革 Revolution
Upper trigram: Lake (the lake) · Lower trigram: Fire (fire)
Radical change — but only after trust is established.
Modern interpretation
Real change is needed and the moment is right — but first make sure people trust the change and the changer. Then transform boldly, once, and thoroughly. Half-measures now are worse than none at all.
The Judgment · 卦辞
已日乃孚。元亨。利贞，悔亡。
“(What takes place as indicated by) Ko is believed in only after it has been accomplished. There will be great progress and success. Advantage will come from being firm and correct. (In that case) occasion for repentance will disappear.” — 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.
巩用黄牛之革。
“The first line, undivided, shows its subject (as if he were) bound with the skin of a yellow ox.”
巳日乃革之，征吉，无咎。
“The second line, divided, shows its subject making his changes after some time has passed. Action taken will be fortunate. There will be no error.”
征凶。贞厉。革言三就，有孚。
“The third line, undivided, shows that action taken by its subject will be evil. Though he be firm and correct, his position is perilous. If the change (he contemplates) have been three times fully discussed, he will be believed in.”
悔亡。有孚改命，吉。
“The fourth line, undivided, shows occasion for repentance disappearing (from its subject). Let him be believed in; and though he change (existing) ordinances, there will be good fortune.”
大人虎变，未占有孚。
“The fifth line, undivided, shows the great man (producing his changes) as the tiger (does when he) changes (his stripes). Before he divines (and proceeds to action), faith has been reposed in him.”
君子豹变，小人革面，征凶，居贞吉。
“The sixth line, divided, shows the superior man producing his changes as the leopard (does when he) changes (his spots), while small men change their faces (and show their obedience). To go forward (now) would lead to evil, but there will be good fortune in abiding firm and correct.”
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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