I Ching Hexagram 31: Influence - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 31, Influence (Xian), is Lake over Mountain and describes attraction that works without being pushed. Hexagram 31 opens the second half of the King Wen sequence with courtship, and its six changing lines climb the body from the big toe to the tongue. This guide covers the Judgement, the Image, all six lines, the nuclear hexagram 44, the opposite hexagram 41, and how Hexagram 31 reads for a decision, a relationship and work.

What does I Ching Hexagram 31, Influence, mean?

I Ching Hexagram 31, Influence, means attraction that works without force, the pull two things exert on each other before either has decided anything. Its Chinese name is Xian, and the traditional gloss is precise: xian is the character gan, to feel or be affected, with the heart radical removed. Hexagram 31 is feeling that has not yet been processed by the deliberating mind. Wilhelm and Baynes title it Influence and add Wooing in parentheses; Legge renders the name Hsien. Hexagram 31 opens the second book of the King Wen sequence, the half read as the human world, and it opens that half with courtship. Two features make hexagram 31 meaning unusually clear. Its trigrams are the two youngest children of the trigram family, and all three of its line pairs correspond, yin answering yang at every level. Received in a reading, i ching influence says the situation is governed by attraction rather than by argument or force, and that you are as much the object of it as the source.

Hexagram 31 carries weight out of proportion to its cheerful surface because of where it sits. Hexagram 30, the Clinging Fire, closes the upper canon, and Hexagram 31 begins the lower canon with the meeting of a man and a woman. The traditional sequence commentary makes the argument explicitly: once heaven and earth exist there are the ten thousand things, and once there are man and woman there is the pairing everything social is built on. Whoever arranged the King Wen order chose attraction as the first fact of human life. That framing changes how Hexagram 31 reads outside romance. Influence here is not a technique but the force making any two parties turn toward each other, and the hexagram treats a partnership, a negotiation and a courtship as the same phenomenon at different scales. Hexagram 31 describes influence while it is still involuntary, felt in the body rather than argued in the head, and its six lines track exactly that. They climb the body from toe to tongue, and the further up they go, the more conscious and the less effective the influence becomes.

Why is I Ching Hexagram 31 called Influence rather than Attraction?

Hexagram 31 is called Influence because Xian covers both directions of the exchange. Wilhelm and Baynes added Wooing to catch the courtship layer. Attraction names only the magnetism; in Hexagram 31 the thing attracted is itself changed.

Where does I Ching Hexagram 31 sit in the King Wen sequence?

Hexagram 31 is the first hexagram of the lower canon, the second of the two books the King Wen sequence divides into. Hexagrams one through thirty end with the Clinging Fire; Hexagram 31 begins the rest with courtship.

What does it mean that all the lines of I Ching Hexagram 31 correspond?

Correspondence means a yin line answered by a yang line three places above it. In Hexagram 31 all three pairs correspond: yin first with yang fourth, yin second with yang fifth, yang third with yin sixth. Few hexagrams manage all three.

Which two trigrams form I Ching Hexagram 31 and why do they produce Influence?

I Ching Hexagram 31 is formed from Dui, the Joyous Lake, above Gen, Keeping Still the Mountain, and the combination produces Influence because stillness underneath is the precondition for being moved. Gen is the youngest son and stops; Dui is the youngest daughter and delights. Stack them and you get a lake resting in the hollow summit of a mountain, the crater tarn Wilhelm points to when explaining the hexagram. The mountain can hold the lake only because its top has been hollowed out. Meanwhile the water seeps downward through the rock and keeps the mountain alive, so the benefit runs both ways. The lower trigram also sets the etiquette. The young man has taken the position beneath the young woman, and that placement makes the courtship honorable rather than predatory: initiative offered from below, not imposed from above. Everything in hexagram 31 influence follows from this arrangement. Be still enough to be affected, hollow enough to hold what arrives, and low enough that your approach is a request rather than a demand.

The pairing repays a second look, because the reverse order is a completely different hexagram. Put Gen above and Dui below and you have Hexagram 41, Decrease, the mountain sitting on the lake and pressing it down. Same two trigrams, opposite meaning, and the difference is entirely which one yields. In Hexagram 31 the immovable element is underneath and the open element on top, so the situation can receive. The family symbolism sharpens it further. Dui and Gen are the youngest daughter and youngest son of the eight trigrams, which is why Hexagram 31 reads as young attraction, quick and unformalized, rather than the seasoned partnership of Hexagram 32, where the eldest son and eldest daughter appear instead. Dui also carries the mouth among its images, which is why the top line of Hexagram 31, sitting at the very top of Dui, ends up talking. Gen carries stopping, which is why the third line, at the top of Gen, is criticized for running when it should hold. The trigrams generate the line texts of Hexagram 31, and they do it line by line.

