Line 4 of
Hexagram 43: 夬
“Displacement” — King Wen #43 · 九四
Line 4 九四
臀無膚，其行次且；牽羊悔亡，聞言不信。
The fourth NINE, undivided, shows one from whose buttocks the skin has been stripped, and who walks slowly and with difficulty. (If he could act) like. a sheep led (after its companions), occasion for repentance would disappear. But though he hear these words, he will not believe them.
— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1882 (public domain)
The Changed Hexagram 之卦
Line 4 changing turns hexagram 43 into䷄ Hexagram 5: 需 — “Attending”Read line 4 of hexagram 5 →Reading This Line
In the received Zhouyi text, line 4 of hexagram 43 is a strong (yang) line occupying the fourth line, risen into the upper trigram. The classical line statement — 臀無膚，其行次且；牽羊悔亡，聞言不信。 — 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 43 Line 4
What does line 4 of hexagram 43 say?
The received text reads: 臀無膚，其行次且；牽羊悔亡，聞言不信。 In James Legge's 1882 translation: “The fourth NINE, undivided, shows one from whose buttocks the skin has been stripped, and who walks slowly and with difficulty. (If he could act) like. a sheep led (after its companions), occasion for repentance would disappear. But though he hear these words, he will not believe them.”
Which hexagram does line 4 change hexagram 43 into?
Changing only line 4 of hexagram 43 (夬, “Displacement”) gives hexagram 5 — 需 (xū, “Attending”). 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.