I Ching Hexagram 32: Duration - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 32, Heng or Duration, is thunder above wind and describes a condition that lasts because it keeps renewing itself rather than because it stays still. Its Judgement promises success and no blame while adding that it furthers one to have somewhere to go, and four of its six changing lines are warnings about the wrong kind of persistence.

What does I Ching Hexagram 32, Duration, mean?

I Ching Hexagram 32, Heng or Duration, means a condition that lasts because it continually renews itself. The name Heng is the ordinary Chinese word for constant or enduring, and the Miscellaneous Notes commentary defines the pair it belongs to in four words: Xian is quick, Heng is lasting. Hexagram 32 is what the oracle gives when the question is some version of will this hold. The answer it gives is yes, on terms. The Judgement grants success and no blame, then adds that it furthers one to have somewhere to go, which rules out the reading most people reach for first. Duration in Hexagram 32 is never preservation. The Tuan commentary makes the point through the sky: the sun and moon endure because they keep circling, and the four seasons complete themselves by transforming. A thing that stops moving so that it can stay the same has already left this hexagram. Hexagram 32 sits at the head of the second half of the King Wen sequence alongside Hexagram 31, and the Sequence commentary explains the placement by saying the way of husband and wife must not be of short duration. That is the register: settled bonds, long work, an established direction of life, and the daily maintenance those things quietly require.

What surprises readers who look past the Judgement of Hexagram 32 is how stern the six lines are. Four of them are warnings. The first line warns against demanding permanence before it has been earned, the third against a character that shifts with the weather, the fourth against persistence aimed at nothing, and the sixth against treating agitation as a way of life. Only the second line offers a clean result, and it is the modest phrase remorse disappears. This gap between a favorable Judgement and cautionary lines is the practical teaching of Hexagram 32. The state of duration is good. The behaviors that counterfeit it are numerous, and the hexagram names them one at a time. Practitioners reading Hexagram 32 therefore pay close attention to which line is moving, because the Judgement alone tells the querent nothing about what they are personally doing wrong. Heng describes a durable situation, then lists the ways a person standing inside one can still ruin it.

What does the name Heng mean in Hexagram 32?

Heng, the Chinese name of Hexagram 32, means constant, enduring or perpetual, and it is written with the heart radical, tying constancy to disposition rather than circumstance. It remains an everyday word for steadiness. Wilhelm renders it Duration, and other translators use Constancy or Perseverance.

Is Hexagram 32, Duration, a favorable hexagram to receive?

Hexagram 32 is favorable as a description and demanding as an instruction. Its Judgement grants success, no blame and the value of perseverance. Four of its six lines, however, are warnings about false endurance, so a querent who draws Hexagram 32 with a moving line usually receives a correction rather than congratulations.

What kind of question does Hexagram 32 usually answer?

Hexagram 32 usually answers questions about continuation: should I stay, will this last, can this arrangement hold another year. It is far less useful for questions about a sudden opportunity, since Duration presumes something already exists and asks whether it is being maintained honestly.

Which trigrams form Hexagram 32 and why do thunder and wind together mean Duration?

Hexagram 32 is formed from Zhen, thunder, in the upper position and Xun, wind and wood, in the lower position, giving the line pattern yin, yang, yang, yang, yin, yin read from the bottom up. Zhen is the Arousing, sudden movement, spring, the east, and the eldest son. Xun is the Gentle, penetration, wood and wind, the southeast, and the eldest daughter. Neither trigram is remotely still, which is the first clue to why their combination is named Duration. Thunder and wind belong to a single storm. They arrive together, they intensify each other, and in the natural imagery of the Zhouyi they are the reliable pairing rather than the rare event. What endures here is a relationship between two moving forces, not a stone. The second reading is the family one. Wilhelm's scheme assigns each trigram a household role, and Hexagram 32 places the eldest son above the eldest daughter, which classical commentary reads as an established marriage with its arrangement already settled. Hexagram 31 does the reverse and puts the youngest son below the youngest daughter, the posture of courtship, where the suitor lowers himself. Hexagram 32 shows what happens after that: the roles have been agreed, and the work is now to keep the agreement alive.

