Scene Description
Image Symbolism
Reading the Picture
Zhong Fu is inner truth: trust that comes from the center and reaches across distance, the way a message finds the person it was meant for.
Look up first. A goose flies above the roof carrying a rolled letter, which the Image Symbolism reads as good news on its way. It echoes the second line, where a crane calls from the shade and its young answer: sincere words reach their listener even unseen. On the building hangs a round plaque marked 望, expectation or hope; the description speaks of a document posted on a 望子 sign and links it with success in examinations. The man striking a watch-clapper in the description, a sign of advance warning, is not drawn here.
Below, a man in an official’s cap leads a spotted deer on a rope. Deer, 鹿 lù, sounds like 禄 lù, reward, and holding it on a line means keeping what you have rather than going on the attack. The rope also recalls the fifth line, bound in sincerity. The other man stands in the courtyard; the symbolism connects him with appearing before a court, and the Image asks the noble person to judge cases with leniency.
Wind ☴ above Lake ☱ below: two solid lines on each side and two open lines in the middle, a hollow heart that the wind can enter.
- Work
- If you are waiting on news or a result, consider whether your work speaks for itself without inflation. The top line warns against a call that rises higher than its substance.
- Relationships
- Trust here is quiet and mutual, like the crane and its young. If you want a response, ask whether you are speaking from the heart or performing.
- Timing
- Good news may be on its way. Until it arrives, hold on to what you already have rather than chasing more, and stay alert.
Line Statements
Listed from the bottom line to the top line.
- First nine: Preparedness brings good fortune. If there is another aim, there is no peace.
- Nine in the second place: A crane calls in shade and its young answers. I have a fine cup and will share it with you.
- Six in the third place: Finding an opponent, now drumming, now stopping; now weeping, now singing.
- Six in the fourth place: Moon almost full; the matching horse is lost. No blame.
- Nine in the fifth place: Bound in sincerity. No blame.
- Top nine: A cock's call ascends to Heaven. Steadfastness is inauspicious.
Meaning of the Hexagram
Translated from the Chinese 人间道 commentary with AI assistance; translator notes appear in brackets.
“Zhong Fu: piglets and fish, good fortune. It is beneficial to cross the great river. It is beneficial to be steadfast.”
The way of Zhong Fu (Inner Truth) is this: when the sincerity and trustworthiness at the center of the heart can move even piglets and fish, there is nowhere it cannot reach. So it is beneficial to cross the great river; one can travel everywhere without limit.
“Zhong Fu: the yielding is within, and the firm holds the center.”
The emptiness at the center of Zhong Fu is the image of perfect sincerity. This shows that the way of firmness can attain centrality and correctness, and so there is good fortune.
“Joyful and gentle: sincerity transforms the state. Piglets and fish, good fortune: trust reaches even piglets and fish.”
Those above, with perfect sincerity, follow and accommodate those below; those below, with perfect sincerity, seek to please those above. Through this perfect sincerity of inner truth, the state will surely be taught and transformed. Such trust can move even piglets and fish; this is the supreme good of the way.
“It is beneficial to cross the great river: riding a wooden boat that is hollow. Inner truth with benefit in steadfastness: this accords with heaven.”
The good fortune of the way of inner truth is like crossing a river by boat: there is nothing solid inside, so one need not fear capsizing. Even in hardship, one who has inner truth will surely get through. To hold firmly to the way of inner truth is the very height of the way of heaven.
“Above the lake there is wind: Inner Truth. The noble person accordingly deliberates on legal cases and delays executions.”
Wind is above the lake, and the lake is moved by the wind; because water is by nature empty, the wind can enter it. Observing this, the noble person knows that when a person’s heart is empty, things will surely move it: this is the image of inner truth. When the noble person deliberates on legal cases, he does so simply out of wholehearted loyalty; and when it comes to deciding on death, he seeks only to delay and to be lenient.
“Preparedness brings good fortune. If there is something else, there is no peace.”
A yang, firm line taking its first step does not yet understand the way of inner truth, and at the beginning a person’s will is surely unsettled. So one should trust with plain, simple sincerity and a single-minded will; if a divided will arises, one will surely find no peace.
“First nine, preparedness brings good fortune: the will has not yet changed.”
When trust is just beginning, the will cannot yet follow; but if one can be plainly sincere, single-minded and wholly trusting, there is good fortune. So at the outset we must seek a way that we ourselves can believe in, and only then hold to it with simple sincerity; in this way one will not go astray.
“A crane calls in shade and its young answers. I have a fine cup and will share it with you.”
Firm within and soft without: a yang line in a yin position. The response of inner truth comes because outward softness can surely move others and get through. It is like a crane calling in a secluded valley: people do not hear it, but its young surely answer, because heart is moved by heart. So if one is truly sincere at the center, one can move others a thousand li away and can transform the state.
“Its young answer: this is the wish of the heart.”
The young can join in because sincere intention at the center gets through.
“Finding an opponent, now drumming, now stopping; now weeping, now singing.”
