I Ching · King Wen 60
Hexagram 60: Limitation
䷻ 節 Jié · also called Restraint, Measure, Articulating · The Abysmal above The Joyous
Water in a lake with a bank: limits that give form and save strength, provided they are not galling.
measureboundarieseconomydisciplineproportion
The meaning of Hexagram 60
Lake below, water above: a lake that holds only so much, and overflows past its limit. Limitation describes measure: the boundaries, rules and economies that give a life or an undertaking its shape. The Chinese character is the joint of a bamboo stalk, the division that makes the whole strong. The tradition's judgement is that limitation brings success, and that galling limitation must not be persisted in. Limits are good when they fit and harmful when they crush. The image is of the wise person creating number and measure and examining the nature of virtue and conduct. The reading says the situation asks for limits, chosen deliberately, and asks you to set them where they strengthen rather than where they strangle.
The image. Water over the lake; the wise person creates number and measure and examines virtue and conduct.
- Advice
- Set limits deliberately, where they give form and save strength, and keep them; loosen any that gall.
- Warning
- A limit that crushes is persisted in only at the cost of what it was meant to protect.
over
Structure: ☱ The Joyous (Lake) below, ☵ The Abysmal (Water) above. Nuclear hexagram 27, Nourishment. Every line reversed: 56, The Wanderer.
Hexagram 60 for love and relationships
Boundaries, agreed and kept: what each of you needs, what each of you will not do, how much is enough. The reading favours limits that both of you accept and warns against ones that gall. The right measure makes the relationship strong at the joints.
Hexagram 60 for career
Discipline and economy: the scope defined, the hours set, the standard fixed. The reading favours clear limits that people can work within, and warns against constraints so tight that they break the people they were meant to shape.
Hexagram 60 for money
Budget. The reading is for thrift and measure, limits set deliberately and kept. It warns against both extravagance and a stinginess so severe it becomes its own harm. Find the proportion.
Hexagram 60 for decisions
Choose the option with clear, bearable limits. Decide how much is enough before you decide anything else. The reading is against open-ended commitments and against ones so restrictive they cannot be kept.
The six changing lines
Read from the bottom. A changing line flips, and the hexagram it changes into is named with each.
Galling limitation. Persistence brings misfortune. Remorse disappears.
Limits so harsh they wound, and the tradition's plain verdict that persisting in them is wrong. The remorse disappears once they are loosened. Severity beyond measure is the fault at the top of the hexagram of measure.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 61, Inner Truth. Read line 6 →
Sweet limitation brings good fortune. Going brings esteem.
The one who sets limits for others and keeps them first themselves, so that the measure is sweet rather than bitter. Restriction by example. The line credits this leadership with esteem.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 19, Approach. Read line 5 →
Contented limitation. Success.
Limits accepted so naturally that they cost no effort: the person who lives within measure without strain. The line is the hexagram's ideal: economy that has become ease.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 58, The Joyous. Read line 4 →
He who knows no limitation will have cause to lament. No blame.
Excess, and the regret that follows it, with the tradition's note that the lament itself clears the blame. Someone who has overdone it and knows it. The lesson is learned from the inside.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 5, Waiting. Read line 3 →
Not going out of the gate and the courtyard brings misfortune.
The same restraint, one stage later, when the moment for action has come and is being missed. Limitation held past its usefulness. The line is the warning that measure includes knowing when to move.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning. Read line 2 →
Not going out of the door and the courtyard is without blame.
Restraint at the beginning: staying within one's own bounds when the moment for going out has not come. Knowing when to stop before starting. The line approves of the self-limitation.
Changing, it becomes Hexagram 29, The Abysmal. 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 60 mean?
- Water in a lake with a bank: limits that give form and save strength, provided they are not galling. Lake below, water above: a lake that holds only so much, and overflows past its limit. Limitation describes measure: the boundaries, rules and economies that give a life or an undertaking its shape. The Chinese character is the joint of a bamboo stalk, the division that makes the whole strong. The tradition's judgement is that limitation brings success, and that galling limitation must not be persisted in. Limits are good when they fit and harmful when they crush. The image is of the wise person creating number and measure and examining the nature of virtue and conduct. The reading says the situation asks for limits, chosen deliberately, and asks you to set them where they strengthen rather than where they strangle.
- What does Hexagram 60 mean for love?
- Boundaries, agreed and kept: what each of you needs, what each of you will not do, how much is enough. The reading favours limits that both of you accept and warns against ones that gall. The right measure makes the relationship strong at the joints.
- Which hexagram does Hexagram 60 change into?
- It depends on which lines change. With one changing line: line 1 gives Hexagram 29, The Abysmal; line 2 gives Hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning; line 3 gives Hexagram 5, Waiting; line 4 gives Hexagram 58, The Joyous; line 5 gives Hexagram 19, Approach; line 6 gives Hexagram 61, Inner Truth. With every line changing it becomes Hexagram 56, The Wanderer.