Hexagram for Influence

It represents attraction and the way beings influence one another.

The I Ching, also called Yijing, is an ancient Chinese book consulted for divination and studied for its philosophy of change. Its 64 hexagrams are six-line figures linked to texts about different situations. Xian is traditionally associated with responsiveness and courtship; translations such as “Influence” and “Wooing” emphasize different aspects of that meaning.

The book grew from the Zhou Yi, an early Chinese divination text. Later commentaries developed its philosophical interpretations, and it became a Confucian classic. Its traditions spread through East Asia and beyond.

How do you read its six lines?

Read from the bottom: broken, broken, solid, solid, solid, broken.

A broken line represents yin; a solid line represents yang. Each group of three lines is a trigram. Here the lower trigram is mountain ☶, and the upper one is lake or marsh ☱: lake above mountain.

In a consultation, the hexagram directs the reader to its accompanying text. Individual lines can also be designated as changing, bringing their line texts into the reading. The character ䷞ alone does not mark any changing lines.