需 Waiting
Upper trigram: Water (water) · Lower trigram: Heaven (the sky)
Patient waiting — nourish yourself while the time ripens.
Modern interpretation
Waiting is the action. Prepare, stay nourished, hold your position — the opportunity is approaching but not here yet. Anxiety achieves nothing; readiness achieves everything. Do not leap before the clouds gather.
The Judgment · 卦辞
有孚，光亨。贞吉，利涉大川。
“Hsü intimates that, with the sincerity which is declared in it, there will be brilliant success. With firmness there will be good fortune ; and it will be advantageous 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.
需于郊，利用恒，无咎。
“The first line, undivided, shows its subject waiting in the distant border. It will be well for him constantly to maintain (the purpose thus shown), in which case there will be no error.”
需于沙，小有言，终吉。
“The second line, undivided, shows its subject waiting on the sand (of the mountain stream). He will (suffer) the small (injury of) being spoken (against), but in the end there will be good fortune.”
需于泥，致寇至。
“The third line, undivided, shows its subject in the mud (close by the stream). He thereby invites the approach of injury.”
需于血，出自穴。
“The fourth line, divided, shows its subject waiting in (the place of) blood. But he will get out of the cavern.”
需于酒食，贞吉。
“The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject waiting amidst the appliances of a feast. Through his firmness and correctness there will be good fortune.”
入于穴，有不速之客三人来，敬之终吉。
“The topmost line, divided, shows its subject entered into the cavern. (But) there are three guests coming, without being urged, (to his help). If he receive them respectfully, there will be good fortune in the end.”
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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