泰 Peace
Upper trigram: Earth (the earth) · Lower trigram: Heaven (the sky)
Harmony — a rare window when heaven and earth communicate.
Modern interpretation
A rare window of harmony is open: reconcile, invest, commit, expand. Good fortune flows while the small humbly serves the great and communication stays open. Use this season well — it does not last forever.
The Judgment · 卦辞
小往大来，吉，亨。
“In Thâi (we see) the little gone and the great come. (It indicates that) there will be good fortune, with progress and success.” — James Legge, The Yî King (1882)
The six lines · 爻辞
Read from the bottom line upward. Each line pairs the received Chinese text with Legge's English translation.
拔茅茹，以其汇。征吉。
“The first line, undivided, suggests the idea of grass pulled up, and bringing with it other stalks with whose roots it is connected. Advance (on the part of its subject) will be fortunate.”
包荒，用冯河，不遐遗。朋亡，得尚于中行。
“The second line, undivided, shows one who can bear with the uncultivated, will cross the Ho without a boat, does not forget the distant, and has no (selfish) friendships. Thus does he prove himself acting in accordance with the course of the due Mean.”
无平不陂，无往不复。艰贞无咎。勿恤其孚，于食有福。
“The third line, undivided, shows that, while there is no state of peace that is not liable to be disturbed, and no departure (of evil men) so that they shall not return, yet when one is firm and correct, as he realises the distresses that may arise, he will commit no error. There is no occasion for sadness at the certainty (of such recurring changes) ; and in this mood the happiness (of the present) may be (long) enjoyed.”
翩翩，不富以其邻，不戒以孚。
“The fourth line, divided, shows its subject fluttering (down); not relying on his own richresources, but calling in his neighbours. (They all come) not as having received warning, but in the sincerity (of their hearts).”
帝乙归妹，以祉元吉。
“The fifth line, divided, reminds us of (king) Tî-yî's (rule about the) marriage of his younger sister. By such a course there is happiness and there will be great good fortune.”
城复于隍，勿用师，自邑告命。贞吝。
“The sixth line, divided, shows us the city wall returned into the moat. It is not the time to use the army. (The subject of the line) may, indeed, announce his orders to the people of his own city ; but however correct and firm he may be, he will have cause for regret.”
About changing lines
In a real I Ching reading, hexagrams are built by casting coins or yarrow stalks six times, bottom line first. Some lines come out “old” (unstable) — an old yin or old yang flips into its opposite, producing a second hexagram that shows where the situation is heading. The changing lines are the moving parts of your answer: read their individual line statements above, and they point to the direction of change.
Ask a question and cast the coins — free, with a plain-English interpretation grounded in the classical text.
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