解 Deliverance
Upper trigram: Thunder (thunder) · Lower trigram: Water (water)
Release — the knot unties; forgive and move toward open ground.
Modern interpretation
Tension is releasing. Forgive, let go, and do not linger over what is already resolved — move toward where the energy is open. The storm has passed; there is no wisdom in standing in the field waiting for more rain.
The Judgment · 卦辞
利西南。无所往，其来复吉。有攸往，夙吉。
“In (the state indicated by) Kieh advantage will be found in the south-west. If no (further) operations be called for, there will be good fortune in coming back(to the old conditions). If some operations be called for, there will be good fortune in the early conducting of them.” — 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.
无咎。
“The first line, divided, shows that its subject will commit no error.”
田获三狐，得黄矢，贞吉。
“The second line, undivided, shows its subject catch, in hunting, three foxes, and obtain the yellow ( = golden) arrows. With firm correctness there will be good fortune.”
负且乘，致寇至，贞吝。
“The third line, divided, shows a porter with his burden, (yet) riding in a carriage. He will (only) tempt robbers to attack him. However firm and correct he may (try to) be, there will be cause for regret.”
解而拇，朋至斯孚。
“(To the subject of) the fourth line, undivided, (it is said), ‘Remove your toes. Friends will (then) come, between you and whom there will be mutual confidence.’”
君子维有解，吉，有孚于小人。
“The fifth line, divided, shows (its subject), the superior man ( = the ruler), executing his function of removing (whatever is injurious to the idea of the hexagram), in which case there will be good fortune, and confidence in him will be shown even by the small men.”
公用射隼于高墉之上，获之，无不利。
“In the sixth line, divided, we see a feudal prince (with his bow) shooting at a falcon on the top of a high wall, and hitting it. (The effect of his action) will be in every way advantageous.”
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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