A soft line in a firm yang position: it holds a high place, but its talent is not equal to it, so it is bound simply to follow whatever it trusts. Its outward drumming and stopping, its weeping and singing, are all led by what it trusts within. Because its talent is insufficient, it has only trust and does not know good fortune from misfortune. This is not a leader of ample talent.
“Now drumming, now stopping: the position is not fitting.”
Occupying an unsuitable position, with nothing to steady the heart, it can only follow what it trusts.
“Moon almost full; the matching horse is lost. No blame.”
In the position close to the ruler, it gains trust through soft compliance, and its fullness will surely be like the moon growing full. Even if those of its own kind and group are lost, it can be without blame.
“The matching horse is lost: it breaks with its kind and goes upward.”
It seeks the trust of the one above, and seeks it even if those of its own kind are lost, without looking back; this is why there is good fortune.
“Bound in sincerity. No blame.”
The person in the ruler’s position, through the way of inner truth and perfect sincerity, moves and reaches the whole world. The people trust and submit with all their hearts, bound together as firmly as if drawn tight.
“Bound in sincerity: the position is correct and fitting.”
The fifth line occupies the ruler’s place with yang firmness and uses the way of centrality and correctness, so that the hearts of the people everywhere are firmly bound in trust and submission. When the ruler is worthy of his position like this, the way of the ruler can reach its height.
“A cock’s call ascends to Heaven. Steadfastness is inauspicious.”
Here sincerity and trust are carried to the extreme, and when trust reaches its end it declines. Splendid on the outside but with no loyalty or substance within, it is like a cock’s call rising to heaven without knowing when to stop. To hold fast like this, without knowing how to change, is to bring misfortune on oneself.
Confucius said: “To love trustworthiness without loving learning: its flaw is harm.” That is, holding fast without understanding.
“A cock’s call ascends to Heaven: how could it last long?”
To keep to sincerity and trust to the point of exhaustion without knowing how to change surely cannot last long. This is a warning against holding fast without knowing how to change: misfortune will come of it.
Show the Chinese original (人间道)
中孚：豚鱼吉，利涉大川，利贞。 中孚之道，其中心之诚信，能使豚鱼都有感，则无所不至矣。故利涉大川，周行无限也
中孚，柔在内而刚得中。 中孚之中虚乃至诚之象。此示意刚之道能得中正，故吉。 说而巽，孚乃化邦也。豚鱼吉，信及豚鱼也。 上位以至诚而顺从于下，下位以至诚以求上悦，由其中孚之至诚，必教化邦国，此信能令 豚鱼皆感，此道之至善也。 利涉大川，乘木舟虚也。中孚以利贞，乃应乎天也。
中孚道之吉，犹乘舟渡川，内无实物，不虞覆船，即处艰困，能以中孚则必可亨通，能坚 守中孚之道，此天道之极至也。
泽上有风，中孚，君子以议狱缓死。 风在泽上，泽有感于风，因水体本虚，故风能入。君子观之，知人心虚，则物必感之，此 中孚之象，君子于议狱，本为尽忠而已。于决死之际，但求缓之，宽之。
虞吉。有它，不燕。 阳刚居始进，于中孚之道并非了解，人初 志必不定，故如能以愚诚信之，且专一之志， 若生异志，必不得安矣。
初九虞吉，志未变也。 始信之时，志未能从，但能愚诚专一至信， 则吉矣，故吾人初始，必求能为己所信之道， 方以愚诚，如此方不致迷。
鸣鹤在阴，其子和之，我有 好爵，吾与尔靡之。 内刚外柔，阳居阴位，中孚之感，因外柔 必能感通，犹鹤鸣于幽谷，人不闻也，而其子 必应和，乃心感通也。故能中心孚诚，千里能
感之，能化邦国。 其子和之，中心愿也。
子能与合，乃中心诚意能通故也。
得敌，或鼓或罢，或泣或歌。 柔居阳刚之位，居位高但才不能济，故势 必唯所信而从，其外在之鼓张，罢废悲泣，欢 歌皆因导于内心之所信，因才不足，故只有信，
而不知吉凶，此非长才之君。
鼓鼓或罢，位不当也。 居不适位，无所心主，惟能从于所信而已。
月几望，马匹亡，无咎。 近君之位，以柔顺得信，其盛必如月之满 盈。即同类同属亡失，亦可无咎。
马匹亡，绝类上也。 求上之孚信，即令同类亡，亦不顾而求， 此所以吉也。
有孚孪如，无咎。 君位之人，以中孚至诚之道，感通天下， 民心之信服，固结如抽掣也。
有孚孪如，位正当也。 五居君位以阳刚，用中正之道，天下民心 固结信服，其称位如此，君之道乃能致极矣。
翰音登于天，贞凶。 中诚孚信致于极，有信终则衰，华美其外， 内无忠笃，犹翰音登天，不知止之，贞固如此， 不知变，乃自招凶。孔子曰：好信不好学，此 敝也贼。意即固守而不通也。
翰音登于天，何可长也？ 守诚信至穷极而不知变，必不能长久？此 固守不知变之戒，招凶至矣。