I Ching Hexagram 49: Revolution - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 49, Ge or Revolution, is the sign of a change that has become unavoidable, built from the lake trigram Dui above the fire trigram Li. Its Judgement promises that remorse disappears once the right day arrives, and its six changing lines run from the restraint of the yellow cow's hide to the tiger and the panther.

What does I Ching Hexagram 49, Revolution, mean?

I Ching Hexagram 49, Ge, means Revolution: the moment an arrangement has outlived its form and has to be shed rather than mended. The Chinese name Ge is the ordinary word for an animal hide that has been scraped clean and cured into leather, and by extension it means molting, the shedding of a skin an animal has outgrown. That is why Richard Wilhelm titled it Revolution (Molting). The hexagram 49 meaning turns on that concrete picture. Nothing is being improved here. Something is being removed entirely so that what was underneath can be exposed. From the hide the word grew outward into politics, and the compound geming, Ge plus ming, mandate, became the standard Chinese term for revolution that is still in use. The hexagram sits at position 49 in the King Wen sequence, directly after Hexagram 48, The Well, and the old sequence commentary explains the order plainly: the way of the well cannot go without renewal, so Revolution follows. A well that is never cleaned out silts up. Hexagram 49 is the cleaning out. In a reading, i ching hexagram 49 rarely describes a change you choose freely. It describes one that has become necessary and that you are now deciding whether to lead or to suffer.

What separates Hexagram 49 from the I Ching's other change hexagrams is that the change is subtractive. Hexagram 3 describes a difficult birth, Hexagram 24 a natural return, Hexagram 51 a shock arriving from outside. Revolution is none of those. In Hexagram 49 the old form is intact, functional on paper and dead in practice, and the work is to strip it off. This is why the molting image is exact: the snake's old skin is not damaged, it is simply no longer the animal. Readers who draw i ching revolution and try to soften it into gradual reform are reading a different hexagram. The other distinctive feature is that Ge is intensely social. Four of the six lines of Hexagram 49 use the word fu, confidence or being believed, and the Judgement hinges on it. A revolution in this book is not a private resolution but a change other people have to accept, and the text keeps asking whether they do yet.

What is Hexagram 49 called in Chinese?

Hexagram 49 is called Ge, the word for cured animal hide or leather. Wilhelm rendered it Revolution (Molting), while other translators use Skinning, Radical Change, or simply Revolution. All of them are working from the same image of a skin being taken off.

Where does Hexagram 49 sit in the King Wen sequence?

Hexagram 49 sits between Hexagram 48, The Well, and Hexagram 50, The Cauldron. The traditional sequence logic runs from a well that needs renewing, through the Revolution that renews it, to the Cauldron that cooks something new in the changed order.

Does Hexagram 49 always mean a dramatic upheaval?

No. Hexagram 49 means a change of form rather than of scale. Ending a contract, dropping a name you have used for years, or leaving a role can all be Ge, provided the old arrangement is discarded whole rather than adjusted.

Which trigrams form I Ching Hexagram 49 and why does lake over fire produce Revolution?

I Ching Hexagram 49 is formed from Dui, the lake, in the upper trigram and Li, fire, in the lower, which is why the hexagram is known as fire in the lake. The two trigrams are in direct conflict: water puts fire out, fire boils water away. Neither can share the space with the other, and the Chinese commentaries treat that mutual destruction as the mechanism of the hexagram rather than a flaw in it. Something has to give, and what gives is the old form. The commentary on the Judgement adds a second reading of the same pair. Dui is the youngest daughter in the family of trigrams and Li is the middle daughter, so Hexagram 49 shows two women living under one roof whose wills do not agree, and where wills do not agree, the text says, you get Ge. The attributes give the hexagram its working method. Li is clarity, brightness, the eye that sees what is actually there. Dui is joy and also the mouth, speech, open expression. Set clarity underneath and expression above and you have a revolution that sees clearly first and then says so out loud, which is exactly the sequence the changing lines follow.

