After Completion
- In Chinese
- 既濟 jìjì
- Above
- The Abysmal, water
- Below
- The Clinging, fire
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 63 means
Hexagram 63 is fire below and water above. Its six lines alternate whole and broken from the bottom up, and the commentary on the judgment finds them “correctly arranged, each in its appropriate place”.
It describes the time after a great task has been carried through. Legge pictures a crossing already made, in which “The vessel of the state has been brought safely across the great and dangerous stream”.
What is left is small work and a warning. The judgment grants “progress and success in small matters” and then adds “There has been good fortune in the beginning; there may be disorder in the end.”
The judgment and the image
The judgment
既濟亨。小利貞。初吉終亂。
AFTER COMPLETION. Success in small matters. Perseverance furthers. At the beginning good fortune, At the end disorder.
success things flow and come throughit furthers it is favorablegood fortune it goes well
The image
水在火上，《既濟》。君子以思患而豫防之。
Water over fire: the image of the condition In AFTER COMPLETION. Thus the superior man Takes thought of misfortune And arms himself against it in advance.
What the commentaries say
Legge explains the name through its two characters. The first is “a symbol of being past or completed”, and the second “denotes primarily crossing a stream, and has the secondary meaning of helping and completing”.
The commentary on the judgment says where the disorder comes from. At the end “there is a cessation (of effort)”, because “the course (that led to rule and order) is (now) exhausted”.
The same commentary traces the good fortune of the beginning to one line. Its reason is that “the weak (second line) is in the centre”.
Legge asks the question a reader would ask, and answers it. “Does anything remain to be done still? Yes, in small things.”
He also says how that small work is done. The ruler goes on “without noise or clamour”, and “ever keeping in mind the instability of all human affairs”.
The image is water set over fire, and the commentary draws foresight from it. The superior man “thinks of evil (that may come), and beforehand guards against it”. Wilhelm has him take thought of misfortune and arm himself “against it in advance”.
The six lines
First line
曳其輪，濡其尾，无咎。
He brakes his wheels. He gets his tail in the water. No blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
The first line holds back right after the achievement. Legge calls this moment “the time for resting and being quiet”, and he reads the fox as one who “will not tempt the stream again”. The text finds no error, and the commentary agrees that “there will be no mistake”.
Legge states the rule behind both pictures. “For a season, at least, all movement should be hushed.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 39, Obstruction
Second line
婦喪其茀，勿逐，七日得。
The woman loses the curtain of her carriage. Do not run after it; On the seventh day you will get it.
no verdict
A wife has lost the screen of her carriage and is told not to go after it. Legge reads that she does not advance “so soon after success has been achieved”, and that she will “keep herself hidden and retired”. The commentary credits the finding to “the central position (of the line)”.
Legge takes the seven days as the six lines run through, followed by “a new period, when action will be proper”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 5, Waiting
Third line
高宗伐鬼方，三年克之，小人勿用。
The Illustrious Ancestor Disciplines the Devil’s Country. After three years he conquers it. Inferior people must not be employed.
no verdict
The third line recalls a sovereign and his long campaign. Legge says the strong line suggests “one undertaking a vigorous enterprise”. The text says he “was three years in subduing it”, and the commentary adds that this was “enough to make him weary”. Legge sums up that the enterprise “may have been good, and successful, but it was tedious”. The line closes with a caution against employing small men.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning
Fourth line
繻有衣袽，終日戒。
The finest clothes turn to rags. Be careful all day long.
no verdict
The fourth line is the first of the upper trigram, water. Its subject keeps “rags provided against any leak (in his boat)” and stays “on his guard all day long”. Legge reads that he “will be cautious, and prepare for evil”, and the commentary says “he is in doubt about something”.
Wilhelm words the picture differently. In his version “The finest clothes turn to rags”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 49, Revolution
Fifth line
東鄰殺牛，不如西鄰之禴祭實受其福。
The neighbor in the east who slaughters an ox Does not attain as much real happiness As the neighbor in the west With his small offering.
no verdict
Two neighbours sacrifice. One slaughters an ox and the other makes a small offering, and the text says it is the second “whose sincerity receives the blessing”. Legge explains that “the second excels in sincerity, and his small offering is the more acceptable”. The commentary on the line gives another reason, the time of the offering.
Legge takes the neighbour in the east as the subject of this line and the neighbour in the west as the subject of line 2. This line is strong and that one is weak, and he remarks that “weakness is more likely to be patient and cautious than strength”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light
Sixth line
濡其首，厲。
He gets his head in the water. Danger.
danger there is danger
The top line shows its subject with “(even) his head immersed”, and the text calls the position perilous. Legge compares it to “attempting to cross a ford, and being plunged overhead into the water”. Legge calls the action “violent and perilous”. The commentary only asks “how could such a state continue long?”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 37, The Family
Hexagram 63 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 63 unchanging, what remains is the judgment, with its success in small matters and its warning about the end, and the image that asks for guarding against trouble before it comes.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 63 mean?
It describes the time after something has been accomplished, when only small things remain to be done and care is still needed. The judgment says “There has been good fortune in the beginning; there may be disorder in the end.”
What does hexagram 63 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 63 that is success in small matters, a warning about the end, and the advice to guard “beforehand” against what may come.
What does hexagram 63 changing to 37 mean?
It is hexagram 63 with its top line moving. That line shows its subject with “(even) his head immersed”, in a position the text calls perilous, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 37.
What does hexagram 63 changing to 5 mean?
It is hexagram 63 with its second line moving. That line tells the wife who lost her screen that “There is no occasion to go in pursuit of it”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 5.
How is hexagram 63 related to hexagram 64?
Hexagram 64 follows it in the sequence. It is also what hexagram 63 becomes when every line is changed, when the figure is turned upside down, and when its inner lines are read as a hexagram of their own.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Kî Žî in James Legge. After Completion in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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