Line 6 of
Hexagram 11: 泰
“Pervading” — King Wen #11 · 上六
Line 6 上六
城復于隍，勿用師，自邑告命，貞吝。
The sixth six, divided, shows us the city wall returned into the moat. It is not the time to use the army. (The subject of the line) may, indeed, announce his orders to the people of his own city; but however correct and firm he may be, he will have cause for regret.
— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1882 (public domain)
The Changed Hexagram 之卦
Line 6 changing turns hexagram 11 into䷙ Hexagram 26: 大畜 — “Great Accumulating”Read line 6 of hexagram 26 →Reading This Line
In the received Zhouyi text, line 6 of hexagram 11 is a yielding (yin) line occupying the top line, where the theme of the figure has run its course. The classical line statement — 城復于隍，勿用師，自邑告命，貞吝。 — is what commentators from the Ten Wings onward have read as the figure's own commentary on this one position. James Legge's 1882 rendering, quoted above, keeps the imagery of the original: each line of a hexagram is read as a stage of the same picture, and this page collects the source text for that stage. If you treat the line as moving in the traditional way, flipping it alone produces the changed hexagram linked above; readers have long used that pair of figures to compare a situation as given with the same situation one line different. As always with classical divination texts, this is presented for cultural and reference interest — the text itself carries no prediction about any modern reader's situation.
Questions About Hexagram 11 Line 6
What does line 6 of hexagram 11 say?
The received text reads: 城復于隍，勿用師，自邑告命，貞吝。 In James Legge's 1882 translation: “The sixth six, divided, shows us the city wall returned into the moat. It is not the time to use the army. (The subject of the line) may, indeed, announce his orders to the people of his own city; but however correct and firm he may be, he will have cause for regret.”
Which hexagram does line 6 change hexagram 11 into?
Changing only line 6 of hexagram 11 (泰, “Pervading”) gives hexagram 26 — 大畜 (dà xù, “Great Accumulating”). This is the classical way a changed hexagram is derived from moving lines.
Are line pages available for every hexagram?
Yes. Every one of the 64 hexagrams now has six line pages — one per line from the bottom line up to the top line — each with the classical Chinese text, Legge's 1882 translation, and the changed hexagram that line produces when it moves.
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1882), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text. · For reflection and reference — not financial, medical, or life advice.