I Ching Xian Meaning: Hexagram 31 Explained

Draw Xian 咸 and in class someone’s eyes often light: love is coming.

First get the hexagram right. Xian is Lake over Mountain, Influence. Dui 兌 above, Gen 艮 below. Lake on the mountain, water seeping down, the mountain below receiving. Above is a young woman, below a young man. The young man puts himself under the young woman: that is man under woman. Some people reverse above and below and read Mountain over Lake, Sun 損. Decrease is Gen above, Dui below, mountain above, lake below: about decreasing. One is influence; one asks you to put something down. Reverse the image and the whole reading reverses.

Xian is also not a salty taste, not a reign title. 咸者，感也. Influence is feeling, feeling without calculation. Not calculating then going to touch. Two breaths truly met. The judgment still gave conditions: it opens. Beneficial to be correct. Taking a woman, luck. Opening is getting through; taking a woman is being able to match; in the middle a correctness. Feeling can open; feeling crooked is not lucky.

Why the Lower Canon begins with husband and wife

The Upper Canon starts from Qian 乾 and Kun 坤, Heaven and Earth. The Lower Canon starts from Xian, people.

The Xugua says: 「有天地然後有萬物，有萬物然後有男女，有男女然後有夫婦，有夫婦然後有父子，有父子然後有君臣，有君臣然後有上下，有上下然後禮義有所錯。」 Husband and wife are the first ring of this chain of human relations. Home, state, ritual and right: all start from whether a pair of people can feel correctly. So the Xugua goes on: the way of husband and wife cannot not last; therefore Heng 恆 follows. Xian is feeling.

Draw Xian: do not only treat it as peach blossom. It asks: between you and this person, this matter, has qi met? Is the meeting correct? Can it later walk to Heng, to Jia Ren 家人.

The Tuan says: 「咸，感也。柔上而剛下，二氣感應以相與，止而說，男下女，是以亨利貞，取女吉也。」 Xian is feeling. The yielding above, the firm below: two breaths influence and join; stop and joy; man under woman: therefore it opens, beneficial to be correct, taking a woman luck. The yielding above, the firm below is not the man having no guts. The one pursuing first puts the manner down. Stop and joy: Gen below is stopping, Dui above is speaking, joy. First able to stop, then joy: that is called influence. Joy that cannot stop is restlessness; stopping without joy is cold. Neither is Xian.

Career and wealth: whether you have met

Ask about career and draw Xian: the point is often not whether you are strong enough. It is whether you and the other party, the market, a patron have feeling. A proposal received, an interview with a callback, a cooperation talked together: all Xian. No feeling, however hard you work, like a mountain in between.

For wealth, Xian is like opportunity that comes because of a person: an introduction, a collab, a client moved by you as a person. Not Qian’s pure performance fought yourself, not Kun’s slowly raising earth. People right, money easier to follow. People not met, however much you smash ads: like a big toe moving by itself.

Ask about a partnership and Xian: tell apart correct feeling and private feeling. Correct feeling is the matter itself matching, terms talked clearly. Private feeling is everyone excited, details not yet written. The judgment already warned: taking a woman luck, beneficial to be correct. Correctness is terms, a term, division of labor landing on paper. Signing only on feeling: nine in the fourth’s coming and going in a daze will come quickly.

Ask about workplace people and Xian: common is being seen, appreciated, or someone having feeling toward you. Influence can exist; the place should be correct. Using private feeling to swap public work: later shame, cause for regret.

Love is Xian’s proper work; write it clearly

Ask about love: Xian is the proper topic. If you are single and draw Xian, this stretch easily meets, easily moves the heart; the other person may also show goodwill first. Man under woman: the one taking initiative has to put the manner down — seriously invite, seriously listen, not holding a pose waiting for the other person to kneel. Taking a woman luck: the direction can think toward making a family, not meeting three days and going to register. Beneficial to be correct: see the person clearly, put the heart upright, then go forward.

If you are already together, Xian asks whether there is still influence. Days lived long, only a schedule left, qi cannot meet: Xian will remind you, first restore coming and going, not first restore negotiation. Coming and going is not checking attendance, not bombing messages. Gen is stopping. Stop your own anxiety, then the other person can feel you, not feel your panic.

Married, asking whether to settle, whether this match will complete: Xian is the Lower Canon’s start of husband and wife, the direction leans completing. It only manages whether feeling is correct, not whether you can last a lifetime. Whether you can last, look at Heng. Whether a home can be ordered, look at Jia Ren. Asking about the place and ritual of marrying, the old also separately looks at Gui Mei 歸妹. The hexagram did not come out Gui Mei: do not automatically map “marry and you will be wronged.” Draw Xian and announce happily ever after: treating the first lesson as a diploma.

A third person, ambiguity, a person who should not be felt: also often come out Xian. Because Xian only guarantees there is feeling, not that this stretch of influence should happen. That is why the judgment added correctness. You yourself know whether this feeling is stepping on someone else’s home. Not correct, taking a woman is not lucky, and later shame and cause for regret will come to collect.