What does the image of Lake over Mountain mean in I Ching Hexagram 31?

Lake over Mountain in Hexagram 31 means water held in a hollowed summit. The emptiness at the top lets the mountain hold the lake, and the lake feeds the mountain in return. Receptivity here is a space made for arrival.

Why is the youngest son placed below the youngest daughter in I Ching Hexagram 31?

In Hexagram 31 Gen, the youngest son, sits below Dui, the youngest daughter, because the suitor approaches from beneath. A man who puts himself below the woman he courts is asking rather than taking, which is why the Judgement promises good fortune.

How does Gen, the stillness trigram, create influence in I Ching Hexagram 31?

Gen supplies the stillness that makes the openness of Dui usable in Hexagram 31. A mountain does not chase the weather, yet clouds gather on it and water collects at its top. A restless party has no hollow for anything to settle in.

What do the Judgement and the Image of I Ching Hexagram 31 say?

The Judgement of I Ching Hexagram 31 in the Wilhelm and Baynes rendering reads: Influence. Success. Perseverance furthers. To take a maiden to wife brings good fortune. Three separate promises sit in that short text. Success, the word heng, says the situation moves. Perseverance furthers, the word zhen, attaches a condition of correctness to the movement. The marriage clause supplies the working model, since courtship is influence conducted in a form where consent matters. The Image reads: A lake on the mountain: the image of Influence. Thus the superior man encourages people to approach him by his readiness to receive them. The Image is the practical instruction, and it is the opposite of what people expect from a hexagram about influence. Nothing is said about persuasion or reaching out. The junzi hollows himself the way the mountain hollows its summit, and the approach comes from the other side. Together the two texts define hexagram 31 meaning as attraction under discipline, because influence detached from correctness is seduction, which the Yijing treats as a different situation with a worse outcome.

The zhen clause is doing more work than its four words suggest. Wilhelm and Baynes translate zhen as perseverance and Legge as firm correctness, and in Hexagram 31 both senses apply. Perseverance because the pull described here is quick, and quick things dissipate. Correctness because this is the one hexagram where the mechanism and its abuse are indistinguishable from outside. A person who is genuinely open and a person performing openness produce the same first impression, and only the zhen clause separates them. The marriage clause has a similar double edge. Taking a maiden to wife brings good fortune reads as a straightforward blessing, and in a love reading that is how practitioners take it. Read structurally, it says influence should be conducted in a form that can be publicly acknowledged. Courtship ends in a stated commitment, which is why Hexagram 31 leads to Hexagram 32, Duration. The Image supplies the diagnostic that goes with it: if people are not approaching, the fault named by Hexagram 31 is a lack of room in you, not a lack of effort.

What does perseverance furthers mean in the Judgement of I Ching Hexagram 31?

Perseverance furthers in Hexagram 31 translates zhen, which Legge renders as firm correctness. It conditions the promised success on a straight intention, and it warns that the attraction described by Hexagram 31 is fast-moving and needs steadiness applied to it.

Why does the Judgement of I Ching Hexagram 31 mention taking a maiden to wife?

The Judgement of Hexagram 31 mentions taking a maiden to wife because courtship is the model case of influence done correctly: the suitor can only appeal, and the outcome is a stated commitment. In a reading it favors partnerships being formalized.

What does the Image of I Ching Hexagram 31 instruct the reader to do?

The Image of Hexagram 31 instructs the reader to become receptive rather than persuasive, encouraging approach by readiness to receive. In practice that means clearing space and waiting, since the mountain holds a lake only because its top is hollow.

What do the first three changing lines of I Ching Hexagram 31 mean?

The first three changing lines of I Ching Hexagram 31 climb the lower body, and each describes a premature form of influence. The first line, yin, says the influence shows itself in the big toe. Nothing has happened yet. The intention has formed at the outermost point of the body and nobody else can see it, so the text passes no verdict at all. The second line, yin and central in the lower trigram, says the influence shows itself in the calves: misfortune, tarrying brings good fortune. The calf twitches before the body has decided to walk, and moving on that impulse is the mistake. The third line, the yang line at the top of Gen, says the influence shows itself in the thighs, that it holds to what follows it, and that to continue is humiliating. Thighs cannot go anywhere on their own. Read as a set, these hexagram 31 changing lines form a warning about initiative. In a hexagram whose structure says wait to be approached, the lower half describes three ways of jumping the gun, and only the first is innocent, because it has not yet moved.

