EN (English)
⑥
Line position 6 of 6
The top line
上 · Shàng
The line at the top of the figure, named 上 rather than numbered. The situation has run its course, and the classic's readings here divide between wisdom and excess.
excess
endings
withdrawal
perspective
- Position
- 6 from the bottom
- Trigram
- Upper trigram
- Place
- Yin place
- Centrality
- Not central
- Corresponds with
- The third line
- Classical name
- 上 (Shàng)
What it means
The top line is the end of the hexagram, and the classic names it 上, above, the way it names the bottom line 初 rather than first. Whatever the hexagram describes has finished happening here.
The position reads two ways and the line texts use both. The first is excess: hexagram 1's arrogant dragon has regrets, having flown past the point where flight was doing anything. Force that continues past its season turns into its own problem, and the top line is where the classic files that lesson.
The second is retirement. The top line stands outside the working structure, which sometimes means it has been discarded and sometimes means it is free. The sage who has left office, the adviser with no stake, the person who can see the whole board precisely because they are no longer on it.
It is a yin place, so an open line here is correct, and yielding at the end is generally read as knowing when to stop. Its correspondence is with the third line.
In a reading
A moving top line asks whether something is over. Not whether you want it to be: whether it is.
Read the rest of the hexagram to decide which of the two meanings applies. If the situation is still building, the top line warns about pushing past the finish. If it has already peaked, the line offers the view from outside it.
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