Upper trigram
☳
Thunder (Zhen) above
Arousal and shock.
FamilyEldest son
ElementWood
Hexagram 40 of 64
I Ching hexagram 40 ☳☵ Deliverance
I Ching hexagram 40, Deliverance, is thunder above, water below. In brief: the tension breaks; relief arrives. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 2 and 4 and its broken lines in 1, 3, 5 and 6.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚋⚊⚋⚊⚋⚋ 010100 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Thunder over Water Zhen ☳ / Kan ☵
- Every line changed
- № 37 The Family
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 144 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☵
Water (Kan) below
Danger and depth.
FamilyMiddle son
ElementWater
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What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 40
The Judgement
Deliverance: the tension breaks and the obstacles dissolve. Return to normal quickly, and if anything is still left to do, do it promptly.
The Image
Thunder and rain clearing the air. The lesson is to forgive mistakes and let go of old grievances once the crisis has passed.
A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →
Primary source
Hexagram 40 in James Legge’s translation
“In (the state indicated by) Kieh advantage will be found in the south-west. If no (further) operations be called for, there will be good fortune in coming back (to the old conditions). If some operations be called for, there will be good fortune in the early conducting of them.”
“(The trigram representing) thunder and that for rain, with these phenomena in a state of manifestation, form Kieh. The superior man, in accordance with this, forgives errors, and deals gently with crimes.”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom The first line, divided, shows that its subject will commit no error.
- Line 2 The second line, undivided, shows its subject catch, in hunting, three foxes, and obtain the yellow (= golden) arrows. With firm correctness there will be good fortune.
- Line 3 The third line, divided, shows a porter with his burden, (yet) riding in a carriage. He will (only) tempt robbers to attack him. However firm and correct he may (try to) be, there will be cause for regret.
- Line 4 (To the subject of) the fourth line, undivided, (it is said), ‘Remove your toes. Friends will (then) come, between you and whom there will be mutual confidence.’
- Line 5 The fifth line, 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 be good fortune, and confidence in him will be shown even by the small men.
- Line 6 · top In the sixth line, divided, we see a feudal prince (with his bow) shooting at a falcon on the top of a high wall, and hitting it. (The effect of his action) will be in every way advantageous.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 144 — read the original text.
Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.
Deliverance for a decision
The difficulty is lifting. Tie up loose ends fast, then move on without dwelling on what went wrong.
I Ching 40 in love and relationships
Relief after a hard period, and a chance to forgive. Holding onto old scores would waste the release.
Hexagram 40 at work
A problem finally resolved. Close it out cleanly and get back to regular work without a long post-mortem.
The six lines of hexagram 40
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yin yang yin yang yin yin — what each position means.
2 yang and 4 yin lines. One of the six stands in its proper place, and the pairs 1–4 and 2–5 answer.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Water below — danger and depth — is the private, inner side of hexagram 40.
Thunder above — arousal and shock — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Water below generates Wood above in the five-element cycle: the lower trigram feeds the upper. Energy moves upward and outward, which is the more productive of the two directions.
Read as a family
The eldest son sits above and the middle son below. Two brothers, the older one on top — siblings rather than parent and child, so the order is one of seniority, not authority.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 40
Nuclear hexagram
63 · After Completion
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Li (Fire) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Kan (Water) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
37 · The Family
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Thunder over Water becomes Wind over Fire.
Inverse hexagram
39 · Obstruction
The situation seen from the other side.
Turn the figure upside down and Thunder over Water becomes Water over Mountain.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Thunder above, Water below.
Thunder over Water: arousal and shock meeting danger and depth.
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “I Ching Hexagram 40: Deliverance.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/40/
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