I Ching Heng Meaning: Hexagram 32 Explained

Draw Heng 恆 and some people exhale: it can last. Some are tense: am I bound dead, cannot change?

Both only half right. Heng is Thunder over Wind, Duration. Zhen 震 above, Xun 巽 below. Thunder above, Wind below. Thunder moves, wind follows; two breaths join, able to last. It is not telling you from day one to dig the root through, and not telling a person in charge not to change a move in ten years.

First get above and below right. Reverse is Xun above, Zhen below: that is Yi (Increase) 益, Wind over Thunder. Increase wants you to act, to add. Heng wants you to walk through the matter already started. Reverse the image: one advises you to add, one to last. Lasting and adding are not the same thing.

Why after Xian 咸 comes Heng

The Xugua says: 「夫婦之道不可以不久也，故受之以恆。恆者，久也。」 The way of husband and wife cannot not last; therefore Heng follows. Heng is lasting. The Lower Canon begins with Xian; feeling is there, then it has to last. Feeling that cannot last is only a gust of wind. Feeling that can last is worthy of the two words husband and wife.

So in class I bind Xian and Heng together to teach. Ask about starting, the heart moving, whether this person follows me: look at Xian. Ask whether you can last a year, share a career, hold a home: look at Heng. Further down, how a home is ordered: look at Jia Ren 家人. Split the three hexagrams, and love will be kidnapped by “having feeling” or “I am very faithful” alone.

The Tuan says: 「恆，久也。剛上而柔下，雷風相與，巽而動，剛柔皆應，恆。」 Heng is lasting. The firm above, the yielding below, thunder and wind joining, Xun and moving, firm and yielding all responding: Heng. The firm above, the yielding below: the place following. Xun is entering, following; Zhen is moving. Follow then move, move and still able to follow: that is called lasting. The judgment: it opens, no blame, beneficial to be correct, beneficial to go forth. Opens, no great excess, beneficial for correctness, beneficial to have somewhere to go. Heng is not standing still in place. Walk correctly, walk long, and you can still go forward.

Career and wealth: what is wanted is continuing, not exploding

Ask about career and draw Heng: overall like a job that can be done three years, five years, not a project that explodes in a week. Good for ripening a product, keeping clients, keeping a bench. Not good then for changing a track, a brand name, a partner. If you asked “should I hold on,” Heng mostly nods. If you asked “should I change line,” Heng mostly frowns.

For wealth, Heng is like fixed income, a long contract, clients who will come back. Comes slow, can be stored. Want to double on this hexagram: the direction is reversed. Nine in the fourth, 「田無禽」: the field ploughed, birds and beasts not there, busy in vain. Draw this line: method wrong, place wrong; however lasting, you still hit nothing. Change the field first, then talk of lasting.

Ask about a partnership and Heng: a good hexagram, provided virtue lasts. Nine in the third, 「不恆其德，或承之羞，貞吝」. Virtue does not last; perhaps shame comes to receive; even correct, cause for regret. The slogan shouts lasting; doing changes every three days: shame will come. A contract writes ten years; a person’s credit is calculated by the week: that is not Heng. That is hanging a sheep’s head.

A post, an exam, a professional license: Heng is very on topic. It encourages you to train one ability into your own. People who change back and forth drawing Heng: the hexagram is saying, first choose one, walk it through, then talk.

Love asking about lasting, look at Heng; asking about starting, look at Xian

This sentence I almost repeat every class.

If you are single and draw Heng, a new person may not appear at once. More common: an old person still there, a relationship being lengthened, you yourself first having to raise the ability to live the days. Force Heng as peach blossom, and you will wait bitterly. Peach blossom looks at Xian. Heng looks at whether you can become the person who can walk it through.

Already together, asking about marriage, buying a house together, whether after living apart you can still turn back: Heng is the proper topic. The direction leans holding, continuing, treating this relationship as a matter to complete. Holding is not swallowing anger. The Tuan writes Xun and moving: there is movement inside. Rules that should be spoken, division of labor that should be filled: have to move. Lasting that does not move is stiff.

Six in the fifth, in love, has to be spoken clearly. 「恆其德，貞，婦人吉，夫子凶。」 Lasting in virtue, correct: for a wife lucky, for a husband unlucky. Old notes are often read as: a woman holding is lucky, a man holding is unlucky. That is saying the roles dead. Six in the fifth, yin occupying the honored place. In a place of “holding proper work, following along,” lasting is virtue. In a place of “taking charge, having to adapt,” only knowing how to hold the same move, market and children all changed and still not changing: unlucky. Today not necessarily cut by male and female. Look at whether this time you asked about holding, or being head of the house. A person in charge taking Heng as “I will not change in ten years”: that is the husband’s unlucky road. A person in proper work dropping Heng, changing people with mood: that is this wife line not held.