The wood aspect of Xun explains where the durability in Hexagram 32 physically sits. Xun penetrates downward and gradually, the way roots work into ground, and its power comes from slow persistence rather than force. Put that below the thunder of Zhen and the picture becomes precise: the visible part of Hexagram 32 is noisy and moves in bursts, while the part that actually holds is quiet, underground and continuous. Applied to a marriage, the arguments and the reconciliations are the thunder, and the shared habits nobody comments on are the roots. Applied to a craft or a business, the launches and the crises are Zhen, and the daily practice is Xun. This also explains why the fourth line of Hexagram 32, the bottom line of the thunder trigram, warns about hunting where there is no game. Movement in the upper half that is not fed by anything rooted below is exertion without a base. In Hexagram 32 the order matters: roots before noise.

Which trigram is on top in Hexagram 32?

Zhen, the trigram of thunder, sits on top in Hexagram 32, occupying lines four, five and six as yang, yin, yin. Xun, wind and wood, sits below in lines one, two and three as yin, yang, yang.

Why does Hexagram 32 place the eldest son above the eldest daughter?

Hexagram 32 places Zhen, the eldest son, above Xun, the eldest daughter, because the classical reading treats this hexagram as an established marriage rather than a courtship. In Hexagram 31 the youngest son lowers himself beneath the youngest daughter to woo her. In Hexagram 32 the ranks are settled and the subject is maintenance.

What does the wood image of Xun add to Hexagram 32?

The wood image of Xun gives Hexagram 32 its roots. Xun penetrates slowly and downward, so the lower half of Hexagram 32 represents whatever quiet, repeated activity anchors the situation. The thunder above is the visible part, but the durability sits in the unglamorous lower trigram.

What are the Judgement and the Image of Hexagram 32, Duration?

The Judgement of Hexagram 32 in the Wilhelm-Baynes translation reads: Duration. Success. No blame. Perseverance furthers. It furthers one to have somewhere to go. The Image reads: Thunder and wind: the image of Duration. Thus the superior man stands firm and does not change his direction. Two phrases carry most of the weight. In the Judgement, having somewhere to go is what separates Duration from inertia, because a course that continues without a destination degrades into the drift the third line describes or the churning the sixth line describes. In the Image, the Chinese phrase behind not changing his direction is li bu yi fang, standing without altering one's bearing. It says nothing about staying put. The junzi of Hexagram 32 is expected to be surrounded by movement, since thunder and wind are moving on all sides, and the constancy asked for is a fixed orientation held through that movement. The Judgement's no blame also has a technical sense in the Zhouyi: it indicates a fault that is being corrected or averted, not a situation with no fault available. Hexagram 32 grants success on the understanding that duration is achieved rather than inherited.

A structural feature of Hexagram 32 sharpens the Image considerably. All three correspondence pairs are complete: line one is yin against a yang fourth line, line two is yang against a yin fifth line, and line three is yang against a yin sixth line. Every position in Hexagram 32 has its answering partner, which is one reason the commentaries read it as a marriage. Yet by the rule of correct placement, where yang belongs in odd positions and yin in even ones, only the third and sixth lines are correctly placed, and those two receive the harshest texts in the hexagram. Persistent humiliation goes to the third, misfortune from restlessness to the sixth. Meanwhile the second line, yang in an even place and therefore incorrect, gets the only clean result because it is central. Holding the right title is not what produces duration in Hexagram 32. Holding the middle is. That is the difference the Image points at when it separates standing firm from refusing to move.

What does it furthers one to have somewhere to go mean in Hexagram 32?

In Hexagram 32, it furthers one to have somewhere to go means that endurance requires a destination to be endurance at all. The clause prevents Duration from being read as sitting still. A bond or a project kept going with no direction falls into the failure modes the third and sixth lines of Hexagram 32 describe.

What does the Image of Hexagram 32 ask a person to do?

The Image of Hexagram 32 asks a person to stand firm and not change direction while thunder and wind move around them. In practice that means holding a bearing rather than a position: methods and circumstances may change, and Hexagram 32 permits that, but the underlying aim does not get renegotiated with every shift in weather.

Why does the Judgement of Hexagram 32 say no blame?

The Judgement of Hexagram 32 says no blame because in Zhouyi usage that phrase marks a fault being corrected rather than an absence of risk. Duration is available and the course is sound, but the phrase quietly acknowledges that something needed adjusting. Hexagram 32 offers success to a querent who is prepared to keep repairing the thing they intend to keep.

What do changing lines one, two and three of Hexagram 32 mean?