What makes the lower trigram of Hexagram 31 sting is that these lines are structurally well placed and still get criticized. The second line in particular is both central and correct, a yin line in a yin position at the heart of its trigram, and it corresponds with the yang fifth line above. By ordinary Yijing logic that is an excellent position. It still receives the word misfortune, and the reason is timing rather than character. The second line has a legitimate partner above and everything to gain by letting that partner come to it, so its impulse to walk over there is the one move that spoils the arrangement. The third line fails differently. Sitting at the top of Gen, the trigram of stopping, it is the line most obliged to hold still, and instead it runs after the top line, the one that turns out to be all talk. The lower half of Hexagram 31 therefore reads as an anatomy of restlessness: the toe intends, the calf twitches, the thigh follows, and none of them has consulted the heart yet.

What does the first line of I Ching Hexagram 31, the big toe, mean?

The first line of Hexagram 31 says the influence shows itself in the big toe and carries no verdict of fortune or blame. An intention has formed at the outermost edge of the body but has produced no visible action yet.

Why is the second line of I Ching Hexagram 31 called misfortune?

The second line of Hexagram 31 is called misfortune because the calves move before the body has decided. It has a corresponding partner in the fifth place and would be met if it waited. The text gives the remedy: tarrying brings good fortune.

What does the third line of I Ching Hexagram 31, the thighs, warn against?

The third line of Hexagram 31 warns against following whatever attracts you without discrimination. It holds to that which follows it and is told that continuing is humiliating. Sitting atop Gen, the stopping trigram, it has the least self-control.

What do the top three changing lines of I Ching Hexagram 31 mean?

The top three changing lines of I Ching Hexagram 31 rise from the heart to the mouth, and they trace influence becoming steadily more conscious and steadily less effective. The fourth line names no body part, and the tradition reads that silence as the heart itself. Its text says perseverance brings good fortune and remorse disappears, then adds that if the mind is agitated and thoughts go back and forth, only those friends on whom the conscious thought is fixed will follow. The fifth line says the influence shows itself in the back of the neck, above the heart, with no remorse. The nape is the stiff part feeling cannot easily reach, so this line is steady, unswayed and limited in what it moves. The sixth line says the influence shows itself in the jaws, cheeks and tongue: persuasion conducted purely by talk, at the top of Dui, the trigram carrying the mouth. These hexagram 31 changing lines invert the usual assumption that higher means better. The strongest influence sits at the heart in the fourth place, and everything above it is either too rigid to be moved or too verbal to move anything.

The fourth line earns its status as the pivot of Hexagram 31. It is a yang line in a yin place, which the tradition counts as incorrect, and that misplacement is why remorse is mentioned and then dissolved. What the line describes is the difference between broadcasting and targeting. A settled mind radiates influence in all directions without choosing recipients, and everyone in range responds. An agitated mind picks particular people to work on, and it gets those particular people and nobody else. The fifth line is the ruler's position and behaves like one. Located in the flesh above the heart, it cannot be swayed by sentiment, and the verdict is simply no remorse, neither praise nor blame. The top line completes the ascent at the mouth. Wilhelm reads it as ineffectual rather than wicked, and no fortune is assigned, which suits a line whose whole contribution is being persuasive out loud.

Why does the fourth line of I Ching Hexagram 31 name no body part?

The fourth line of Hexagram 31 names no body part because it holds the position of the heart in the scheme running from toe to tongue. Every other line reports a symptom of influence; the fourth reports its source.

What does the fifth line of I Ching Hexagram 31, the back of the neck, mean?

The fifth line of Hexagram 31 places the influence in the back of the neck, the flesh above the heart, with the verdict no remorse. The nape is rigid and unmoved by feeling, so it avoids error without producing much effect.

What does the top line of I Ching Hexagram 31, jaws and cheeks and tongue, mean?

The top line of Hexagram 31 puts the influence in the jaws, cheeks and tongue, meaning persuasion carried entirely by speech. It sits at the top of Dui, the mouth trigram, and no fortune is assigned: such influence is empty rather than harmful.

What are the nuclear and opposite hexagrams of I Ching Hexagram 31?

