Hexagram 42
Increase
益Yì
☴ Wind above, ☳ Thunder below
Wind above and thunder below drive each other on: where one swells, the other gains, and out of that interplay arises a time in which every growth kindles new growth.
The JudgmentIncrease: it is worthwhile to undertake something; it is worthwhile to cross the great water. The tide is set to giving and growing: what is above bends down toward what is below, and all gain. Such a time is there to be used, greatly and without hesitation.
The ImageWind and thunder: the image of increase. Thus acts the noble one: seeing what is good, he follows it; finding faults in himself, he lays them aside. Wind and thunder strengthen each other like the two movements of all growth: adopting the better wherever you see it, releasing your own lesser wherever you find it. Increase begins as imitation of the good.
InterpretationFew signs in the book are as favorable as this one: the time of increase, when sacrifice from above strengthens what is below and every effort bears double fruit. It appears when the wind is at your back: help is available, doors stand open, growth is not only possible but wanted. The task matches it: undertake, and undertake greatly; finally dare the leap you keep postponing, for such windows close again. And do not forget the Image: the fastest increase is the inner one. If you see something good in another, adopt it, today; if you find a fault in yourself, lay it aside without ceremony. That way you keep growing, even when the tide eventually turns.
Place in the sequenceDecrease that simply continues turns, at its lowest point, into its opposite. Therefore, after 41, Decrease, comes Increase. It forms a pair with 41 · Decrease.
Nuclear hexagram
The nuclear hexagram of Increase is 23 · Splitting Apart: Splitting apart: something is crumbling away and cannot be held; undertake nothing, stay whole, and know that in the ending hangs the seed of the new. It is formed from the inner lines and shows the hidden core of the situation.
The six lines
These texts belong to changing lines in a reading, from the bottom up.
Nine at the beginning
It is worthwhile to accomplish great deeds:
supreme good fortune, no blame. Strength and help are coming to you from above, and they create an obligation of real size: use them for something great, something you would never have dared on your own strength. Favor received and spent on small things is favor wasted; you honor the giver by using the gift to the full. If you ever wanted to begin a great project: this is the line that says yes, now, and think bigger.
Six in the second placeruling line
Someone increases him beyond doubt:
ten pairs of tortoises cannot contradict it. Lasting perseverance brings good fortune. The king brings him before God: good fortune. Turning inwardly toward the good attracts increase the way a valley attracts water: irresistibly, deniable by no oracle. The condition is constancy: it is not a trick for a moment but an orientation for good. Such a life is in the end brought before the highest: the work takes on meaning beyond the personal. Hold the direction; the stream follows by itself.
Six in the third place
One is enriched through unfortunate events:
no blame, if you are sincere, walk in the middle, and report to the prince with a seal. Even setbacks bring increase in this time, provided you handle them well: staying truthful, keeping to the middle, and accounting openly for what happened. A crisis carried this way yields an authority that prosperity can never give: people have seen who you are when things go against you. Loss that refined you is increase by a detour; carry its seal without shame.
Six in the fourth place
If you walk in the middle and report to the prince, he will follow.
It is worthwhile to be used in the moving of the capital. The position of the mediator: between above and below, trusted by both because you play no game of your own. From that pure middle you are followed, even in the greatest changes: the moving of a capital, the overhaul of an organization, the relocation of something everyone held sacred. Guard that purity as your one asset: a single act of self-interest, and the middle is gone.
Nine in the fifth placeruling line
If you truly have a kind heart, do not ask:
supreme good fortune. Truly, kindness will be recognized as your virtue. Real goodness keeps no books: it does not ask whether it was seen, what it will yield, whether anything comes back. And precisely that freedom from asking is what makes it irresistible: goodness that needs nothing is recognized and answered everywhere. Doing good and immediately asking for the receipt is selling; doing good and walking on is sowing. The difference determines the harvest.
Nine at the top
He increases no one; indeed, someone even strikes at him.
He does not keep his heart steady and lasting: misfortune. The shadow side of the time of giving: taking and only taking in such a time stands out like a miser at a wedding, and the world responds accordingly: first isolation, then blows. A heart without a fixed course (generous today, grasping tomorrow, always calculating) ends up alone. The lesson is the reversal: in a time of increase, generosity is not a luxury but the price of admission; refusing to pay it puts you outside the stream.