Xian’s lines: from the big toe to the tongue

Xian from below up corresponds to the body from low to high. The higher the place that moves, the nearer the heart; at the very top, it overflows into the mouth. In class this picture has to be drawn.

Initial six: 咸其拇. The 拇 is the big toe. Influence has only reached the tip. The heart moved a moment; the person has not truly gone forward. Draw the first line: not appropriate to announce, confess until the whole city knows. The toe runs first, the body still behind: easy to fall.

Six in the second: 咸其腓，凶，居吉. The 腓 is the calf. Higher than the toe, wanting to follow, to walk. The line says unlucky, and also staying lucky. Move too early, unlucky; first stop in the place you should stop, lucky. The other person replied one message and you start planning the future: exactly this line. The calf will cramp; a person will scare themselves.

The first and second are both at the tip. Feeling is there, not yet time to stake a household. These two lines appear, I advise observing, coming and going, seeing the person clearly — not immediately taking a woman.

Nine in the third: 咸其股，執其隨，往吝. The 股 is the thigh, already able to take the whole body, but it holds its following, grabbing what is below to follow together. Yourself not yet in charge, treating others’ rhythm as your own. Going, cause for regret. In love, following too tightly; at work, whoever is enthusiastic, you follow.

Nine in the fourth: 貞吉悔亡。憧憧往來，朋從爾思. This is Xian’s heart. Correct, luck; regret can vanish. Then immediately it draws the reverse: coming and going in a daze, the mind running back and forth, every possibility coming to keep your imagination company. Draw nine in the fourth: what you most have to ask is, am I feeling this person, or feeling that pile of what-ifs in the head? Heart correct, feeling opens; heart in a mess, anyone will come sway a moment.

Nine in the fifth: 咸其脢，無悔. The 脢 is the spine, behind the heart. Feeling deeper, not so much on the surface. No regret: not no feeling. Feeling no longer led by the tips. Ask about marriage, the long term: this line more reliable than the first and second.

Upper six: 咸其輔頰舌. 輔 is the jaw, 頰 the cheek, 舌 the tongue. Influence only the mouth left. Say a lot, write a lot, promise a lot; body and heart have not followed. Draw the upper six: I almost always advise speaking less. Love talk, vows, posting publicly: all cheap then. If feeling is still there, use action; if feeling is not there, more tongue cannot make it up.

Big toe, calf are tips, moving too early. Coming and going in a daze is the mind in a mess. Jaw, cheek, tongue only the mouth left. Read the six lines, and Xian is not a sentence “having feeling is so good” that can dismiss it.

In class, feeling must be correct: these three words are hardest to teach

Students will ask: what is correct?

I give a very earthy check. First, does this stretch of influence harm a third person, harm your own proper work. Second, can you, when the other person has not replied, still finish that day’s work. Cannot finish: the calf is cramping, not Xian opening. Third, are you willing to take this person in front of family, not only leave them in a chat window. Able to see light: more like taking a woman luck.

Xian is a start, not an ending. Feeling correct, then the next lesson is Heng. Ask about starting, the heart moving, whether this person follows me: look at Xian. Ask whether it can last: look at Heng. Ask whether you can live the days, order a home: look at Jia Ren. Three hexagrams connected, and love will not be kidnapped by a single “having feeling.”

Related reading: I Ching Heng Meaning | Hexagram 32 How to Read: Duration, How to Keep What Lasts, I Ching Jia Ren Meaning | Hexagram 37 How to Read. Asking about the place and ritual of marrying: I Ching Gui Mei Meaning | Hexagram 54 How to Read. If a relationship already cannot close: I Ching Kui Meaning | Hexagram 38 How to Read.

I Ching Xian FAQ

Does drawing Xian mean the right connection has arrived?

There is influence, not already certified married. Correct or not, look at correctness, also at whom you asked. Feeling very strong toward a person who should not be felt: also comes out Xian. Treat Xian as an end, and later shame and cause for regret you will walk yourself.

Is Xian accurate for career, or only for love?

Accurate. Influence at work is the smell of people, timing, the market. Career drawing Xian still needs correctness: write terms clearly, do not use ambiguity as a contract. Love is the proper work, not the only use.

Taking a woman luck: if a woman asks, is it not lucky?

No. Taking a woman is old language for completing a match, completing a pairing; the point is being able to join. A woman who draws Xian likewise looks at whether influence is correct, whether she herself put the manner right. The old saying man under woman: the pursuer goes down first. Who is pursuing, who goes down first: need not lock gender.

Original Xian, changing Heng: how do I read it?

Feeling is already about to walk toward lasting. You can talk seriously, meet parents, say “we” out. Still do not, at the first and second lines’ tip place, sign a house loan together. Feeling opened; correctness is still there.

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