豫 Enthusiasm
Upper trigram: Thunder (thunder) · Lower trigram: Earth (the earth)
Momentum and inspiration — channel the energy before it scatters.
Modern interpretation
Energy is high — channel it into something real before it dissolves into mere excitement. Teams, launches, celebrations: ride the wave, but give it structure. Enthusiasm with a plan moves mountains; without one, it just makes noise.
The Judgment · 卦辞
利建侯行师。
“Yü indicates that, (in the state which it implies), feudal princes may be set up, and the hosts put in motion, with advantage.” — 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.
鸣豫，凶。
“The first line, divided, shows its subject proclaiming his pleasure and satisfaction. There will be evil.”
介于石，不终日，贞吉。
“The second line, divided, shows one who is firm as a rock. (He sees a thing) without waiting till it has come to pass ; with his firm correctness there will be good fortune.”
盱豫，悔，迟有悔。
“The third line, divided, shows one looking up (for favours), while he indulges the feeling of pleasure and satisfaction. If he would understand! If he be late in doing so, there will indeed be occasion for repentance.”
由豫，大有得，勿疑。朋盍簪。
“The fourth line, undivided, shows him from whom the harmony and satisfaction come. Great is the success which he obtains. Let him not allow suspicions to enter his mind, and thus friends will gather around him.”
贞疾，恒不死。
“The fifth line, divided, shows one with a chronic complaint, but who lives on without dying.”
冥豫，成有渝。无咎。
“The topmost line, divided, shows its subject with darkened mind devoted to the pleasure and satisfaction (of the time) ; but if he change his course even when (it may be considered as) completed, there will be no error.”
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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