Line 5 of
Hexagram 57: 巽
“Ground” — King Wen #57 · 九五
Line 5 九五
貞吉，悔亡，無不利。無初有終。先庚三日，後庚三日，吉。
The fifth NINE, undivided, shows that with firm correctness there will be good fortune (to its subject). All occasion for repentance will disappear, and all his movements will be advantageous. There may have been no (good) beginning, but there will be a (good) end. Three days before making any changes, (let him give notice of them); and three days after, (let him reconsider them). There will (thus) be good fortune.
— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1882 (public domain)
The Changed Hexagram 之卦
Line 5 changing turns hexagram 57 into䷑ Hexagram 18: 蠱 — “Correcting”Read line 5 of hexagram 18 →Reading This Line
In the received Zhouyi text, line 5 of hexagram 57 is a strong (yang) line occupying the fifth line, the place the tradition treats as the ruler's position of the figure. The classical line statement — 貞吉，悔亡，無不利。無初有終。先庚三日，後庚三日，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 57 Line 5
What does line 5 of hexagram 57 say?
The received text reads: 貞吉，悔亡，無不利。無初有終。先庚三日，後庚三日，吉。 In James Legge's 1882 translation: “The fifth NINE, undivided, shows that with firm correctness there will be good fortune (to its subject). All occasion for repentance will disappear, and all his movements will be advantageous. There may have been no (good) beginning, but there will be a (good) end. Three days before making any changes, (let him give notice of them); and three days after, (let him reconsider them). There will (thus) be good fortune.”
Which hexagram does line 5 change hexagram 57 into?
Changing only line 5 of hexagram 57 (巽, “Ground”) gives hexagram 18 — 蠱 (gǔ, “Correcting”). 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.