Hexagram 7 line 6: The Army, yin in the sixth place
I Ching 7.6
The great prince issues commands, founds states, gives fiefs. Do not employ inferior people.
The effort has succeeded and it is time to distribute rewards and responsibilities. The line's warning is sharp: reward the unworthy with money if you must, but never with power. Who is given authority now shapes everything after.
Advice. Reward generously, but give real authority only to people of character.
What changes when line 6 moves
Line 6 of Hexagram 7 is yin, a broken line. When it is cast as old yin (a 6) it flips, and the hexagram becomes Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly: Inexperience seeking guidance: the learner must ask, and the teacher must not be asked twice for the same answer.
Read together, the reading moves from The Army toward Youthful Folly. Organised collective effort under a capable, principled leader: discipline turns a crowd into a force. A spring at the foot of a mountain: water that does not yet know where it is going. Youthful Folly is about not knowing, and about the proper relationship between the one who does not know and the one who does. 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 6 in context
- Love & relationships
- Reward generously, but give real authority only to people of character. In love and relationships, Hexagram 7 reads: A relationship or family under strain that needs structure and a shared purpose. Someone has to take responsible charge, with the consent of the others. Order given kindly holds; order imposed does not.
- Career
- Reward generously, but give real authority only to people of character. In career, Hexagram 7 reads: Team leadership, a campaign, a large coordinated effort. The reading favours the experienced leader and the disciplined team, and warns against putting the wrong person in charge to keep the peace.
- Money
- Reward generously, but give real authority only to people of character. In money, Hexagram 7 reads: Resources held in reserve and deployed in an organised way. Not the moment for scattered spending. A clear plan, executed with discipline, is what the reading supports.
- A decision
- Reward generously, but give real authority only to people of character. In decisions, Hexagram 7 reads: Decide as a commander: who leads, what the objective is, what order is needed. If the cause is not worth the discipline it requires, the reading says not to march.
Cast your own reading
The topic is pre-selected. The hexagram is not: the coins decide it.
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