Hexagram 63 — Already Fording
King Wen #63 · plain-language meaning, the Image, and the classical text
After the crossing. Order is achieved — and everything can now slip. Watch the small beginnings of decay.
What Hexagram 63 Means 白话解读
Hexagram 63 places fire (离) beneath water (坎) — light and clarity clinging to what it illuminates below, water finding its way through hard gaps above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Already Fording”: after the crossing. Order is achieved — and everything can now slip. Watch the small beginnings of decay. Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
The Image 象傳
水在火上，既濟；君子以思患而豫防之。
(The trigram representing) fire and that for water above it form Kî Žî. The superior man, in accordance with this, thinks of evil (that may come), and beforehand guards against it.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
Water above fire: after completion. The wise think of trouble before it comes and guard against it in advance.— plain-English rendering by The Hexagrams2
Hexagram 63 in Real Questions 實問實答
With money and work
Already Fording describes after the crossing. Order is achieved — and everything can now slip. Watch the small beginnings of decay — and that is the posture the tradition recommends for practical matters under this figure: light and clarity clinging to what it illuminates, 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 Already Fording about a choice, the figure's counsel is the same movement it pictures: after the crossing. Order is achieved — and everything can now slip. Watch the small beginnings of decay. 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 63
What does 既濟 (jì jì) mean?
Hexagram 63 of the I Ching is named 既濟 (jì jì), usually rendered "Already Fording" in English editions. Its figure is built from fire (离) below and water (坎) above — light and clarity clinging to what it illuminates beneath water finding its way through hard gaps.
Is hexagram 63 a good omen?
The received text of hexagram 63 is warm: it contains one occurrence 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 63 mean in love?
In a relationship reading, Already Fording points to after the crossing. Order is achieved — and everything can now slip. Watch the small beginnings of decay. The figure pairs fire (离) beneath water (坎) — light and clarity clinging to what it illuminates 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 63 mean for career and money?
Career and money questions read Already Fording through the figure itself: fire (离) below, water (坎) above — light and clarity clinging to what it illuminates held inside water finding its way through hard gaps. The plain reading: After the crossing. Order is achieved — and everything can now slip. Watch the small beginnings of decay. The text carries 1 mention 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 63 mean?
A cast of hexagram 63 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 63 gives hexagram 64, 未濟 (Not Yet Fording). 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 63 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 63 gives hexagram 64 — 未濟 (Not Yet Fording). Turned upside down it becomes hexagram 64 — 未濟 (Not Yet Fording). Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 64 — 未濟 (Not Yet Fording).
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
亨小，利貞。初吉終亂。
Ji Ji intimates progress and success in small matters. There will be advantage in being firm and correct. There has been good fortune in the beginning; there may be disorder in the end.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
曳其輪，濡其尾，無咎。
The first NINE, undivided, (shows its subject as a driver) who drags back his wheel, (or as a fox) which has wet his tail. There will be no error.
婦喪其茀，勿逐，七日得。
The second SIX, divided, (shows its subject as) a wife who has lost her (carriage-)screen. There is no occasion to go in pursuit of it. In seven days she will find it.
高宗伐鬼方，三年克之；小人勿用。
The third NINE, undivided, (suggests the case of) K?o ?ung, who attacked the Demon region, but was three years in subduing it. Small men should not be employed (in such enterprises).
繻有衣袽，終日戒。
The fourth SIX, divided, shows its subject with rags provided against any leak (in his boat), and on his guard all day long.
東鄰殺牛，不如西鄰之禴祭，實受其福。
The fifth NINE, undivided, shows its subject (as) the neighbour in the east who slaughters an ox (for his sacrifice); but this is not equal to the (small) spring sacrifice of the neighbour in the west, whose sincerity receives the blessing.
濡其首，厲。
The topmost SIX, divided, shows its subject with (even) his head immersed. The position is perilous.
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.