Line 4 of
Hexagram 21: 噬嗑
“Gnawing Bite” — King Wen #21 · 九四
Line 4 九四
噬幹胏，得金矢；利艱貞，吉。
The fourth NINE, undivided, shows one gnawing the flesh dried on the bone, and getting the pledges of money and arrows. It will be advantageous to him to realise the difficulty of his task and be firm,--in which case there will be good fortune.
— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1882 (public domain)
The Changed Hexagram 之卦
Line 4 changing turns hexagram 21 into䷚ Hexagram 27: 頤 — “Swallowing”Read line 4 of hexagram 27 →Reading This Line
In the received Zhouyi text, line 4 of hexagram 21 is a strong (yang) line occupying the fourth line, risen into the upper trigram. The classical line statement — 噬幹胏，得金矢；利艱貞，吉。 — 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 21 Line 4
What does line 4 of hexagram 21 say?
The received text reads: 噬幹胏，得金矢；利艱貞，吉。 In James Legge's 1882 translation: “The fourth NINE, undivided, shows one gnawing the flesh dried on the bone, and getting the pledges of money and arrows. It will be advantageous to him to realise the difficulty of his task and be firm,--in which case there will be good fortune.”
Which hexagram does line 4 change hexagram 21 into?
Changing only line 4 of hexagram 21 (噬嗑, “Gnawing Bite”) gives hexagram 27 — 頤 (yí, “Swallowing”). 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.