The first three changing lines of Hexagram 32 cover impatience, centrality and inconstancy of character. Six at the beginning reads: seeking duration too hastily brings misfortune persistently, nothing that would further. This is the bottom line of the wind trigram, a yin line already reaching for its yang partner in the fourth place, wanting the depth of an established bond before any foundation exists. It is the only line in Hexagram 32 that closes off every avenue. Changing, it produces Hexagram 34, The Power of the Great, which is exactly the failure: force arriving early and with nothing to push against. Nine in the second place reads simply that remorse disappears. The line is yang in a yin position and therefore incorrect, but it holds the center of the lower trigram, and the commentary explains the outcome by saying he is able to remain in the mean for long. Changing, it gives Hexagram 62, Preponderance of the Small, which counsels keeping the scale modest. Nine in the third place is the famous one: he who does not give duration to his character meets with disgrace, persistent humiliation. Changing, it gives Hexagram 40, Deliverance.

The third line of Hexagram 32 is the passage the Analects quotes. Confucius cites a saying from the south, that a man without constancy cannot be a shaman or a doctor, then repeats this line from Heng about the man who fails to give duration to his character, adding that such a person has no need to consult the oracle at all. The reading is precise rather than moralistic. This is a strong yang line at the top of the wind trigram, pulled by its correspondence with the yielding sixth line, so it is a person of real capability whose commitments follow whatever is currently attracting them. Nothing they promise survives a change of mood, and the result is not a single disaster but a slow accumulation of small disgraces, which is why the text says persistent humiliation rather than misfortune. The transformation into Hexagram 40, Deliverance, is instructive, since Deliverance is the tension breaking and the storm clearing. Hexagram 32 does not condemn this line so much as diagnose it.

Why is the first line of Hexagram 32 so negative?

The first line of Hexagram 32 is negative because it wants permanence before anything has been built. As the bottom line of the wind trigram it should penetrate gradually, but it reaches straight for its correspondent in the fourth place. Hexagram 32 treats demanding guarantees at the start of a bond as the surest way to prevent that bond from lasting.

Why does the second line of Hexagram 32 say remorse disappears?

The second line of Hexagram 32 says remorse disappears because the line is central even though it is incorrectly placed, being yang in a yin position. The commentary attributes the result to its ability to remain in the mean for long. In Hexagram 32 the middle outranks formal correctness, so a modest, well-centered approach dissolves regret rather than earning glory.

What did Confucius say about the third line of Hexagram 32?

In the Analects, Confucius quotes the third line of Hexagram 32 about the man who does not give duration to his character and meets with disgrace, pairing it with a southern proverb that a person without constancy cannot practice as a shaman or a doctor. He then observes that such a person has no use for divination at all.

What do changing lines four, five and six of Hexagram 32 mean?

The last three changing lines of Hexagram 32 cover misdirected persistence, rigid constancy and restlessness. Nine in the fourth place reads: no game in the field. It is a hunting image, and the point is not that the hunter lacks skill but that he is being constant in a place that has nothing to give. This is the bottom line of the thunder trigram, all movement and no root beneath it. Changing, it produces Hexagram 46, Pushing Upward, which is the same effort applied where growth is actually possible. Six in the fifth place reads: giving duration to one's character through perseverance, this is good fortune for a woman, misfortune for a man. The classical gloss turns on role rather than temperament, contrasting the person who properly holds to one fixed rule with the person whose duty is to judge each situation by its own time. A yielding line in the ruler's place can be constant, but a ruler who only ever repeats yesterday's decision fails. Changing, it gives Hexagram 28, Preponderance of the Great, a beam bending under load. Six at the top reads: restlessness as an enduring condition brings misfortune. Changing, it gives Hexagram 50, The Caldron.

The sixth line of Hexagram 32 is the hexagram's sharpest joke. It sits at the very top of the thunder trigram, where movement has reached its extreme, and it has made agitation itself the one thing that endures. The person described has achieved perfect constancy in the wrong variable. They are reliably unsettled, permanently between things, and they mistake their own churn for engagement. In a Hexagram 32 reading this line appears for someone who has been busy for years without anything accumulating. The change into Hexagram 50, The Caldron, answers it exactly: the Caldron is a fixed cooking vessel in which raw material is transformed over time, and what the sixth line lacks is a container. The fourth and sixth lines of Hexagram 32 are worth reading together, since both belong to the thunder trigram and both describe motion without result, one because the ground is barren and the other because the motion has no object.

What does no game in the field mean in the fourth line of Hexagram 32?

