既济 After Completion
Upper trigram: Water (water) · Lower trigram: Fire (fire)
It is done — and that is exactly when vigilance matters most.
Modern interpretation
Completion is achieved — which is precisely when carelessness creeps in. Maintain order, do not start new chaos, and guard what you have built. Every ending needs maintenance, or it quietly becomes a new beginning of trouble.
The Judgment · 卦辞
亨小，利贞。初吉终乱。
“Kî Zî intimates progress and success in small matters. There will be advantage in being firm and correct. There has been good fortune in the beginning ; there may be disorder in the end.” — 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.
曳其轮，濡其尾，无咎。
“The first line, undivided, (shows its subject as a driver) who drags back his wheel, (or as a fox) which has wet his tail. There will be no error.”
“妇丧其茀，勿逐，七日得。
“The second line, divided, (shows its subject as) a wife who has lost her (carriage-)screen. There is no occasion to go in pursuit of it. In seven days she will find it.”
高宗伐鬼方，三年克之，小人勿用。
“The third line, undivided, (suggests the case of) Kao Zung who attacked the Demon region, but was three years in subduing it. Small men should not be employed (in such enterprises).”
繻有衣袽，终日戒。
“The fourth line, divided, shows its subject with rags provided against any leak (in his boat), and on his guard all day long.”
东邻杀牛，不如西邻之禴祭，实受其福。
“The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject (as) the neighbour in the east who slaughters an ox (for his sacrifice) ; but this is not equal to the (small) spring sacrifice of the neighbour in the west, whose sincerity receives the blessing.”
濡其首，厉。
“The topmost line, divided, shows its subject with (even) his head immersed. The position is perilous.”
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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