Line 5 of
Hexagram 40: 解
“Taking-Apart” — King Wen #40 · 六五
Line 5 六五
君子維有解，吉，有孚于小人。
The fifth SIX, divided, shows (its subject), the superior man (= the ruler), executing his function of removing (whatever is injurious to the idea of the hexagram), in which case there will he good fortune, and confidence in him will be shown even by the small men.
— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1882 (public domain)
The Changed Hexagram 之卦
Line 5 changing turns hexagram 40 into䷮ Hexagram 47: 困 — “Confining”Read line 5 of hexagram 47 →Reading This Line
In the received Zhouyi text, line 5 of hexagram 40 is a yielding (yin) line occupying the fifth line, the place the tradition treats as the ruler's position of the figure. The classical line statement — 君子維有解，吉，有孚于小人。 — 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 40 Line 5
What does line 5 of hexagram 40 say?
The received text reads: 君子維有解，吉，有孚于小人。 In James Legge's 1882 translation: “The fifth SIX, divided, shows (its subject), the superior man (= the ruler), executing his function of removing (whatever is injurious to the idea of the hexagram), in which case there will he good fortune, and confidence in him will be shown even by the small men.”
Which hexagram does line 5 change hexagram 40 into?
Changing only line 5 of hexagram 40 (解, “Taking-Apart”) gives hexagram 47 — 困 (kùn, “Confining”). 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.