No game in the field, the fourth line of Hexagram 32, means persistence applied where there is nothing to obtain. The hunter is diligent and the field is empty. It points to a job, a market or a relationship in which effort has stopped producing anything, and Hexagram 32 counts staying there out of loyalty as a misuse of constancy.

Why does the fifth line of Hexagram 32 give different verdicts for a woman and a man?

The fifth line of Hexagram 32 gives split verdicts because the classical framing contrasts two roles. The one who properly follows a settled rule is rewarded for unwavering constancy, while the one who must decide is ruined by it, since a leader has to adapt duty to the time. Modern readers usually apply the line by role and not by gender, asking whether the querent's position calls for holding a rule or for judging afresh.

What does the top line of Hexagram 32 say about restlessness?

The top line of Hexagram 32 says that restlessness as an enduring condition brings misfortune. At the summit of the thunder trigram, it describes someone whose only constant is agitation. Its change into Hexagram 50, The Caldron, prescribes a vessel that can hold and transform what the restlessness keeps spilling.

What are the nuclear, opposite and inverse hexagrams of Hexagram 32?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 32 is Hexagram 43, Breakthrough, the opposite hexagram is Hexagram 42, Increase, and the inverse hexagram is Hexagram 31, Influence. The nuclear figure is built from the inner lines: positions two, three and four of Hexagram 32 are all yang and form Qian, heaven, while positions three, four and five form Dui, lake, giving lake above heaven, which is Guai or Breakthrough. That is a striking core for a hexagram about endurance. Inside Duration sits a decisive resolution, and the tradition reads it as the original commitment that the long condition rests on. Something was resolved once, and everything durable in Hexagram 32 is the working out of that decision. The opposite hexagram, produced by changing every line of Hexagram 32, is Hexagram 42, Increase, which is wind above and thunder below. The polar opposite of Hexagram 32 turns out to be its own two trigrams swapped in position. Reverse the priority of root and movement and Duration becomes Increase, a hexagram of expansion and benefit rather than of holding. Turning Hexagram 32 upside down produces Hexagram 31, Influence, its partner in the King Wen sequence.

The pairing of Hexagram 31 and Hexagram 32 is one of the most deliberate in the sequence. Hexagram 31, Xian, is lake above mountain, the youngest daughter above the youngest son, and it deals with attraction and the stirring of feeling. The Miscellaneous Notes commentary distinguishes them in one line: Xian is quick, Heng is lasting. Together they open the second half of the King Wen sequence, and the Sequence commentary joins them by saying the way of husband and wife must not be of short duration. Hexagram 31 works line by line up the body, from the toes to the calves to the thighs and finally to the jaw, all of it about the moment of being moved. Hexagram 32 has no body imagery at all. Its concerns are character, direction, position and the passage of years, and that contrast is a useful diagnostic for whether a querent is really asking about feeling or about commitment.

What is the nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 32?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 32 is Hexagram 43, Breakthrough, formed from Qian in lines two through four and Dui in lines three through five. It places a decisive resolution at the core of Duration: what holds a long commitment together is a decision once made clearly and since renewed rather than reopened.

What is the opposite hexagram of Hexagram 32?

The opposite hexagram of Hexagram 32, obtained by changing all six lines, is Hexagram 42, Increase. Because Hexagram 32 is thunder over wind, its opposite is wind over thunder, the same two trigrams reversed. Duration and Increase are built from identical materials, and only which force is rooted below distinguishes them.

How are Hexagram 31 and Hexagram 32 related?

Hexagram 31 and Hexagram 32 are inverses, meaning Hexagram 32 turned upside down is Hexagram 31. The tradition pairs them as courtship and marriage: Hexagram 31, Influence, is attraction, while Hexagram 32, Duration, is the settled bond that follows. The Miscellaneous Notes sum it up as Xian being quick and Heng being lasting.

What does Hexagram 32, Duration, mean for a relationship?

For a relationship question, Hexagram 32, Duration, says the bond has the structure to last and that its survival depends on renewal rather than on preservation. This is the hexagram the tradition attaches to marriage, and its internal architecture supports the reading, since all three correspondence pairs are complete and every line in Hexagram 32 has an answering partner of the opposite kind. Nothing in the figure is unmatched. What Hexagram 32 refuses to endorse is the version of commitment that consists of stopping. Thunder and wind are both in motion, and a relationship under Hexagram 32 stays alive through continued movement toward something shared, which is what the Judgement means by having somewhere to go. Couples who receive Hexagram 32 after years together are usually being told that the foundation is sound and the maintenance has lapsed. Three of the six lines speak directly to relationship failure modes: the first line to pressing for commitment too early, the third line to a partner whose devotion tracks their mood, and the sixth line to a restlessness that never settles into anything. Hexagram 32 is affirming about the bond and unsentimental about the behavior inside it.

