Hexagram 5 — Attending
King Wen #5 · plain-language meaning, the Image, and the classical text
Waiting. Strength is held in reserve until conditions ripen — patience now becomes confidence later.
What Hexagram 5 Means 白话解读
Hexagram 5 places heaven (乾) beneath water (坎) — creative force pressing upward below, water finding its way through hard gaps above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Attending”: waiting. Strength is held in reserve until conditions ripen — patience now becomes confidence later. Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
The Image 象傳
雲上於天，需；君子以飲食宴樂。
(The trigram for) clouds ascending over that for the sky forms Hsü. The superior man, in accordance with this, eats and drinks, feasts and enjoys himself (as if there were nothing else to employ him).— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
Clouds gather high in the sky: waiting. The wise keep themselves well — nourish, rest, and let the rain ripen.— plain-English rendering by The Hexagrams2
Hexagram 5 in Real Questions 實問實答
With money and work
Attending describes waiting. Strength is held in reserve until conditions ripen — patience now becomes confidence later — and that is the posture the tradition recommends for practical matters under this figure: creative force pressing upward, held inside a larger setting of water finding its way through hard gaps. It names a shape of timing, not a sum.
For a decision
If you cast Attending about a choice, the figure's counsel is the same movement it pictures: waiting. Strength is held in reserve until conditions ripen — patience now becomes confidence later. When lines move in your cast, read them against this base — the moving lines show which part of the figure is awake for you, and the changed hexagram shows where it is heading.
Questions About Hexagram 5
What does 需 (xū) mean?
Hexagram 5 of the I Ching is named 需 (xū), usually rendered "Attending" in English editions. Its figure is built from heaven (乾) below and water (坎) above — creative force pressing upward beneath water finding its way through hard gaps.
Is hexagram 5 a good omen?
The received text of hexagram 5 is warm: it contains 4 occurrences of 吉 (good fortune), and 1 of 無咎 (no blame). The classical verdict is broadly favourable — with the lines' own conditions attached.
What does hexagram 5 mean in love?
In a relationship reading, Attending points to waiting. Strength is held in reserve until conditions ripen — patience now becomes confidence later. The figure pairs heaven (乾) beneath water (坎) — creative force pressing upward meeting water finding its way through hard gaps — which is the traditional picture of how this energy behaves between two people. For how to phrase a love question before casting, see our guide to asking the I Ching about love.
What does hexagram 5 mean for career and money?
Career and money questions read Attending through the figure itself: heaven (乾) below, water (坎) above — creative force pressing upward held inside water finding its way through hard gaps. The plain reading: Waiting. Strength is held in reserve until conditions ripen — patience now becomes confidence later. The text carries 4 mentions of 吉 (good fortune), so it is read as workable — provided the conduct the lines describe is kept.
What do the changing lines of hexagram 5 mean?
A cast of hexagram 5 can produce moving lines. Each of the six lines has its own statement (爻辭) in the classical text below, read from the bottom up, and a moving line is read as the part of the figure that is awake for your question. When a line moves it turns into its opposite, and the whole figure becomes a second hexagram: changing every line of 5 gives hexagram 35, 晉 (Prospering). Every line also has a page of its own on this site — Line 1 through Line 6 under this hexagram — with the classical Chinese and Legge's translation side by side.
How is hexagram 5 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 5 gives hexagram 35 — 晉 (Prospering). Turned upside down it becomes hexagram 6 — 訟 (Lawsuit). Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 38 — 睽 (Polarising).
Cast it yourself
Shake the tube, watch your own coins fall.
- The hexagram's classical meaning — judgment and all six lines
- Moving lines marked — but not read for you
- No account, no email, nothing to pay
Get the reading, not just the text
Same cast, read all the way through:
- Every line read for you — what each moving line means inside your question
- The changed hexagram — where your situation is heading, and how to read the turn
- A closing that answers you directly — act, wait, or say it out loud
New to casting? How it works · All 64 hexagrams
Related Hexagrams 錯綜互
The Classical Text 經文
有孚，光亨，貞吉，利涉大川。
Xu intimates that, with the sincerity which is declared in it, there will be brilliant success. With firmness there will be good fortune; and it will be advantageous to cross the great stream.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
需于郊，利用恆，無咎。
The first NINE, undivided, shows its subject waiting in the distant border. It will be well for him constantly to maintain (the purpose thus shown), in which case there will be no error.
需于沙，小有言；終吉。
The second NINE, undivided, shows its subject waiting on the sand (of the mountain stream). He will (suffer) the small (injury of) being spoken (against), but in the end there will be good fortune.
需于泥，致寇至。
The third NINE, undivided, shows its subject in the mud (close by the stream). He thereby invites the approach of injury.
需于血，出自穴。
The fourth SIX, divided, shows its subject waiting in (the place of) blood. But he will get out of the cavern.
需于酒食，貞吉。
The fifth NINE, undivided, shows its subject waiting amidst the appliances of a feast. Through his firmness and correctness there will be good fortune.
入于穴，有不速之客三人來；敬之，終吉。
The topmost SIX, divided, shows its subject entered into the cavern. (But) there are three guests coming, without being urged, (to his help). If he receive them respectfully, there will be good fortune in the end.
Line by Line 逐爻细读
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1899), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text.2 The Image (象傳) is an ancient text in the public domain; its plain-English gloss here is original to The Hexagrams, not a quotation from any copyrighted edition. · For reflection and entertainment — not financial, medical, or life advice.