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䷰
Hexagram 49 of 64
Revolution
革 · Gé
Fire under a lake, water above flame: two forces that cannot coexist unchanged. The hexagram is about deliberate, radical change, and about when people will accept it.
revolution
change
timing
credibility
- King Wen number
- 49 of 64
- Above
- ☱ Duì · Lake
- Below
- ☲ Lí · Fire
- Composition
- Lake over Fire
- Lines, bottom to top
- Solid · broken · solid · solid · solid · broken
- Chinese
- 革 · Gé
The Judgment
On the day it comes, you are believed. The source. It gets through. It rewards holding to the course. Regret disappears.
Belief is dated. A revolution proposed too early is a complaint; the same proposal on the right day is a mandate.
The Image
Fire inside the lake: Revolution. So the noble person puts the calendar in order and makes the seasons clear.
The response to upheaval is timekeeping. Knowing exactly where you are in a cycle is what makes a change legible rather than arbitrary.
What it means
Ge means to strip a hide, and by extension to change something down to its skin. Fire sits under a lake, two elements that cannot occupy the same place without one destroying the other, and the classic uses this for revolution: change that is not adjustment.
The whole hexagram turns on timing and credibility. The Judgment says that on the day, you are believed, and the third line gives the rule: when talk of change has gone round three times, commit. Not the first impulse, which the same line calls misfortune. Not endless discussion either. Three rounds, and then act, because by then the case has been made in public and people will follow.
The Image is a surprise. Faced with upheaval, the noble person regulates the calendar. Knowing precisely where you stand in a cycle is what distinguishes a change that reads as necessary from one that reads as chaos.
The last two lines describe the aftermath through animals. The great person changes like a tiger, whose markings are unmistakable. The noble person changes like a leopard, more finely. And the small person changes their face, which the classic neither praises nor condemns; outward compliance is what most people offer, and it is enough.
In a reading
Revolution as an answer supports fundamental change and puts a condition on it: not yet, or not without having made the case.
The counsel is to prepare the ground, let the argument circulate, and act when the moment has actually arrived. Afterwards, stop. The top line forbids further upheaval and asks for consolidation, because a second revolution undoes the first.
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.
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Six at the top
The noble person changes like a leopard; the small person changes their face. Setting out brings misfortune. Staying steady brings good fortune.
After the revolution, two kinds of change: real pattern, and a new expression. The classic accepts both and forbids further upheaval.
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Nine in the fifth place
The great person changes like a tiger. Even before consulting the oracle, they are believed.
A total, visible transformation. So clear that no confirmation is needed, which is the highest praise in the book.
-
Nine in the fourth place
Regret disappears. People believe him. Changing the mandate brings good fortune.
The change of regime itself, and it works because credibility was established first.
-
Nine in the third place
Setting out brings misfortune. Steadfastness brings danger. When talk of change has gone round three times, commit, and you will be believed.
The classic's rule for revolutionary timing. Three rounds of discussion before acting; neither the first impulse nor endless deliberation.
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Six in the second place
When the day comes, then make the change. Setting out brings good fortune. No blame.
The same act, now correctly timed. Everything in this hexagram depends on the word when.
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Nine at the beginning
Bound in the hide of a yellow cow.
Held firmly in place at the start. Nothing is to move yet, and the binding is central and strong.
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