Hexagram 46 of 64
Rising
升 Shēng
Upper trigram: 坤 Kūn, earth
Lower trigram: 巽 Xùn, wind
The judgment
元亨，用見大人，勿恤，南征吉。
Supreme success. Use this to see the great person. Do not worry. Setting out to the south brings good fortune.
The Great Image
地中生木，升；君子以順德，積小以高大。
Within the earth a tree grows: Rising. In the same way, the noble person is compliant with virtue and piles up small things until they are high and large.
The six lines
Lines are counted from the bottom. Read a line closely when it changes in your cast.
Line 1 初六
允升，大吉。
Rising with assent. Great good fortune.
To rise with the agreement of those around you is the easiest kind of rising. Ask whether the people who work beside you would welcome your next step.
Line 2 九二
孚乃利用禴，无咎。
With trust, it is fitting to make the simple seasonal offering. No blame.
A modest offering made in trust is enough here. Ask whether you could advance by giving something small and honest, where you had thought a large show was needed.
Line 3 九三
升虛邑。
Rising into an empty town.
An empty town has no one to stop you and no one to greet you. Ask whether an easy rise could be a sign that no one else wants the place you are moving into.
Line 4 六四
王用享于岐山，吉无咎。
The king makes an offering at Mount Qi. Good fortune. No blame.
Mount Qi was the homeland of the Zhou people, and their king makes his offering there. Consider what place or people you came from and how you could acknowledge them as you go up.
Line 5 六五
貞吉，升階。
Holding firm brings good fortune. Rising up the steps.
Steps are climbed one at a time and none can be skipped. Consider what the next single step is and what it would take to stay steady on it.
Line 6 上六
冥升，利于不息之貞。
Rising in the dark. It is fitting to hold firm without rest.
Climbing in the dark, you cannot see the top. Ask how you would know when to stop, and whether steady effort with no rest is what you are prepared to give.
What this hexagram says
Wind below, earth above. The lower trigram also stands for wood, so a tree pushes up through the ground. It stands for steady growth by small additions.
The judgment is open and encouraging: see someone who can help, do not worry, set out southward. The image explains how, as small things pile up into tall ones. Ask what small daily addition you could make to the thing you want to grow.
If your question is about a career, a skill or a long project, tradition reads this as a time for patient climbing. The lines describe rising by agreement, by modest offerings and by one step at a time. The top line is a caution that climbing blindly is different from climbing well.
A hexagram is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
Where this text comes from
The Chinese follows the Wikisource text of the Zhou Yi (its page for this hexagram, 周易/升), compared with the Project Gutenberg edition. The Great Image comes from the Wikisource page 周易/大象.
- Wikisource, 周易
Retrieved 2026-11-08
- Project Gutenberg eBook 25501, 易經
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Read this hexagram with its traditional commentaries in our library.
Where the sources differ
- In the fourth line, Wikisource (A) reads 享 (to make an offering) and notes that another text has 亨. Project Gutenberg (B) reads 亨, which can carry the same old sense of offering. B also writes 無 where A has 无, variant forms of the same word.
The English renderings and the advice are by Cast & Chart. The advice is a modern reading and is not part of the classical text.