Hexagram 56 旅 changing to hexagram 42 益
Changing lines (counted from the bottom): 1, 3, 4, 5.
What to read
Four changing lines: read the two unchanged lines of the resulting hexagram; the lower one is the main one. (Rule set out by Zhu Xi in the Yixue qimeng.)
Hexagram 42 益, line 2
或益之，十朋之龜弗克違，永貞吉。王用享于帝，吉。
The second line, divided, shows parties adding to the stores of its subject ten pairs of tortoise shells whose oracles cannot be opposed. Let him persevere in being firm and correct, and there will be good fortune. Let the king, (having the virtues thus distinguished), employ them in presenting his offerings to God, and there will be good fortune.
Hexagram 42 益, line 6
莫益之，或擊之，立心勿恆，凶。
In the sixth line, undivided, we see one to whose increase none will contribute, while many will seek to assail him. He observes no regular rule in the ordering of his heart. There will be evil.
The two hexagrams
Hexagram 56 旅 — judgment
小亨，旅貞吉。
Lii intimates that (in the condition which it denotes) there may be some little attainment and progress. If the stranger or traveller be firm and correct as he ought to be, there will be good fortune.
Hexagram 42 益 — judgment
利有攸往。利涉大川。
Yî indicates that (in the state which it denotes) there will be advantage in every movement which shall be undertaken, that it will be advantageous (even) to cross the great stream.
The changing lines of hexagram 56
| Line | Chinese | Legge |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 旅瑣瑣，斯其所取災。 | The first line, divided, shows the stranger mean and meanly occupied. It is thus that he brings on himself (further) calamity. |
| 3 | 旅焚其次，喪其僮僕，貞厲。 | The third line, undivided, shows the stranger, burning his lodging-house, and having lost his servants. However firm and correct he (try to) be, he will be in peril. |
| 4 | 旅于處，得其資斧，我心不快。 | The fourth line, undivided, shows the traveller in a resting-place, having (also) the means of livelihood and the axe, (but still saying), 'I am not at ease in my mind' |
| 5 | 射雉一矢亡，終以譽命。 | The fifth line, divided, shows its subject shooting a pheasant. He will lose his arrow, but in the end he will obtain praise and a (high) charge. |
English: James Legge (1882), public domain. Chinese: Zhou Yi.
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0); Chinese Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.