渐 Gradual Progress
Upper trigram: Wind (wind) · Lower trigram: Mountain (the mountain)
Proper gradual progress — follow the right sequence, skip no steps.
Modern interpretation
Advance the way a tree grows on a mountain: slowly, visibly, surely. Follow the proper sequence and do not skip steps for speed — formality here is protection, not bureaucracy. What grows gradually cannot be uprooted easily.
The Judgment · 卦辞
女归吉，利贞。
“Kien suggests to us the marriage of a young lady, and the good fortune (attending it). There will be advantage in being firm and correct.” — 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.
鸿渐于干。小子厉，有言，无咎。
“The first line, divided, shows the wild geese gradually approaching the shore. A young officer (in similar circumstances) will be in a position of danger, and be spoken against ; but there will be no error.”
鸿渐于磐，饮食衎衎，吉。
“The second line, divided, shows the geese gradually approaching the large rocks, where they eat and drink joyfully and at ease. There will be good fortune.”
鸿渐于陆。夫征不复，妇孕不育，凶。利御寇。
“The third line, undivided, shows them gradually advanced to the dry plains. (It suggests also the idea of) a husband who goes on an expedition from which he does not return, and of a wife who is pregnant, but will not nourish her child. There will be evil. (The case symbolised )might be advantageous in resisting plunderers.”
鸿渐于木，或得其桷，无咎。
“The fourth line, divided, shows the geese gradually advanced to the trees. They may light on the flat branches. There will be no error.”
鸿渐于陵，妇三岁不孕，终莫之胜，吉。
“The fifth line, undivided, shows the geese gradually advanced to the high mound. (It suggests the idea of) a wife who for three years does not become pregnant ; but in the end the natural issue cannot be prevented. There will be good fortune.”
鸿渐于陆，其羽可用为仪，吉。
“The sixth line, undivided, shows the geese gradually advanced to the large heights (beyond). Their feathers can be used as ornaments. There will be good fortune.”
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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