I Ching Pi Meaning: Hexagram 12 Explained

Draw Pi 否 and class often goes quiet for half a second. Not to paint tragedy. Because this hexagram is straight: not open.

Pi is Heaven over Earth, Standstill. Heaven above, Earth below, looking very “normal,” but qi cannot meet. Yang drifts up, yin sinks down, the middle is empty. People cannot see each other; above and below cannot talk; the matter sits there.

Tai 泰 is interchange; Pi is no interchange. Learn the two hexagrams together, or drawing Pi only scares you, and drawing Tai only makes you smug.

Pi is not punishing you; it is telling you forcing through now costs most

The Xugua says Tai is opening, Pi is closed. Open finishes and it closes; closed finishes and it opens. Affairs of the world turn like that. Draw Pi: the matter you asked is currently in a closed stage.

The Tuan is clearer: Pi’s not-the-right-people, not beneficial for the superior person’s correctness, great going and small coming. The useful goes out; the petty, the consuming, comes in. Talent will not stay, information does not match, return on effort thins. This is not telling you to give up being a person. It is telling you not to use an “open” strategy when it is closed.

The Xiang says: 「天地不交，否。君子以儉德辟難，不可榮以祿。」 Heaven and Earth do not meet, Pi. The superior person uses thrifty virtue to avoid difficulty, and must not be glorified by salary. I almost copy this for students every time. When it is closed, be thrifty: less exposure, less expansion, less tying yourself to honor. Not hiding forever. This stretch, do not put your neck under the blade.

Career and wealth: first survive, then advance

Ask about career and draw Pi: overall, do not open a new battlefield. Plans can be written, people seen; do not rush to sign a contract, do not rush to expand a team. A low market, superiors who will not hear, colleagues each doing their own: all Pi’s daily face.

The most expensive tuition then is “I will prove I can.” Pi is not afraid of you working. It is afraid of you working for others to see. Polishing the product, holding cash, filling a skill: all thrifty virtue. Issuing a statement, holding a high meeting, going hard against the other party: mostly finding the difficulty more accurately.

For wealth, Pi is not necessarily bankruptcy. Income is slow, cashing out is hard, money promised to you will drag. Large investment, guarantees, borrowing a name to borrow money: treat as a red light. The reverse of small going and great coming: the great goes out, the small comes in. Holding principal matters more than chasing return.

Pi’s six lines are not equally black. Initial six and six in the second are still in the lower layer of closed, with “pulling up the thatch,” “small people lucky, the great person in Pi opens” — reminders to see clearly whom you stand with. Nine in the fourth starts to have a seam of a turn. Upper nine, 「傾否」: the closed structure itself will collapse; Pi at the extreme only truly looks like turning in this band. So draw Pi and you must look at which line. Pi of the first line tells you to squat. Pi of the upper line tells you to prepare to stand.

People: not every silence is a cold war, but this time communication is truly bad

Ask about love and draw Pi: the two sides’ qi does not meet. Not necessarily a breakup. Talking reason now has extremely low efficiency. Each talking their own; messages read and not returned; meeting also like a layer in between.

Hard explaining, hard chasing, hard going public then often sits Pi in place. What fits the hexagram is lowering demands to the minimum: first finish living, less judging motives. When qi starts to meet, then talk about the future.

If you are single and draw Pi, it is not a fate of no companion. People you meet in this stretch, hearts will be slow to meet, or the occasion is wrong. Pause socializing a little, live life a little thicker: more like thrifty virtue. Smashing Pi with more dates is like putting another doorbell on a closed door.

Workplace people and Pi: be careful of being pulled into taking sides. In Pi’s environment, information is poor, misunderstandings many; who is close to you, who speaks above, will be magnified. Less stating a position, less passing words, finish your proper work: that is this hexagram’s people technique.

Pi at the extreme becomes Tai: not a slogan — whether you squatted cleanly enough

Everyone can say Pi at the extreme becomes Tai. Truly draw Pi and the point is whether the “extreme” has arrived. Celebrate early before it has arrived: treating Tai as a consolation prize.

I have students check with three whether it is time to turn:

1. Have you stopped the activities that should stop? Still fighting with Tai’s method, and the extreme is still early.
2. Body, cash, credit: have you held them? Cannot hold them, and even if it turns you cannot receive it.
3. Has the hexagram reached the upper line, or changed into Tai? If so, it more looks like the structure turning, not only you wanting to turn.

What Pi teaches is not pessimism. It is taking force back from “make others understand me at once” and using it on “let myself get through.” When the day of meeting comes, you are still there: then there is Tai to receive.

To see the open side, read I Ching Tai Meaning | Hexagram 11 How to Read: Advance or Guard in Peace. When it is closed you have to carry; Kun 坤 is useful. To take the edge off, Qian (Modesty) 謙 is useful. When a shock comes it is another kind of hardness: I Ching Zhen Meaning | Hexagram 51 How to Read.

I Ching Pi FAQ

Does drawing Pi mean this will definitely fail?

Not necessarily fail. It is not open now. Many things are raised inside Pi and only go public in Tai. If you hard-make a Pi year into a founding year, a wedding year, a showdown year, the failure rate goes up.

Can I ask to change luck, change the date?

Changing a date can sometimes avoid a clash on a given day. It cannot change a whole stretch of closed qi. The real method of changing luck is written in the Xiang: thrifty virtue to avoid difficulty. Less glory, less expansion, less showing off. More real than changing a day.

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

You can start looking at the next step. Do not quit naked in anger. Outside Pi is also not open; charging out may only be swapping one closed place. First have a next place, first have savings, then go. This is much like the advice in a BaZi year of Friends combining with Officer/Killings: when the name is unfair, leave a trace, then go — do not only vent.

Original hexagram Pi, changing hexagram Tai: has it already turned?

The direction is turning; the process still has to pass Pi. Like weather reporting sun tomorrow while it is still raining today. You can prepare clothes for going out. You need not do today’s business as if it were already sunny.

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