Duration
- In Chinese
- 恆 héng
- Above
- The Arousing, thunder
- Below
- The Gentle, wind
Did you get this hexagram?
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Mark my castWhat hexagram 32 means
Hexagram 32 is thunder above and wind below. It stands for what lasts, which Legge calls “long continuance”.
The judgment is favorable. Legge has “successful progress and no error”, and he adds that “the advantage will come from being firm and correct”.
Legge gives its subject in one phrase. It is “perseverance in well doing, or in continuously acting out the law of one's being”.
The lines are harder than the judgment. Three of the six carry a verdict of evil, the first, the fifth and the top, and in the fifth the evil falls on the husband alone.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
恒亨。无咎。利貞。利有攸往。
DURATION. Success. No blame. Perseverance furthers. It furthers one to have somewhere to go.
success things flow and come throughno blame there is no mistake in itit furthers it is favorable
The image
雷風《恆》。君子以立不易方。
Thunder and wind: the image of DURATION. Thus the superior man stands firm And does not change his direction.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment takes its model from heaven and earth. In its words “The way of heaven and earth is to be long continued in their operation without stopping”.
Lasting here is not a halt. The same commentary reads the movement of the judgment as a round, so that “when (the moving power) is spent, it will begin again”.
It then gives examples of what lasts. One is “The four seasons, by their changing and transforming, can perpetuate their production (of things)”. Another is “The sages persevere long in their course, and all under the sky are transformed and perfect”.
The image is thunder and wind together. From it the commentary draws a rule for a person, who “stands firm, and does not change his method (of operation)”.
Wilhelm gives the same rule with another word. His superior man “stands firm And does not change his direction”.
Legge reports a reading that takes the hexagram as husband and wife keeping to their duties, and he does not fully accept it. He writes “I doubt whether such application of his teaching was in the mind of king Wăn”. His own reading is wider, of any two parties, an inferior and a superior. “If both be continuously observant of what is correct, the inferior being also submissive, and the superior firm, good fortune and progress may be predicated of their course.”
The six lines
First line
浚恆，貞凶，无攸利。
Seeking duration too hastily brings misfortune persistently. Nothing that would further.
misfortune it goes badlynothing that would further nothing is favorable
The first line wants what lasts before anything has had time to last. The commentary places the fault in “the deep seeking for it at the commencement (of things)”, and Wilhelm calls it “Seeking duration too hastily”.
Firmness does not save it, since the text finds evil “Even with firm correctness”. Legge's advice to its subject is that “He should be quiet, and not forward for action”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 34, Great Power
Second line
悔亡。
Remorse disappears.
remorse disappears regret fades away
The text of this line is a verdict and nothing else. The commentary supplies the reason, which is that “he can abide long in the due mean”.
Legge notes that the line is strong in the place of a weak one. Its place is central, though, and so the unfavourable condition “is more than counteracted”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 62, Small Exceeding
Third line
不恆其德，或承之羞，貞吝。
He who does not give duration to his character Meets with disgrace. Persistent humiliation.
humiliation it leads to embarrassment
This line shows “one who does not continuously maintain his virtue”. The commentary is severe and says “nowhere will he be borne with”.
Legge explains that the line is too strong and is drawn toward the top line, so that its subject is “ready to abandon his place and virtue”. Trying to be firm does not mend it, because “circumstances are adverse to him”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 40, Deliverance
Fourth line
田无禽。
No game in the field.
no verdict
The whole text is one picture, “a field where there is no game”. It carries no verdict. The commentary answers with a question, “(Going) for long to what is not his proper place, how can he get game?”
Wilhelm is as brief, with “No game in the field.” Legge notes that the line is strong in the place of a weak one.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 46, Pushing Upward
Fifth line
恆其德、貞，婦人吉，夫子凶。
Giving duration to one’s character through perseverance. This is good fortune for a woman, misfortune for a man.
good fortune it goes wellmisfortune it goes badly
This line keeps to its virtue without a break, and the text splits the verdict in two. It says “In a wife this will be fortunate; in a husband, evil.”
The commentary says of the wife that “it is hers to the end of life to follow with an unchanged mind”, and of the husband that he “must decide what is right, and lay down the rule accordingly”. Legge reads the line as a weak one that answers the strong second line, and he adds that a man “has to assert himself, and lay down the rule of what is right”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 28, Great Exceeding
Sixth line
振恆，凶。
Restlessness as an enduring condition brings misfortune.
misfortune it goes badly
The top line shows its subject “exciting himself to long continuance”. Wilhelm names the state “Restlessness as an enduring condition”.
Legge reads that here perseverance “has run its course”, and that “The violent efforts of its subject can only lead to evil”. The commentary adds “far will he be from achieving merit”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 50, The Cauldron
Hexagram 32 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 32 unchanging, what remains is the progress without error of the judgment, its condition of being firm and correct, and the image of a person who stands firm and keeps to one method.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 32 mean?
It stands for what lasts, and for perseverance in a course that is right. The judgment speaks of “successful progress and no error”, on the condition of “being firm and correct”.
What does hexagram 32 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 32 that is progress without error for the one who is firm and correct, and the image of a person who “stands firm”.
What does hexagram 32 changing to 34 mean?
It is hexagram 32 with its first line moving. That line shows a subject “deeply (desirous) of long continuance”, the text finds no advantage in it, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 34.
What does hexagram 32 changing to 50 mean?
It is hexagram 32 with its top line moving. That line shows a subject “exciting himself to long continuance”, the text finds evil in it, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 50.
Which trigrams form hexagram 32?
Thunder is above and wind is below. The commentary on the judgment describes them as “thunder and wind, which are in mutual communication”.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Hăng in James Legge. Duration in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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