Hexagram 32 handles the question of a stale relationship better than most hexagrams because it distinguishes two situations that feel identical from inside. The fourth line, no game in the field, describes constancy directed at something with nothing left to give, and Hexagram 32 does not treat remaining there as loyalty. The sixth line describes the opposite error, a person so restless that no relationship could hold them, and the remedy there is a vessel rather than an exit. A querent complaining of staleness needs to know which of the two they are in, and the moving line tells them. When Hexagram 32 arrives with no moving lines about a relationship, the reading is straightforward: continue, and continue toward something. On whether a person who has left will return, Heng speaks about what persists rather than what comes back, so readers treat it as an answer about the underlying tie rather than about the next phone call.

What does Hexagram 32 say about a new relationship?

For a new relationship, Hexagram 32 often arrives with the first line moving, and that line warns against seeking duration too hastily. The counsel is to let the bond acquire roots at the speed roots grow. Demanding the security of an established partnership in the opening weeks is, in the language of Hexagram 32, misfortune.

Does Hexagram 32 mean a relationship will last?

Hexagram 32 indicates that a relationship has the capacity to last, not that it will last regardless of conduct. The Judgement grants success and no blame, and the complete correspondence between all three line pairs supports a durable reading. The changing lines then specify what would undermine it.

What does Hexagram 32 say about a relationship that has gone stale?

Hexagram 32 answers staleness by asking whether the field is empty or the hunter is scattered. The fourth line, no game in the field, points to a relationship with nothing left to draw from. The sixth line points instead to a restlessness that needs containing, and there the fault sits with the querent rather than the bond.

How does Hexagram 32, Duration, read for a decision and for work?

For a decision, Hexagram 32 favors continuing on the present bearing while allowing the method to change, and for work it favors depth over movement. The Image is the operative instruction: stand firm and do not change direction. Notice what it does not say. It does not forbid changing tactics, employers or plans, because thunder and wind are moving throughout this hexagram. It forbids changing the heading. A querent deciding between two paths who draws Hexagram 32 is generally being told that the decision has already been made and that what remains is fidelity to it. What Hexagram 32 argues against is the pivot undertaken for novelty, the switch that resets the accumulated root system of Xun in exchange for fresh noise from Zhen. For work, the hexagram suits long projects, tenure, craft mastery and anything where value compounds. The second line offers the working model: hold the center, keep the scope modest, and regret dissolves. Duration at work comes from the small correct thing repeated, and Hexagram 32 hands the large early gesture to the first line and calls it misfortune.

Two lines of Hexagram 32 work as workplace diagnostics and are worth keeping separate. The third line describes the professional whose commitment tracks their enthusiasm, so that projects are abandoned at the first dull stretch and colleagues learn not to rely on them. Its verdict of persistent humiliation is accurate to how that plays out, since the cost arrives as a reputation rather than a single failure. The fourth line describes something different and often more painful: genuine constancy poured into a role or a product line that has no game left in it. Hexagram 32 does not reward that persistence, and its change into Hexagram 46, Pushing Upward, indicates the same effort applied to fertile ground would rise steadily. The distinction matters when a querent asks whether to leave a job, because Hexagram 32 treats quitting from boredom and leaving an exhausted field as opposite acts rather than the same act with different excuses.

Should I quit if I draw Hexagram 32?

Hexagram 32 generally counsels staying the course, since its Image asks a person to stand firm and not change direction. The exception is the fourth line, no game in the field, which describes persistence in an exhausted situation. Without that line moving, Hexagram 32 reads as continue, changing your methods rather than your destination.

What does Hexagram 32 mean for a long project at work?

For a long project, Hexagram 32 is favorable and specifies how the work should be carried. The second line, holding the center with modest scope, is the model, and its change into Hexagram 62, Preponderance of the Small, endorses incremental correctness over dramatic moves. Hexagram 32 is a good sign for craft, tenure and anything built by repetition.

Does Hexagram 32 support starting something new?