The nuclear hexagram of I Ching Hexagram 31 is Hexagram 44, Coming to Meet, and the opposite hexagram of Hexagram 31 is Hexagram 41, Decrease. Both are derived mechanically. Take lines two, three and four of Hexagram 31 and you get Xun, the Wind; take lines three, four and five and you get Qian, the Creative. Heaven above Wind is Hexagram 44, Gou, whose name means encounter, the meeting nobody arranged. Finding Coming to Meet inside Influence tells you what powers Hexagram 31 from within, with the single yin line pushing up from beneath as a reminder that such meetings are not always innocent. The opposite hexagram comes from reversing every line, which produces Mountain above Lake, Hexagram 41, Decrease. Then there is the King Wen pair: turn Hexagram 31 upside down and you get Hexagram 32, Duration. Three hexagrams therefore hang off Hexagram 31 in three directions, 44 hidden inside it, 41 as its mirror image, and 32 as its partner and sequel, and readers use them to place a Hexagram 31 answer inside a larger arc.

Each derived hexagram adds something a straight reading of Hexagram 31 would miss. Hexagram 44 as the nuclear figure explains the involuntary quality the name Xian already implied. An encounter is something that happens to you, and Hexagram 44 is famously ambivalent about the yin line arriving beneath five yang lines, which is why practitioners treat the core of Hexagram 31 as powerful but not automatically benign. Hexagram 41 as the opposite shows what Influence looks like when the mountain gets on top of the lake: the exchange stops being mutual and becomes reduction of the lower party for the benefit of the upper. Hexagram 32, Duration, is the most practically useful of the three, because it names what Hexagram 31 cannot deliver. Hexagram 31 is the youngest son and youngest daughter and describes the pull; Hexagram 32 is the eldest son and eldest daughter and describes the institution that pull can turn into. A questioner who receives Hexagram 31 and wants to know about permanence is holding the wrong half of the pair.

How do you find the nuclear hexagram of I Ching Hexagram 31?

Take lines two, three and four of Hexagram 31 for the lower nuclear trigram and lines three, four and five for the upper. Those give Xun, the Wind, beneath Qian, the Creative, which is Hexagram 44, Coming to Meet.

Why is Hexagram 41, Decrease, the opposite of I Ching Hexagram 31?

Hexagram 41 is the opposite of Hexagram 31 because reversing every line turns Lake over Mountain into Mountain over Lake. The same trigrams change places and the meaning flips from mutual openness to deliberate reduction of the lower party.

What is the relationship between I Ching Hexagram 31 and Hexagram 32?

Hexagram 31 and Hexagram 32 are a King Wen pair, the same figure inverted. Hexagram 31, Influence, is Lake over Mountain and describes courtship between the youngest trigram siblings; Hexagram 32, Duration, is Thunder over Wind and describes lasting marriage.

How should you read I Ching Hexagram 31 for a decision?

For a decision, I Ching Hexagram 31, Influence, says the right answer arrives as attraction rather than as the conclusion of an argument, so weigh which option you lean toward when you are quiet rather than which one you can best justify. The name Xian, feeling with the heart radical removed, points at exactly this. Hexagram 31 also assigns the timing. This is a courtship hexagram, and the party in the lower trigram makes an approach without compelling anyone, so the useful move is usually to put an offer out and let the other side close the distance. The second line states the failure mode plainly, since the calves move before the body has decided and the text calls it misfortune with tarrying as the remedy. Apply the zhen clause as a test before acting: if the influence you are exerting would not survive being described out loud to everyone involved, Hexagram 31 has already answered the question. Then apply the fourth line as a check on strategy, because a decision reached by working on specific people gets only those people.

There is a particular kind of question where Hexagram 31 is unusually direct, and that is any decision depending on someone else's willingness. Hiring, proposals, applications, invitations, asking for something. Hexagram 31 is the hexagram of mutual responsiveness, and receiving it on such a question means the other party is already inclined, which reframes the decision from whether to push to how to be available. The Image gives the tactic: encourage the approach by being ready to receive it. Clear the obstacles, state the opening, then stop. For decisions with no other party in them, Hexagram 31 suggests the choice is being made by taste rather than by reason, and declines to treat that as a flaw. What the hexagram insists on is checking which line of the body the pull comes from. A decision driven by the third line, chasing whatever moves, is criticized. A decision driven by the top line, talked into existence, is dismissed as empty. A decision sitting in the fourth place, quiet and unagitated, is the one Hexagram 31 endorses without qualification.

