Hexagram for Inner Truth

It asks whether trust rests on honest conduct. ䷼, usually translated as “Inner Truth” or “Inner Sincerity,” points to confidence built when inner feeling and outward conduct agree. In divination, it invites you to examine trust between people; it does not guarantee the outcome you want.

The Zhou Yi, a Chinese divination classic now commonly called the I Ching or Book of Changes, is said to originate around 1000 BCE.

Its six solid or broken lines make two trigrams, or three-line patterns: ☴ for wind above ☱ for lake. The reading is traditionally interpreted through these lines and the question behind a consultation, not by treating the glyph as a picture.

Why do translators call it Inner Truth or Inner Sincerity?

“Inner Truth,” “inner trust,” and “inner sincerity” are interpretive English labels, not one fixed modern glossary. The received Zhou Yi, early manuscript copies, later commentaries, and modern translations reflect layers of transmission and interpretation.

An excavated Shanghai Museum bamboo-strip manuscript of the Zhou Yi, copied around 300 BCE, preserves an early written witness. Guicang, another early Chinese divination text, belongs to the wider historical setting; similar line patterns alone do not establish identical meanings.