I Ching · King Wen 32
Hexagram 32: Duration
䷟ 恆 Héng · also called Persevering, Constancy, The Long Enduring · The Arousing above The Gentle
What lasts: the marriage after the courtship, movement that renews itself, constancy with a direction.
constancyendurancecommitmentrenewaldirection
The meaning of Hexagram 32
Wind below, thunder above: the two that always move together. Where Influence is the courtship, Duration is the marriage: the enduring union, the long practice, the thing that lasts because it keeps moving in a consistent direction. The tradition's judgement promises success, no blame, and the value of having somewhere to go. Duration is not standing still. Thunder and wind endure by moving; the seasons endure by changing. The reading says the situation asks for constancy of purpose, for not being distracted into novelty or worn into rigidity, and it promises that what keeps its direction keeps its life.
The image. Thunder and wind; the wise person stands firm and does not change direction.
- Advice
- Keep your direction and renew your movement; constancy is alive, not fixed.
- Warning
- Constancy without direction becomes rigidity; movement without constancy becomes restlessness.
over
Structure: ☴ The Gentle (Wind) below, ☳ The Arousing (Thunder) above. Nuclear hexagram 43, Breakthrough. Every line reversed: 42, Increase.
Hexagram 32 for love and relationships
The long relationship, and what keeps it alive: constancy with movement. Not the same every day, but the same direction every day. The reading favours commitment and warns against both restlessness and dead routine.
Hexagram 32 for career
Persistence in a chosen path. The reading supports staying with the work and renewing it from inside, and warns against jumping to the new thing when the old one has simply reached a hard stretch.
Hexagram 32 for money
Steady, long-term, consistent. Duration favours the plan you can maintain for years over the one that is exciting for a season. Keep the direction and let time compound it.
Hexagram 32 for decisions
Choose the option you can hold to for a long time, and then hold to it. The reading is against sudden changes of course and equally against a constancy that has become inertia.
The six changing lines
Read from the bottom. A changing line flips, and the hexagram it changes into is named with each.
Restlessness as an enduring condition brings misfortune.
Constant agitation at the top, where calm should rule. Someone who never settles, whose duration is nothing but perpetual motion, and who brings misfortune to what depends on them. The line closes the hexagram with its opposite.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 50, The Cauldron. Read line 6 →
Giving duration to one's character through persistence. Good fortune for a wife, misfortune for a husband.
Constancy of a following, devoted kind, which is right for one role and wrong for another. The one who must lead and adapt cannot be constant in the way the one who supports can. The line asks which role you are in.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 28, Great Excess. Read line 5 →
No game in the field.
Persisting in the wrong place or with the wrong method: hunting where there is nothing to hunt. Constancy is not a virtue when it is applied to a mistake. The line asks whether the direction was ever right.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 46, Pushing Upward. Read line 4 →
Not giving duration to one's character brings humiliation. Persistent humiliation.
Inconstancy: moods and conduct that change with every outside pressure. The line names the consequence, which is repeated humiliation, and locates the fault in character rather than circumstance.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 40, Deliverance. Read line 3 →
Remorse disappears.
Strength held in a position that does not suit it, and made to work through self-restraint and balance. The person does not force their power beyond what the situation allows, and the regret that might have followed does not come.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 62, Small Excess. Read line 2 →
Seeking duration too hastily brings persistent misfortune. Nothing furthers.
Demanding permanence at the very start, before anything has been built. Wanting the long marriage on the first day. The line is clear that duration cannot be forced early; it is grown.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 34, Great Power. Read line 1 →
Related hexagrams
Cast your own reading
Ask a question and toss six lines. The oracle does not choose the hexagram for you; the coins do.
Ask the I Ching →Common questions
- What does I Ching Hexagram 32 mean?
- What lasts: the marriage after the courtship, movement that renews itself, constancy with a direction. Wind below, thunder above: the two that always move together. Where Influence is the courtship, Duration is the marriage: the enduring union, the long practice, the thing that lasts because it keeps moving in a consistent direction. The tradition's judgement promises success, no blame, and the value of having somewhere to go. Duration is not standing still. Thunder and wind endure by moving; the seasons endure by changing. The reading says the situation asks for constancy of purpose, for not being distracted into novelty or worn into rigidity, and it promises that what keeps its direction keeps its life.
- What does Hexagram 32 mean for love?
- The long relationship, and what keeps it alive: constancy with movement. Not the same every day, but the same direction every day. The reading favours commitment and warns against both restlessness and dead routine.
- Which hexagram does Hexagram 32 change into?
- It depends on which lines change. With one changing line: line 1 gives Hexagram 34, Great Power; line 2 gives Hexagram 62, Small Excess; line 3 gives Hexagram 40, Deliverance; line 4 gives Hexagram 46, Pushing Upward; line 5 gives Hexagram 28, Great Excess; line 6 gives Hexagram 50, The Cauldron. With every line changing it becomes Hexagram 42, Increase.