I Ching Yi (Increase) Meaning: Hexagram 42

After Sun 損 comes Yi 益. Students drawing Yi light up: finally it is my turn to receive. This hexagram does have receiving. What it receives is taken from above and given below. If you stand above, Yi is first that you give. If you stand below, it looks more like being helped. If the place is not asked clearly, Yi is read as greed.

The picture is Wind over Thunder, Xun above Zhen. Thunder below — movement; wind above — entering, spreading with the current. Thunder moves below, wind travels above: the matter can go in, can grow. Many people write it as Heng 恆, Thunder over Wind. Heng is Zhen above Xun: thunder over wind, duration, keeping the constant. Reverse above and below and when you should do great work you go to talk Heng, and the window closes.

Yi: decrease without cease must increase

The Xu Gua says: 「損而不已必益，故受之以益。」 Decrease without cease must increase, so Yi follows. Decrease to a point, and it turns to adding. Not the cosmos compensating you for having cried. A structure cannot only draw and never fill. Draw Yi: the matter you asked about is in a stage when you can add, help, walk outward.

The Tuan says: 「益，損上益下，民說無疆。自上下下，其道大光。」 Decrease above, increase below; the people are pleased without bound. From above going down to those below, the way is greatly bright. This is Sun flipped. Sun’s way goes upward; Yi’s way is greatly bright, because light shines down from above. If you are a boss, an elder, someone with resources in hand, and you draw Yi, the homework is dividing downward — not packing more into your own pocket.

The judgment is blunt: 「利有攸往，利涉大川。」 Beneficial to go somewhere; beneficial to cross a great stream. In Sun you mostly decrease. In Yi the road is open. Expanding, helping people, moving, great work: all inside the topic.

The Xiang says: 「風雷，益。君子以見善則遷，有過則改。」 Wind and thunder, Yi. The superior person, seeing the good, moves toward it; having a fault, corrects it. The method of increasing yourself is not waiting for someone else to send money. See the good and move; have a fault and change. Wind and thunder are both movement, both fast. Yi also hates delay.

Tai 泰 speaks of opening, then doing the work. Yi says more clearly: opened, having, divide downward. The spirit is close. Tai stresses exchange; Yi stresses giving.

Career and wealth: you can do something large — do not do it full to the upper nine

Ask about career and draw Yi: it suits pushing. The initial nine: 「利用為大作，元吉，無咎。」 Beneficial to use for great work; great fortune, no blame. Great work is truly starting something large: opening a line, going on the road, making a plan from paper into a site. Great fortune — provided this great work increases those below, not only your own name card.

Six in the fourth: 「中行，告公從，利用為依遷國。」 Walking the center, telling the duke and being followed; beneficial to use as a support for moving a state. Moving is not that everyone must move house today. The structure can move: a base, a system, whom you bind to. Draw six in the fourth: large matters must be reported, must have a public name. Do not move in private.

In wealth, Yi looks like wind sending thunder’s force outward. Accounts that should come in, help that should come, people that should be added: more likely to arrive. You can invest, add a stake, and still ask: this increase, in the end, increases whom. Increase only yourself, not a drop of soup below, and the people will not be pleased, the way will not be bright.

Six in the third: 「益之用凶事，無咎。」 Increase used on a disastrous matter: no blame. Rescue, filling a hole, helping someone through a gate: this line is the most correct. Take increase to gild what is already fine, to hold up a scene: less like six in the third. Ask “should this money go to an emergency”: Yi often says it should.

Nine in the fifth: 「有孚惠心，勿問元吉。有孚惠我德。」 There is sincerity, a generous heart; do not ask — great fortune. There is sincerity that benefits my virtue. A leader drawing nine in the fifth is Yi’s place that most looks like “you can give.” When you give, do not ask too calculatingly. The hexagram itself says do not ask. Calculate every return, and the kindness thins.

Ask about exams, study, moving, whether to accept a grant: Yi often appears. Beneficial to cross a great stream: you can truly cross the river you used to fear. Fear remains. Crossing in Yi is cheaper than crossing in Sun. The premise of cheap still is: this crossing makes those below a little better — not only your résumé.

Yi in love: help the other person — not feed laziness, not only allow yourself to be cared for

Ask about love and draw Yi: there is qi of adding forward in the bond. It suits helping, putting resources out, pushing the relationship toward a more public, more walkable road. If you are single, you more easily meet someone willing to complete you, or you are in a place to complete someone else.

If you are already together, Yi is holding each other up from below — not one side as an ATM. Decrease above to increase below: if you are forever above and the other forever below, the stretch becomes one-way transfusion. Transfuse too long, and the upper nine is near.