The ordering of the two trigrams matters more in Hexagram 49 than in most hexagrams, because reversing them gives a completely different situation. Fire above the lake is Hexagram 38, Opposition, where the two elements move apart and the estrangement simply persists. In Hexagram 49 the fire is inside the lake, contained by it, and containment under pressure is what forces the issue. The lake sits on top holding the fire down; the fire keeps heating the lake from below. That is a boiler, not a standoff, and it explains why Revolution here builds pressure long before it breaks. It also explains the peculiar warmth of the hexagram. Dui is the trigram of joy, and the Judgement commentary describes Hexagram 49 as cultured clarity joined to gladness, which is not how most cultures picture a revolution. Done at the right moment, this change is experienced as relief, because pressure that had no outlet finally has one.

What are the individual trigrams of Hexagram 49?

Hexagram 49 has Dui, the lake, as its upper trigram, two solid lines under one broken line, and Li, fire, as its lower trigram, a broken line between two solid lines. From the bottom the pattern runs solid, broken, solid, solid, solid, broken.

Why is Hexagram 49 described as fire in the lake?

Hexagram 49 is described as fire in the lake because the fire trigram Li sits beneath the water of Dui, placing the flame inside the body of water rather than beside it. The image is of a heat source contained by the very thing that would extinguish it.

How does Hexagram 49 differ from Hexagram 38, Opposition?

Hexagram 49 places the lake above the fire, which contains the conflict and builds pressure toward a break. Hexagram 38 places fire above the lake, so the two elements drift apart and the tension persists as estrangement rather than resolving into Revolution.

What does the Judgement of I Ching Hexagram 49 say about timing and trust?

The Judgement of I Ching Hexagram 49 reads, in Wilhelm's version, that on your own day you are believed, that Revolution brings supreme success and furthers through perseverance, and that remorse disappears. Three claims are packed into that. First, the timing condition. The Chinese phrase is ji ri nai fu, and ji is the sixth of the ten heavenly stems, the point just past the middle of the cycle, so the traditional reading is that trust arrives not at the start of a change but once it has visibly passed its turning point. Announce a revolution on day one and nobody believes you; announce it on the ji day and belief follows by itself. Second, Hexagram 49 receives the full formula yuan heng li zhen, great success and furthering perseverance, the same four qualities attached to the strongest hexagrams in the book. Revolution is not a compromise reading. Third, the Judgement ends with the phrase that remorse disappears, hui wang. This is the I Ching's characteristic honesty about upheaval: it does not say there will be no regret, it says the regret that would normally attach to tearing something down is cancelled here, because the tearing down was warranted.

The commentary attached to the Judgement of Hexagram 49 supplies the most famous political sentence in the book. It states that Tang and Wu carried out their revolutions in accord with Heaven and in response to men. Tang founded the Shang dynasty by overthrowing the last Xia ruler; King Wu overthrew the last Shang ruler and founded the Zhou, whose court produced the layer of the I Ching we still read. The commentary is describing the compilers' own political origin, and it draws the line that mattered to them: a change of ruler is legitimate when Heaven has withdrawn the mandate and the people have already turned, and mere usurpation otherwise. That double test is what the Judgement means by belief. Hexagram 49 asks whether the change is right in principle and whether the people affected have arrived at it too. Being correct alone is not enough, which is why the hexagram keeps circling back to the word fu.

What does the ji day mean in the Judgement of Hexagram 49?

Ji is the sixth of the ten heavenly stems in the Chinese calendar, sitting just past the midpoint of the cycle. In Hexagram 49 the ji day marks the moment a change has passed its turning point and becomes credible, which is when the Judgement says you will be believed.

Why does the Judgement of Hexagram 49 say remorse disappears?

The Judgement of Hexagram 49 says remorse disappears, hui wang, because a justified revolution cancels the regret that normally follows destruction. Something is being lost, and the phrase states that the loss will not become a lasting reproach.

Who were Tang and Wu in the commentary on Hexagram 49?

Tang founded the Shang dynasty by overthrowing the last Xia king, and King Wu founded the Zhou by overthrowing the last Shang king. The Hexagram 49 commentary names both as revolutions that followed Heaven and answered the people, setting the standard for legitimate change.

What does the Image of Hexagram 49 teach about the calendar?

