Breakthrough
- In Chinese
- 夬 guài
- Above
- The Joyous, lake
- Below
- The Creative, heaven
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 43 means
Hexagram 43 is five whole lines under a single broken line at the top, the lake over heaven. Legge writes that king Wăn saw in the broken line a small or bad man who lends his power to a corrupt government, and in the five whole lines the representatives of good order.
The subject, in Legge's words, is “how bad men, statesmen corrupt and yet powerful, are to be put out of the way”.
The judgment asks for openness and warns against a rush to arms. The guilt is shown in the royal court, and “it will not be well to have recourse at once to arms”.
For the one who goes about it in this way the judgment ends well. Legge has “there will be advantage in whatever he shall go forward to”.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
夬揚于王庭，孚號有厲，告自邑。不利即戎，利有攸往。
BREAK-THROUGH. One must resolutely make the matter known At the court of the king. It must be announced truthfully. Danger. It is necessary to notify one's own city. It does not further to resort to arms. It furthers one to undertake something.
danger there is dangerit does not further it is not favorableit furthers it is favorable
The image
澤上於天，《夬》。君子以施祿及下，居德則忌。
The lake has risen up to heaven: The image of BREAK-THROUGH. Thus the superior man Dispenses riches downward And refrains from resting on his virtue.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment names the hexagram in a few words. It is “the symbol of displacing or removing”, and what is seen in the figure is “the strong (lines) displacing the weak”. The commentary adds “There is displacement, but harmony (continues)”.
The same commentary gives the reason for not turning to arms. If he does, “what he prefers will (soon) be exhausted”.
The commentary also values the sense of danger that the judgment asks for. In its words “it is the realisation of this danger, which makes the method (of compassing the object) brilliant”. It sets a limit as well, since “when the growth of the strong (lines) has been completed, there will be an end (of the displacement)”.
Legge retells the judgment in his notes. The one who acts must “openly denounce the criminal in the court, seek to awaken general sympathy, and at the same time go about his enterprise, conscious of its difficulty and danger”.
Legge sums up the method. The one who takes on the task must work “by the force of his character more than by force of arms, and by producing a general sympathy on his side”.
The image is the water of a marsh risen above heaven. From it the commentary draws a rule about giving. The superior man “bestows emolument on those below him, and dislikes allowing his gifts to accumulate (undispensed)”.
Wilhelm words the second half of the rule in another way. The superior man “Dispenses riches downward And refrains from resting on his virtue”.
Legge places the hexagram in the calendar. It belongs to “the third month, when the last remnant, cold and dark, of winter, represented by the sixth line, is about to disappear”.
The six lines
First line
壯于前趾，往不勝，為咎。
Mighty in the forward-striding toes. When one goes and is not equal to the task, One makes a mistake.
no verdict
The first line is strength in the toes, and it moves before it is ready. The text says “He goes forward, but will not succeed”, and the commentary calls this “an error”. Legge gives the reason, that “The stage of the enterprise is too early, and the preparation too small to make victory certain”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 28, Great Exceeding
Second line
惕號，莫夜有戎，勿恤。
A cry of alarm. Arms at evening and at night. Fear nothing.
no verdict
The second line is on guard and calls for help. The text allows that hostile steps may come late at night, “but he need not be anxious about them”. The commentary says why, “he pursues the course of the due mean”. Legge adds that his eagerness is tempered, so that “he is cautious, and no attempts, however artful, to harm him will take effect”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 49, Revolution
Third line
壯于頄，有凶。君子夬夬，獨行遇雨、若濡，有慍无咎。
To be powerful in the cheekbones Brings misfortune. The superior man is firmly resolved. He walks alone and is caught in the rain. He is bespattered, And people murmur against him. No blame.
misfortune it goes badlyno blame there is no mistake in it
The third line shows its purpose in its face, and the text says “There will be evil”. Legge reads that its subject “displays his purpose too eagerly”. Then the line turns. The superior man “will walk alone and encounter the rain”, and the text adds that his own associates hate him as if the others had contaminated him.
Legge explains the rain. Lines 3 and 6 answer to each other, and “the meeting of yin and yang lines is associated with falling rain”. So the subject of the third line “communicates with 6, in a way that annoys his associates”. The line closes without blame. In the commentary “there will in the end be no error”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 58, The Joyous
Fourth line
臀无膚，其行次且。牽羊悔亡。聞言不信。
There is no skin on his thighs, And walking comes hard. If a man were to let himself be led like a sheep, Remorse would disappear. But if these words are heard They will not be believed.
remorse disappears regret fades away
The fourth line shows a person who has been beaten and “who walks slowly and with difficulty”. The commentary says “he is not in the place appropriate to him”. Legge reads the remedy and the obstacle together. “Alone he can do nothing; if he could follow others, like a sheep led along, he might accomplish something, but he will not listen to advice.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 5, Waiting
Fifth line
莧陸夬夬，中行无咎。
In dealing with weeds, Firm resolution is necessary. Walking in the middle Remains free of blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
The fifth line is the ruler's seat, and it stands next to the broken line at the top. The small men are “a bed of purslain, which ought to be uprooted with the utmost determination”. Legge explains the plant, which “grows in shady places”. Action in keeping with the central place leads “to no error or blame”.
The commentary holds something back, since the ruler's “standing in the due mean is not yet clearly displayed”. Legge admits a doubt of his own. He writes that “the symbolism in this line is not easily managed”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 34, Great Power
Sixth line
无號，終有凶。
No cry. In the end misfortune comes.
misfortune it goes badly
The top line is the one broken line, the weak line that the five strong lines displace. Its subject is “without any (helpers) on whom to call”, and the text says “His end will be evil”. The commentary adds that “he cannot continue any longer”. Legge is brief. The subject of this line, “standing alone, may be easily disposed of”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 1, The Creative
Hexagram 43 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 43 unchanging, what remains is the judgment, which asks for an open case and a sincere appeal made with a sense of the danger and without a rush to arms. Beside it stands the image, which asks that gifts be passed down and not stored up.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 43 mean?
It describes the removal of a wrong that still holds power, done in the open and without a rush to force. The commentary on the judgment calls it “the symbol of displacing or removing”.
What does hexagram 43 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 43 that is the open case made without a rush to arms, and the rule that the superior man “bestows emolument on those below him”.
What does hexagram 43 changing to 1 mean?
It is hexagram 43 with its top line moving. That line shows a subject “without any (helpers) on whom to call”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 1, six whole lines.
What does hexagram 43 changing to 34 mean?
It is hexagram 43 with its fifth line moving. That line compares the small men to “a bed of purslain”, to be uprooted with determination, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 34.
Why does hexagram 43 warn against using force?
The commentary on the judgment answers that with arms “what he prefers will (soon) be exhausted”. Legge adds that the one who acts must make it understood “how unwillingly he takes up arms”.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Kwâi in James Legge. Break-through in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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