Upper nine: 「莫益之，或擊之，立心勿恆，凶。」 No one increases you further; someone may strike you. The heart is not constant: unfortunate. The upper nine in love is common: you have been helped a great deal, still feel it is not enough, still want the other to increase, to prove again. At this step, increase flips into striking. Not that the other person suddenly turned bad. You treated increase as a tax due.

So Yi is not unconditionally good. Ask about marrying, living together, whether to resign and move for the other: Yi can support “beneficial to go somewhere.” You still look at which line. The initial nine’s great work can. The upper nine wanting more: unfortunate.

The lines of Yi: fortune in being able to give and move; misfortune in still wanting

Initial nine: 利用為大作，元吉，無咎. Even a lower place can do something large, because the whole hexagram’s qi is increasing below. Someone asks: I am still small, still new — can I open this? The initial nine says you can, and it must be great work, not a furtive little bit.

Six in the second: 或益之十朋之龜，弗克違，永貞吉. Almost the same sentence as Sun’s six in the fifth, plus lasting persistence. Treasure arrives, you cannot refuse: persist long in what is correct, fortunate. Sudden help, a sudden patron, sudden money: draw six in the second, receive it, and keep it by a correct method. Do not take it to gamble the next round.

Six in the third: 益之用凶事，無咎. Put increase on disaster and difficulty. Ask about charity, helping kin through a gate, whether to rescue the scene first: this line is the most on topic.

Six in the fourth: 中行告公從，利用為依遷國. Public, walking the center, having support. Moving a state is a large move, not a private preference. A career turn, a move, a change of camp: there must be a public that can be followed.

Nine in the fifth: 有孚惠心，勿問元吉. Giving in position. Ask “I am good to others — do they know”: nine in the fifth says benefit first; do not put asking in front of benefiting.

The upper nine as above. Increase to the end and still want: you will be struck. The heart without constancy: today this, tomorrow that. Draw the upper nine: stop reaching out. Check whether you have treated help as a habit.

In class I teach Yi against Sun

Sun decreases below to complete above. Yi decreases above to complete below. The same person may be in Sun this season, Yi the next. You will not forever be the one drawn from, nor forever the one fed.

I have students answer only two questions:

1. Am I now above or below? Above: prepare to give. Below: you may receive, and after receiving you must do great work — not lie waiting for the next ten-peng tortoise.
2. Will this increase shine? If it only enters your pocket, the people are not pleased, the way is not bright. Bright means those below truly improved a length.

See the good and move; have a fault and change: increasing yourself. Wait for wind to blow benefits in, and do not change a fault, and the wind will also stop.

Great work, moving a state, crossing a great stream: all movement. Yi hates lying down to collect. People below who receive increase should use it to do something real, large, that can be passed down again. Take a ten-peng tortoise to the next gamble: not lasting persistence. Receive kindness and feed the heart greedier: the upper nine is waiting ahead.

When you give, also see whether the below is truly below. Feeding laziness, feeding a handle, feeding someone who forever needs you: it looks like Yi; walked long, it is the seed of striking. Decrease above to increase below: those below must be able to stand because of it. Then the people are pleased without bound.

To see the decreasing side: I Ching Sun Meaning | Hexagram 41 How to Read: Decrease, How to Let Go in Season. Do not read above and below as Heng. Heng is duration, keeping the constant. Yi is movement that can enter and grow. Talk Heng when you should do great work, and the window closes: I Ching Heng Meaning | Hexagram 32 How to Read: Duration, How to Keep What Lasts. Opened, divide downward: Tai’s spirit is near: I Ching Tai Meaning | Hexagram 11 How to Read: Advance or Guard in Peace. When giving, put the place right; Modesty is useful: I Ching Qian (Modesty) Meaning | Hexagram 15 How to Read: All Six Lines Fortunate.

I Ching Yi (Increase) FAQ

Is Yi great fortune — take it and you are right?

The direction is you can go, can cross a great stream. The upper nine is not fortunate. Illegal increase, increase that injures, sucking those below dry so you look very increased: none of that is this hexagram. However bright the hexagram, it must match the matter asked.

Draw Yi: does it suit founding, expanding a shop?

It suits great work, and there must still be a below to increase: staff, customers, a product that can actually be used. Increase only the signboard, and wind blows for a season and scatters. The initial nine can open; nine in the fifth can give; the upper nine should stop the hand.

Someone suddenly helps me, gives me something: is that six in the second’s ten-peng tortoise?

It may be. You cannot refuse: not that you should not ask the source. Lasting persistence: after receiving, the use must be correct. Unclear source, asking you to trade the person for it: do not rush to call it great fortune.

Original Yi, resulting Guai: why do some people say be careful?

Increase without cease must break. Add to fullness, and the next step is deciding, cutting. You can begin to prepare a break, a clearing. You need not, in Yi, open every door to the widest. How Guai decides: I Ching Guai Meaning | Hexagram 43 How to Read: Breakthrough, How to Decide and Remove.

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