The Image of Hexagram 49 says that fire in the lake is Revolution, and that accordingly the superior person sets the calendar in order and makes the seasons clear. That reads as a strange response to an upheaval until you see what the compilers are doing. A calendar is the instrument that tells a society when things change: when to plant, when to harvest, when a year ends. Calendars drift out of true, and a drifting calendar means the official date of spring no longer matches the actual arrival of spring. The correction is not gentle adjustment but a public reordering of time itself, which in early China was a sovereign act performed at the founding of a dynasty. So the Image of Hexagram 49 answers the question a revolution raises: what replaces the authority you just removed? The answer is an accurate account of when things actually change. That is the disciplined form of Revolution, and it is a striking use of the two trigrams, since Li is brightness and Dui is the lake whose seasons the calendar tracks. Hexagram 49 asks the person carrying out a change to become the one who tells the correct time.

The practical translation of this Image is that Hexagram 49 wants a revolution accompanied by a new schedule. Removing the old arrangement is only half the act; the other half is publishing when the new one takes effect and by what rhythm it will run. This is what separates Ge from a tantrum. A person who quits without a start date, or a team that abolishes a process without saying what happens on Monday, has performed the destruction without the calendar, and the I Ching treats that as incomplete. There is a quieter reading available too. Setting the calendar in order means bringing your own account of time back into line with reality, admitting that a phase ended some while ago even though you have kept marking the old dates. Many readings that produce Hexagram 49 involve exactly that lag. The Image says to fix the calendar, which is to say, state out loud what season it actually is.

Why does the Image of Hexagram 49 mention seasons rather than politics?

The Image of Hexagram 49 mentions seasons because a calendar is the public record of when change is due. Regulating the seasons was a sovereign act in early China, so the Image gives Revolution its constructive counterpart: after removing an authority, establish an accurate account of time.

What does setting the calendar in order mean in a personal reading of Hexagram 49?

In a personal reading, the Image of Hexagram 49 asks you to date the change: name when the old arrangement ended and when the new one starts, rather than leaving the shift as an unannounced mood nobody can plan around.

How does the Image of Hexagram 49 relate to its trigrams?

Li, the lower trigram of Hexagram 49, is brightness and clear seeing, which a calendar requires. Dui, the lake above, belongs to autumn and the west, tying the hexagram to the seasonal turning point the calendar must record.

What do the first three changing lines of Hexagram 49 mean?

The first three hexagram 49 changing lines cover the phase before a revolution is permitted, and each one restrains action for a different reason. Line one, a solid line at the bottom, reads: wrapped in the hide of a yellow cow. Yellow is the color of the center and the cow is the docile animal, so the line binds you with the strongest possible material to the middle course. At the bottom of Hexagram 49 you have no position, no following and no evidence, and the text does not soften this. When line one changes, Hexagram 49 becomes Hexagram 31, Influence, which suggests that what is available now is attraction rather than action. Line two, the single broken line, is where the Judgement's timing arrives: when your own day comes, you may create revolution; setting out brings good fortune, no blame. This line holds the central place of the lower trigram and corresponds with the ruler in line five, so the change it launches has backing. It changes into Hexagram 43, Breakthrough. Line three then reverses the mood: setting out brings misfortune, perseverance brings danger. It sits at the top of the fire trigram, hot and off center.

Line three of Hexagram 49 contains the hexagram's most quoted practical test. After the warning, the text says that when talk of revolution has gone round three times, one may commit oneself and people will believe. The three rounds are not a loose figure; the line describes consultation in which the case is put, heard, contested and put again until the argument has been exhausted in public. Only then does commitment become safe, which is why line three warns against both charging ahead and stubbornly holding the line, since both skip the conversation. Read as a group, lines one through three make an unusual argument: the danger in Revolution is almost never that you will be too timid. Only line two, the yielding line in the central place, is given clearance. When line three changes, Hexagram 49 becomes Hexagram 17, Following, which is precisely what the three rounds of talk are meant to produce.

What does the yellow cow's hide mean in line one of Hexagram 49?

The yellow cow's hide in line one of Hexagram 49 means firm restraint in the middle course. Yellow is the color of the center and the cow the docile animal, so the line binds you to patience with the toughest leather available.

Why is line two of Hexagram 49 the favorable line?

Line two of Hexagram 49 is favorable because it holds the central place of the lower trigram, is correct as a yielding line in a yielding position, and corresponds with the ruler in line five. It is where the Judgement's own day arrives.

What does three rounds of talk mean in line three of Hexagram 49?

Line three of Hexagram 49 says that when talk of Revolution has gone round three times, commitment becomes safe and people will believe. It describes a case argued, contested and argued again in public until the matter is settled, rather than a single announcement.

