益 Increase
Upper trigram: Wind (wind) · Lower trigram: Thunder (thunder)
Growth and generosity — what you give returns multiplied.
Modern interpretation
A time of increase: expand, give, and invest in others. Generosity is the strategy now — what flows outward returns multiplied. Move boldly toward growth; the wind and thunder together spare nothing stagnant.
The Judgment · 卦辞
利有攸往。利涉大川。
“Yî indicates that (in the state which it denotes) there will be advantage in every movement which shall be undertaken, that it will be advantageous (even) to cross the great stream.” — 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.
利用为大作，元吉，无咎。
“The first line, undivided, shows that it will be advantageous for its subject in his position to make a great movement. If it be greatly fortunate, no blame will be imputed to him.”
或益之十朋之龟，弗克违。永贞吉。王用享于帝，吉。
“The second line, divided, shows parties adding to the stores of its subject ten pairs of tortoise shells whose oracles cannot be opposed. Let him persevere in being firm and correct, and there will be good fortune. Let the king, (having the virtues thus distinguished), employ them in presenting his offerings to God, and there will be good fortune.”
益之用凶事，无咎。有孚。中行告公用圭。
“The third line, divided, shows increase given to its subject by means of what is evil, so that he shall (be led to good), and be without blame. Let him be sincere and pursue the path of the Mean, (so shall he secure the recognition of the ruler, like) an officer who announces himself to his prince by the symbol of his rank.”
中行告公，从，利用为依迁国。
“The fourth line, divided, shows its subject pursuing the due course. His advice to his prince is followed. He can with advantage be relied on in such a movement as that of removing the capital.”
有孚惠心，勿问，元吉。有孚，惠我德。
“The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject with sincere heart seeking to benefit (all below). There need be no question about it ; the result will be great good fortune. (All below) will with sincere heart acknowledge his goodness.”
莫益之，或击之，立心勿恒，凶。
“In the sixth line, undivided, we see one to whose increase none will contribute, while many will seek to assail him. He observes no regular rule in the ordering of his heart. There will be evil.”
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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