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䷾
Hexagram 63 of 64
After Completion
既濟 · Jì Jì
The only hexagram where every line is correct for its position. The classic reads this perfection as the moment just before things start to come apart.
completion
order
vigilance
decline
- King Wen number
- 63 of 64
- Above
- ☵ Kǎn · Water
- Below
- ☲ Lí · Fire
- Composition
- Water over Fire
- Lines, bottom to top
- Solid · broken · solid · broken · solid · broken
- Chinese
- 既濟 · Jì Jì
The Judgment
Success in small matters. It rewards holding to the course. Good fortune at the beginning, disorder at the end.
The most perfectly ordered figure in the book gets a Judgment ending in disorder. The classic will not let completion stand as a resting place.
The Image
Water over fire: After Completion. So the noble person thinks about misfortune and takes precautions in advance.
The instruction at the moment of success is to plan for its failure. Nothing else in the book is quite this unsentimental.
What it means
Ji Ji is structurally unique. Every yang line sits in a yang place and every yin line in a yin place, all six correct, and the second and fifth are central as well. Nothing else in the book is arranged this well.
The classic's response to that perfection is to warn about it. Good fortune at the beginning, disorder at the end. When everything is in its right place, the only available direction is out of place, and the Image tells the noble person to spend the moment of completion thinking about what will go wrong and preparing for it.
The fourth line makes the point physically. The finest clothes turn to rags, and the counsel is to be careful all day long. Not to watch for a crisis: to maintain attention continuously, because decay in a completed thing does not announce itself.
The fifth line returns to the classic's favourite comparison. A neighbour slaughtering an ox receives less real blessing than a neighbour making a small offering. Scale is not what is being measured.
And the last line, six characters, has someone getting their head under the water after the crossing was already made.
In a reading
After Completion as an answer describes something finished, ordered and working. It is favourable, and the hexagram spends its whole length telling you not to relax.
Its counsel is maintenance and foresight: think now about what will decay, keep attention continuous, and be careful at the very end. The top line is the specific warning about the last step of a crossing already made.
The six lines
Read a line's text only when the cast made it a moving line. They are listed from the top of the figure down, the way the hexagram is drawn.
-
Six at the top
He gets his head in the water. Danger.
Overreaching at the very end of a completed crossing. Six characters, and the hexagram closes on them.
-
Nine in the fifth place
The eastern neighbour slaughters an ox; he does not receive as much real blessing as the western neighbour with his small offering.
The great sacrifice outweighed by the small one. Sincerity again, valued above scale.
-
Six in the fourth place
The finest clothes turn to rags. Be careful all day long.
Decay beginning in the best material. Vigilance is prescribed for the whole day, not the crisis.
-
Nine in the third place
The Illustrious Ancestor disciplines the Devil's Country; after three years he takes it. Do not employ small people.
A historical campaign, three years long. The classic's note is about who is trusted in the aftermath.
-
Six in the second place
The woman loses the curtain of her carriage. Do not chase it; on the seventh day it comes back.
A loss of covering, not of substance. The seven-day cycle returns it.
-
Nine at the beginning
He brakes the wheels. He gets his tail wet. No blame.
Slowing down at the start of the crossing. Minor damage accepted in exchange for control.
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