What do the upper three changing lines of Hexagram 49 mean?

The upper three hexagram 49 changing lines carry out the revolution and then close it down. Line four reads: remorse disappears, men believe him, changing the form of government brings good fortune. The phrase translated as changing the form of government is gai ming, changing the mandate, the same ming that appears in the word for revolution itself. Line four crosses from the fire trigram into the lake, which is the threshold of the hexagram, and it is the first line permitted to act on the largest scale. It changes into Hexagram 63, After Completion. Line five is the ruling line of Hexagram 49: the great man changes like a tiger, and even before he questions the oracle he is believed. A tiger's markings are bold, unmistakable and visible at a distance, and the line describes a transformation so evident that consultation becomes unnecessary. It changes into Hexagram 55, Abundance. Line six at the top reads: the superior man changes like a panther, the inferior man molts in the face; setting out brings misfortune, remaining persevering brings good fortune. The panther's coat is finer and less dramatic than the tiger's, which is the point.

Line six of Hexagram 49 is where the hexagram guards against its own momentum. Having reached the top, the revolution is over, and the line divides everyone into three responses. The superior person changes like a panther, refining detail rather than starting again. The inferior person changes only the face, adjusting outward compliance while remaining unchanged underneath, which the text records without condemning, since a revolution demanding inward conversion from everyone will consume itself. Anyone who sets out on a fresh campaign meets misfortune. Consolidation, not continuation, is the instruction. The contrast between the tiger of line five and the panther of line six became proverbial in Chinese: the tiger's stripes announce the new order, the panther's spots perfect it. When line six changes, Hexagram 49 becomes Hexagram 13, Fellowship with Men, which is what a completed revolution is supposed to produce.

Why does line five of Hexagram 49 rule the hexagram?

Line five rules Hexagram 49 because it is a strong line in the central place of the upper trigram, and because its image of the great man changing like a tiger shows a transformation so visible that belief precedes consultation of the oracle.

What is the difference between the tiger and the panther in Hexagram 49?

In Hexagram 49 the tiger of line five has bold markings that announce a new order at a distance, while the panther of line six has a finer coat and represents refinement after the change. The tiger declares the revolution, the panther consolidates it.

What does it mean that the inferior man molts in the face in Hexagram 49?

Line six of Hexagram 49 says the inferior man molts in the face, meaning he changes his outward expression and complies while remaining unchanged inside. The text notes this without demanding more, since forcing inner conversion on everyone destroys a revolution.

What are the nuclear and opposite hexagrams of I Ching Hexagram 49?

The nuclear hexagram of I Ching Hexagram 49 is Hexagram 44, Gou, Coming to Meet, and its opposite is Hexagram 4, Meng, Youthful Folly. The nuclear figure is built from the inner lines, taking lines two through four as the lower trigram and lines three through five as the upper. In Hexagram 49 that produces Xun, wind, beneath Qian, heaven, which is Hexagram 44. The reading is pointed: at the heart of Revolution lies an encounter with something small that has entered where it was not expected, since Hexagram 44 turns on a single yielding line arriving under five strong ones. Every revolution starts as an intrusion. The opposite hexagram, produced by inverting all six lines, is Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, where a mountain sits above dangerous water and an inexperienced student must ask a teacher for instruction. Set against Hexagram 49 the contrast is exact. Youthful Folly waits to be taught by an existing authority; Revolution has concluded that the authority is finished. Read together they mark the two ways of responding to a system you did not build, and Hexagram 49 is the one that stops asking permission.

Hexagram 49 also has an inverse, obtained by turning the whole figure upside down, and that inverse is Hexagram 50, Ding, The Cauldron. Hexagrams in the King Wen sequence are arranged overwhelmingly in such reversed pairs, and 49 with 50 is one of the most meaningful. Lake over fire, turned over, becomes fire over wind: the cooking vessel with fuel underneath. The old sequence commentary states that nothing transforms things like the cauldron, so Ding follows Ge, and the pair reads as one continuous act. Hexagram 49 strips the hide; Hexagram 50 puts the meat in the pot. A reading that lands on Revolution is therefore only halfway through a movement. The relationship to Hexagram 48, The Well, on the other side is equally deliberate: the Well is the community resource that must be maintained, and Revolution is what happens when maintenance is no longer enough.