Does I Ching Hexagram 31 mean yes or no to a decision?

Hexagram 31 leans yes, since its Judgement grants success and good fortune, but it confirms willingness on both sides rather than endorsing force. The second line shows that moving too early converts that yes into misfortune.

What does I Ching Hexagram 31 say about timing a move?

Hexagram 31 puts the timing in the other party's hands. The second line calls premature movement misfortune and prescribes tarrying, and the Image says to make approach easy rather than to approach. Position yourself and let the response come.

How do you apply the correctness clause of I Ching Hexagram 31 to a real choice?

Apply the zhen clause of Hexagram 31 by testing whether the influence would survive full disclosure. If everyone learning how they were persuaded would leave the arrangement intact, it is correct. If disclosure would collapse it, Hexagram 31 has ruled.

What does I Ching Hexagram 31 mean for a relationship?

For a relationship, I Ching Hexagram 31, Influence, describes genuine mutual attraction at an early, undeclared stage. The hexagram is built from the two youngest children of the trigram family, Gen the youngest son under Dui the youngest daughter, and its Judgement ends with the line about taking a maiden to wife bringing good fortune. All three line pairs correspond, which readers take as confirmation that the feeling runs both directions rather than being one person's projection. What Hexagram 31 does not describe is a settled bond, because that is the territory of its pair, Hexagram 32, Duration. So on the common question of whether someone feels the same way, i ching influence is a yes. On whether it will last, Hexagram 31 declines to say. The changing lines are where the nuance sits. A moving third line points at chasing. A moving sixth line points at a connection living entirely in conversation. A moving second line says the attraction is real and the mistake would be forcing its pace.

The most counterintuitive advice Hexagram 31 gives on a relationship question comes from the Image. Faced with a person they want to attract, most people increase output: more contact, more effort, more evidence of interest. The Image of Hexagram 31 recommends the opposite, hollowing out room and letting the approach happen, on the model of a mountain whose summit is empty enough to hold a lake. The hexagram treats availability as the active ingredient and pursuit as the thing that spoils it. Hexagram 31 is also useful for reading an existing relationship that has gone flat. Received in that context it usually points to influence having migrated up the body: the couple operates from the fifth line, correct and unswayed and slightly stiff, or from the sixth, where everything is discussed and nothing is felt. The remedy Hexagram 31 implies is a return to the fourth place, the heart, and a stop to aiming.

Does I Ching Hexagram 31 indicate mutual feelings?

Hexagram 31 indicates mutual feelings more strongly than most hexagrams, because all three of its line pairs correspond and its trigrams are a courting pair. On a question about mutual interest, Hexagram 31 answers yes on both sides.

What does I Ching Hexagram 31 advise about pursuing someone?

Hexagram 31 advises making yourself approachable instead of pursuing. Its Image encourages people to approach by readiness to receive, and its third line, which holds to whatever it follows, is told that continuing is humiliating.

Can I Ching Hexagram 31 appear for a long marriage?

Hexagram 31 can appear for a long marriage, where it points to attraction returning rather than to the structure of the marriage, which belongs to Hexagram 32. The youngest trigram children read as courtship reappearing inside an established bond.

What does I Ching Hexagram 31 mean for work, business and career?

For work, I Ching Hexagram 31, Influence, means the outcome will be decided by rapport and fit rather than by the strength of the pitch. Received on a negotiation, Hexagram 31 says the other side is already inclined and the deal turns on mutual willingness, so the productive move is making agreement easy rather than arguing harder. Received on a job search, Hexagram 31 favors referral, introduction and reputation over volume applications. Received on a launch, the fourth line is the operative text: influence aimed at specific targets reaches those targets and stops, while influence issuing from a settled position reaches everyone in range. Two lines mark the failure modes for work questions. The sixth line of Hexagram 31, jaws and cheeks and tongue, is the deck that presents beautifully with nothing behind it. The second line is the rush to accept or to move first, which the text calls misfortune.

Hexagram 31 has a specific message about authority at work, and it comes from the position of the trigrams. Gen, the youngest son, is underneath, which means the influence in this hexagram flows upward from a junior position rather than downward from a senior one. That makes Hexagram 31 an unusually good answer for anyone trying to move an organization they do not run. The hexagram says it can be done, that it will be done by attraction rather than by mandate, and that the approach must come from below in a form the other party can accept or decline. A manager who receives Hexagram 31 on a question about their team is being told the team responds to what the manager is, not to what the manager announces. The fifth line supplies the counterweight. In the flesh above the heart, unmoved by feeling, it earns no remorse and no praise, which is a fair description of leadership conducted entirely by policy: correct, defensible and inert. Hexagram 31 locates the actual leverage one line lower, at the heart.

