I Ching · Hexagram 43 Breakthrough
Hexagram 43 line 4: Breakthrough, yang in the fourth place

I Ching 43.4
No skin on the thighs, walking is hard. Led like a sheep, remorse disappears. Hearing these words, one does not believe them.
Restless obstinacy that cannot move and cannot stop. The line's remedy is to let oneself be led for a time, and it predicts that the person will not accept the advice. Stubbornness is its own obstacle.
Advice. Let yourself be led for now; your obstinacy is the injury.
What changes when line 4 moves
Line 4 of Hexagram 43 is yang, a solid line. When it is cast as old yang (a 9) it flips, and the hexagram becomes Hexagram 5, Waiting: Confident waiting: the rain will come, and the strong person eats and drinks in the meantime.
Read together, the reading moves from Breakthrough toward Waiting. Five strong lines against one weak one at the top: the decisive, open resolution of a last remaining wrong. Heaven below, water above: clouds gathering, rain not yet falling. Waiting is not helplessness. The primary hexagram describes the situation; the changing line is the point of movement in it; the resulting hexagram is where that movement leads. Both hexagrams belong to the reading, and the changing line is the hinge between them.
Line 4 in context
- Love & relationships
- Let yourself be led for now; your obstinacy is the injury. In love and relationships, Hexagram 43 reads: Something must be said plainly and finally. Say it openly and without violence, and expect it to be dangerous. The reading favours the clear declaration over both silence and force, and warns against being too sure of the outcome.
- Career
- Let yourself be led for now; your obstinacy is the injury. In career, Hexagram 43 reads: A decisive break with a last remaining problem, a person or a practice. Declare it in the open, through proper means, and do not underestimate the resistance. Share the gains of the resolution rather than keeping them.
- Money
- Let yourself be led for now; your obstinacy is the injury. In money, Hexagram 43 reads: The moment to resolve a lingering financial wrong, decisively and transparently. Not the moment to hoard the results. Distribute what the breakthrough frees.
- A decision
- Let yourself be led for now; your obstinacy is the injury. In decisions, Hexagram 43 reads: Decide, and decide openly. The reading supports the resolute option provided it is declared rather than forced, and it says to keep a destination in view. Half-measures now leave the last remnant to grow back.
← Line 3Hexagram 43 in fullLine 5 →
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