Hexagram 32 supports beginnings only where the beginner is prepared to wait for roots. Its first line warns that seeking duration too hastily brings misfortune, and Duration presumes an existing course. A querent launching something new under Hexagram 32 is told to plant in the manner of Xun, slowly and downward, before expecting anything above ground.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Hexagram 32 in the I Ching?

Hexagram 32 in the I Ching is Heng, translated as Duration, Constancy or Perseverance. It is built from Zhen (thunder) above Xun (wind and wood), and its line pattern from the bottom up is yin, yang, yang, yang, yin, yin. Hexagram 32 describes an enduring condition such as a marriage, an institution or a settled direction of life. The key idea is that Duration is not stillness: thunder and wind both move, and the Tuan commentary explains that the sun and moon and the four seasons last precisely because they keep changing. Hexagram 32 answers the question of whether something will continue with a conditional yes, the condition being renewal.

What are the trigrams of Hexagram 32, Duration?

Hexagram 32, Duration, has Zhen above and Xun below. Zhen is thunder, the Arousing, movement, spring, and in the family scheme the eldest son. Xun is wind and wood, the Gentle, penetration, and the eldest daughter. Two things make this pairing mean duration. First, thunder and wind belong to the same storm and always turn up together, so their association is the one that keeps recurring. Second, the eldest son sits above the eldest daughter, which is the settled married pair, as opposed to Hexagram 31 where the youngest son puts himself below the youngest daughter in courtship. The wood side of Xun adds roots, which is where the durability lives.

What is the Judgement of Hexagram 32, Duration?

The Judgement of Hexagram 32 in the Wilhelm-Baynes translation reads: Duration. Success. No blame. Perseverance furthers. It furthers one to have somewhere to go. The last clause changes how the whole hexagram reads. Hexagram 32 does not bless standing still and calling it loyalty. It blesses a course that continues in a direction. The phrase no blame is also load-bearing: in I Ching usage it means a fault is being corrected or avoided rather than that nothing could go wrong. Read together, the Judgement of Hexagram 32 says the situation can last, that lasting is the right aim, and that it will cost sustained effort.

Is Hexagram 32, Duration, a good sign for a marriage question?

Hexagram 32, Duration, is the classical marriage hexagram and reads as a favorable answer about a long bond. The Sequence of Hexagrams commentary states that the way of husband and wife must not be of short duration, which is why Heng follows Hexagram 31, Influence. Structurally, all three correspondence pairs in Hexagram 32 are complete: line one answers line four, line two answers line five, and line three answers line six, each pairing a yin with a yang. The caution is that the line texts of Hexagram 32 are demanding rather than sentimental, warning against rushing intimacy, drifting with moods, and mistaking agitation for devotion.

What do the six changing lines of Hexagram 32 turn it into?

Each changing line of Hexagram 32 produces a different hexagram. A moving first line gives Hexagram 34, The Power of the Great. A moving second line gives Hexagram 62, Preponderance of the Small. A moving third line gives Hexagram 40, Deliverance. A moving fourth line gives Hexagram 46, Pushing Upward. A moving fifth line gives Hexagram 28, Preponderance of the Great. A moving sixth line gives Hexagram 50, The Caldron. Read these as where the situation is heading once the unstable line resolves. The sixth line pairing is especially telling, since restlessness resolves into a vessel that finally holds something.

How is Hexagram 32, Duration, different from Hexagram 52, Keeping Still?

Hexagram 32, Duration, and Hexagram 52, Keeping Still, both describe stability, but by opposite mechanisms. Hexagram 52 is the doubled mountain, and its stability is the stability of stopping, of a mind that halts where it should halt. Hexagram 32 is thunder above and wind below, two of the most mobile images in the set, and its stability is that of a cycle that keeps turning. The Image of Hexagram 32 asks the superior man to stand firm and not change his direction, which is a statement about heading rather than about motion. Draw Hexagram 52 and the counsel is usually to stop. Draw Hexagram 32 and the counsel is to continue on the same bearing.

Which changing line of Hexagram 32 is the most difficult?

The third line of Hexagram 32 carries the harshest text: he who does not give duration to his character meets with disgrace, persistent humiliation. It describes someone whose commitments follow their moods, so that nothing they say holds for long. The line is quoted in the Analects, where Confucius cites the southern saying that a man without constancy cannot be a shaman or a doctor and then repeats this line from Heng. What makes it striking is that the third line is one of only two lines in Hexagram 32 sitting in a correct position, yang in an odd place, yet it receives the worst verdict.