What does I Ching Hexagram 31 mean for a business negotiation?

For a negotiation, Hexagram 31 means both sides want the deal and the risk lies in the handling. The zhen clause warns that leverage applied crookedly forfeits the promised success, and the second line cautions against moving first out of impatience.

What does I Ching Hexagram 31 say about job hunting?

Hexagram 31 favors being found over applying. Its Image points toward visible work, referrals and introductions rather than volume, and its fourth line adds that effort aimed at a handful of employers reaches that handful and no further.

Is I Ching Hexagram 31 a good sign for launching a product?

Hexagram 31 is a favorable sign for a launch that depends on people turning toward the product themselves. Its top line, influence through jaws, cheeks and tongue, is the warning attached: messaging with nothing behind it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is I Ching Hexagram 31, Influence, a good hexagram to receive?

Hexagram 31, Influence, is a favorable answer with one condition attached. The Judgement grants success and good fortune outright, and the hexagram is about as structurally harmonious as the Yijing gets: all three line pairs correspond, yin answering yang at first-and-fourth, second-and-fifth, third-and-sixth. The condition is zhen, rendered by Wilhelm and Baynes as perseverance and by Legge as firm correctness. Hexagram 31 promises the attraction is real and will move things, not that it will move them in your favor if the intention behind it is crooked.

What is the Chinese name of I Ching Hexagram 31 and what does it mean?

The Chinese name of Hexagram 31 is Xian, written with the character that ordinarily means all or universally. The traditional gloss turns on character analysis: xian is gan, meaning to feel or be moved emotionally, with the heart radical taken away. Hexagram 31 is therefore feeling before the heart gets involved. That one point drives the whole reading, and it is why translators reach for Influence, Wooing, Attraction, Conjoining and Reciprocity without any of them being wrong.

What is the difference between I Ching Hexagram 31 Influence and Hexagram 32 Duration?

Hexagram 31, Influence, is courtship and Hexagram 32, Duration, is marriage. They are a King Wen pair, the same six lines seen from opposite ends: turn Hexagram 31 upside down and you get Hexagram 32. Hexagram 31 puts Gen, the youngest son, under Dui, the youngest daughter, and its energy is the quick pull between two people committed to nothing yet. Hexagram 32 puts Xun, the eldest daughter, under Zhen, the eldest son. Hexagram 31 says nothing about longevity.

Which changing line of I Ching Hexagram 31 is the most important?

The fourth line is the pivot of Hexagram 31, and it is the only one of the six naming no body part. In the scheme running up the hexagram from the big toe at line one to the tongue at line six, the fourth place is the heart, and the text addresses it directly: perseverance brings good fortune, remorse disappears, and if the mind is agitated and thoughts run back and forth, only those friends on whom the conscious thought is fixed will follow.

What does I Ching Hexagram 31 mean in a love reading?

In a love reading, Hexagram 31, Influence, confirms mutual attraction at an early and undeclared stage. The hexagram is built from the two youngest children of the trigram family, and its Judgement says taking a maiden to wife brings good fortune. Every line pair in Hexagram 31 corresponds, which readers take as a sign the feeling runs both directions. What Hexagram 31 does not describe is a settled relationship, since that belongs to its pair, Hexagram 32.

Does I Ching Hexagram 31 mean someone is manipulating me?

Hexagram 31, Influence, does not mean manipulation by itself, but it raises the question, because Influence and manipulation are the same mechanism with different intentions. The Judgement attaches zhen, correctness, to the promise of success precisely to separate them. The place to look is the changing lines. A moving top line in Hexagram 31, jaws and cheeks and tongue, points at influence that is entirely verbal. Without moving lines, Hexagram 31 describes a genuine pull rather than a worked one.

What hexagram does I Ching Hexagram 31 change into if all six lines move?

If all six lines of Hexagram 31, Influence, move, the result is Hexagram 41, Decrease, which is also the opposite hexagram of Hexagram 31 in the sense of every line reversed. Hexagram 31 is Dui, the Lake, resting in the hollow summit of Gen, the Mountain. Flip every line and the trigrams swap, giving Mountain above Lake, the mountain pressing down on the water. Influence converts into something that asks for sacrifice from the lower party.