How is the nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 49 calculated?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 49 comes from its inner lines: lines two, three and four form the lower trigram Xun, wind, and lines three, four and five form the upper trigram Qian, heaven. Wind beneath heaven is Hexagram 44, Coming to Meet.

What does Hexagram 4 reveal as the opposite of Hexagram 49?

Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, inverts every line of Hexagram 49 and shows a student seeking instruction from an established teacher. It defines Revolution by contrast: where Hexagram 4 submits to existing authority to learn, Hexagram 49 concludes that the authority has expired.

Why are Hexagram 49 and Hexagram 50 considered a pair?

Hexagram 49 and Hexagram 50 are a reversed pair, since turning lake over fire upside down produces fire over wind. Ge removes the old form and Ding, the cauldron, cooks the new one, so the two describe consecutive halves of one transformation.

What does I Ching Hexagram 49 mean for a decision you are weighing?

For a decision, I Ching Hexagram 49 says the answer is a clean break rather than an adjustment, and then asks whether the day for it has arrived. The first thing Revolution does to a question is refuse the middle option. If you asked whether to renegotiate, restructure or wait it out, Hexagram 49 replies that the arrangement in question has no working version left, only a discarded one. That is the molting image applied to a choice: you cannot keep half the skin. The second thing it does is impose the timing test from the Judgement and from line three. Has the case gone round three times? Do the people who will be affected already half expect this? If the change would land as a shock, Hexagram 49 is describing line one, and the yellow cowhide is the instruction. If the ground has been prepared and you are hesitating out of nerves, Hexagram 49 is describing line two, and setting out brings good fortune. The hexagram also insists that a decision under Ge needs a date attached, following the Image about the calendar. Deciding without saying when leaves the old form standing.

One more feature of Hexagram 49 shapes how it applies to a decision: the hexagram permits a single act, not a program. Line six is unambiguous that continuing to advance after the change has been made brings misfortune, and that persevering quietly brings good fortune instead. Readers who take Revolution as general license to overturn everything in reach have inverted the text. The correct shape is one decisive break, then consolidation in the manner of the panther. It is worth noticing which line the question itself resembles. A question phrased as should I finally do this, asked about something argued over for months, is a line two question and gets a yes. A question phrased as should I blow this up, asked about something nobody else has heard of yet, is a line one question and gets restraint. Locating your situation on that scale is most of the reading.

Does Hexagram 49 ever advise against making the change?

Hexagram 49 advises against making the change when the timing is wrong. Line one binds you in cowhide and line three states plainly that setting out brings misfortune before the case has been made three times. Revolution is delayed in those readings, not cancelled.

How do you tell whether the day has come under Hexagram 49?

Under Hexagram 49 the day has come when the change is already expected. Line three ties commitment to talk that has gone round three times, so surprise on other people's part is the signal that you are early.

Can Hexagram 49 apply to an internal decision nobody else sees?

Yes, though Hexagram 49 will push it outward. Four of its six lines turn on being believed, so a purely private revolution under Ge is unfinished. Ge treats a change as real once it is declared and others have adjusted.

What does I Ching Hexagram 49 mean in a relationship or a work reading?

In a relationship reading, I Ching Hexagram 49 points to a bond whose current arrangement has expired even though the bond itself may not have. The commentary on the hexagram describes two daughters under one roof whose wills do not agree, which is a picture of proximity without alignment: people still sharing the same space and no longer wanting the same things. Ge does not automatically mean separation. Because the hexagram is about form rather than substance, Revolution in a relationship often means the terms change while the connection survives, moving from living together to living apart, from a couple to friends, or from an unspoken understanding to a stated one. What Hexagram 49 rules out is continuing on the old terms. The timing rule applies here with unusual force. A change announced before it has gone round three times reads as a betrayal to the other person; the same change after honest conversation reads as the relief the Dui trigram promises, since Dui is joy. And line six is the warning most needed in this setting: once the terms have changed, stop revolutionizing. Continuing to relitigate after the break brings misfortune.