There is also a common misuse in love: using Heng to keep a person who already has no Xian. No influence, only habit left: Heng becomes mutually tormenting. First ask whether there is still feeling, then ask whether it can last. Both hexagrams there: then it looks like husband and wife. Only Heng, no Xian: the home will be cold. Only Xian, no Heng: the home will drift.

Whether a home can be ordered still has to land on Jia Ren. Heng is lasting; Jia Ren is inside and outside correct, teaching in words, days livable. Last without being ordered: however you can hold outside, under the eaves it will still be Kui 睽.

Heng’s lines: lasting used in the wrong place is also unlucky

Heng is not all six lines lucky. Lasting used in the wrong place is worse than not lasting.

Initial six: 浚恆，貞凶，無攸利. 浚 is digging down. A relationship just starting, already chasing former history, demanding hearts to the bottom, cutting the way back together. Correct, still unlucky. Draw the first line: what you most must not is “I am serious about you” as an excuse, the first week wanting the other person to move in, delete a list, meet parents. Lasting is not digging very deep from the start. The root has not grown; dig through, and the tree will die.

Nine in the second: 悔亡. Able to be centered, able to be constant: regret can be gone. Career, love walked to a place of stable output: this line most looks like “just do it well like this.” Do not, with nothing the matter, manufacture a high for yourself.

Nine in the third: 不恆其德，或承之羞，貞吝. Virtue not constant; shame will come to receive. Draw this line: first check yourself — have promises changed, has temper changed every three days, do outward statements fight each other. Even correct, cause for regret: you think yourself correct, still will be looked down on. In love the most common is “I am doing it for you” yet cannot do one small thing. At work the most common is a system written and not executed.

Nine in the fourth: 田無禽. Said above. Lasting used on an empty place is still empty. Changing method, object, market: more useful than holding an error.

Six in the fifth: 恆其德，貞，婦人吉，夫子凶. Role different, luck different. The one holding lucky; the one who should change and does not, unlucky. Ask about a wife, inner help, stable proper work: this line leans lucky. Ask about a commander, whether to transform, whether this job should never change: this line, be careful.

Upper six: 振恆，凶. 振 is shaking. Lasting to the end starting to sway, or using sway to pretend you are still lasting. Draw the upper line: a relationship or career already shaking. Adding stakes to perform “we are fine”: unlucky. Take in what should be taken in, talk what should be talked. Do not use shaking to keep Heng’s appearance.

In class I have students tell apart three kinds of lasting

First kind, correct lasting. Place right, method right, people still influencing, then finish living the days. This is what Heng wants.

Second kind, digging lasting. Come in and dig very deep, using intensity to pass as depth. The initial six specially receives this kind of person.

Third kind, stiff lasting. A person in charge treating “not changing” as virtue. Six in the fifth’s husband unlucky, the upper six’s shaking Heng: both come from here.

The check is earthy. How long have you already done this? Does the method work? Are you holding virtue, or holding face? Three sentences clear, and Heng was not wasted.

Ask about starting, look at Xian; ask about lasting, look at Heng; ask whether under the roof you can still live, look at Jia Ren. Do not skip these three steps.

Related reading: I Ching Xian Meaning | Hexagram 31 How to Read: Influence, Feeling in Love, I Ching Jia Ren Meaning | Hexagram 37 How to Read. If the way of the home is exhausted, hearts starting to split: I Ching Kui Meaning | Hexagram 38 How to Read.

I Ching Heng FAQ

Does drawing Heng mean this relationship will definitely marry?

The direction is that it can last, not that the household office has already stamped. Initial six, digging lasting: force a knot, also unlucky. Upper six, shaking Heng: a name there, still shaking. Look at the line, also whether that stall at home has anyone truly managing it.

Work is not going well, I drew Heng. Should I resign?

Heng does not encourage leaving as soon as it is not smooth. First check whether it is field with no game (method wrong), or virtue not lasting (you swayed first). Method wrong, change the method; you swayed first, change jobs and you will sway again. Truly go: let Heng become “finish this stretch then go,” nearer the hexagram than quitting naked in anger.

Wife lucky, husband unlucky: should a man not be faithful?

Not that meaning. Faithfulness is virtue. Unluck is a person in charge only holding, dropping the duty to adapt. A woman taking charge, a man holding the home: the judgment is the same. This time are you standing in a holding place, or a head-of-house place.

Original Xian, changing Heng, or original Heng, changing Jia Ren: how do I read it?

Xian changing to Heng: feeling has to land as days; you can talk seriously onward. Heng changing to Jia Ren: lasting has to be taken back to order under the eaves: money, children, the boundary with the family of origin. Both walking toward making a family, not toward breaking up.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.