seek for the Yang”. The text gives it good fortune and no error.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 41, Decrease
Hexagram 19 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 19 unchanging, what remains is the judgment, with its great success, its call to be firmly correct and its warning about the eighth month. The image adds teaching that does not run out and support for the people without limit.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 19 mean?
It describes strength that is growing and drawing near, with success ahead and a limit in view. The judgment has “great progress and success”, and it ends with “In the eighth month there will be evil”.
What does hexagram 19 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 19 that is great success held with firm correctness, the warning about the eighth month, and the image of teaching and support without limit.
What does hexagram 19 changing to 24 mean?
It is hexagram 19 with its second line moving. That line advances in company with the first, in a way the text calls “in every way advantageous”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 24.
What is the eighth month in hexagram 19?
The commentary on the judgment takes it as a sign that the advance does not last. Its words are “(the advancing power) will decay after no long time”. Legge passes on an explanation from a writer of the Ming dynasty, for whom the phrase is used “to indicate the period of the coming of what is Yin”.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Lin in James Legge. Approach in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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