In a work reading, Hexagram 49 usually concerns a role, a structure or a business model that everyone has quietly known to be finished. Line four is the workplace line, since gai ming, changing the mandate, is a change in who holds authority and by what right. Drawing line four in a career question describes a change large enough to require sanction from above, and the line grants it. Line five describes a leader whose transformation is so plainly right that the organization does not need persuading, while line two describes someone without formal authority who nonetheless has backing, because it corresponds with the ruler above. Hexagram 49 in work questions also carries the Image's demand: announce the end date and the start date. A resignation without a departure date has performed the destruction and skipped the construction.

Does Hexagram 49 mean a breakup in a relationship reading?

Hexagram 49 means the terms of the relationship must change, not necessarily that it ends. Because Ge concerns form rather than substance, Revolution often shows a bond continuing on new terms, though it rules out carrying on unchanged with the arrangement that has expired.

Which line of Hexagram 49 matters most in a career question?

Line four matters most in a career question, since its phrase gai ming means changing the mandate, a shift in who holds authority. Drawing it in Hexagram 49 describes a change large enough to need sanction from above, and the line grants it.

What does Hexagram 49 say about how to announce a change at work?

The Image of Hexagram 49 says to set the calendar in order, so announce the change with dates. Name when the old arrangement ends and the new one begins, because Revolution without a schedule leaves the discarded form in place.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does I Ching Hexagram 49 mean in a simple answer?

I Ching Hexagram 49, Ge, means Revolution: a situation whose old form has stopped working and must be shed rather than repaired. Its Chinese name is the word for an animal hide stripped and cured, which is why Richard Wilhelm added Molting to his title for Hexagram 49. The hexagram is built from Dui, the lake, over Li, fire, two forces that cannot leave each other alone. Hexagram 49 is permission to change, granted on the condition that you wait for the day when others will believe you.

Is I Ching Hexagram 49 a good or bad omen?

I Ching Hexagram 49 is a favorable omen with a timing condition attached. The Judgement gives Revolution the full formula yuan heng li zhen, the great success and furthering perseverance found in the strongest hexagrams, and ends by saying that remorse disappears. The condition is the phrase about the ji day: the change succeeds when its hour has come and fails when forced early. Line three of Hexagram 49 says outright that setting out brings misfortune, so read the hexagram as a yes with a date on it.

What is the Chinese name of Hexagram 49 and what does it literally mean?

The Chinese name of Hexagram 49 is Ge, written with the character for a raw animal skin that has been scraped, stretched and tanned into leather. The literal image is molting, an animal shedding a coat it has outgrown. From that concrete sense the word grew into the standard Chinese term for political overthrow, and the compound geming, Ge plus ming, mandate, is still the modern word for revolution in Chinese and, as kakumei, in Japanese.

What is the difference between Hexagram 49 and Hexagram 50 in the I Ching?

Hexagram 49, Revolution, removes the old order, and Hexagram 50, Ding, The Cauldron, establishes the new one. The two form a single pair in the King Wen sequence: turn Hexagram 49 upside down and you get Hexagram 50, since lake over fire inverts into fire over wind. The sequence commentary says nothing transforms things like the cauldron, so Ding follows Ge. Hexagram 49 is the tearing out, Hexagram 50 the cooking of something new.

What do the changing lines of Hexagram 49 tell you about timing?

The hexagram 49 changing lines lay out a timeline rather than a set of independent verdicts. Line one binds you in yellow cowhide because it is too early to move. Line two says the day has come and setting out brings good fortune. Line three warns that advancing brings misfortune until talk of revolution has gone round three times. Line four grants the change of mandate, line five shows the great man changing like a tiger, and line six warns against pushing further.

Which hexagram does Hexagram 49 become when line five changes?

When line five of Hexagram 49 changes, the hexagram becomes Hexagram 55, Feng, Abundance, as the upper trigram Dui turns into Zhen, thunder, over the unchanged fire of Li. Line five is the ruling line of Hexagram 49, the great man who changes like a tiger and is believed before he questions the oracle. The move into Abundance suggests a revolution that succeeds so completely it produces a brief blaze of plenty.

How should you act after drawing I Ching Hexagram 49?

After drawing I Ching Hexagram 49, name precisely what is being shed, then check whether the day has come. Revolution asks for one clean break rather than a series of adjustments, so identify the single arrangement that has to end. Then apply the test in line three: do the people around you already expect this change? If not, Hexagram 49 asks you to hold, as line one does. If yes, act once and then stop.