Upper trigram
☱
Lake (Dui) above
Joy and openness.
FamilyYoungest daughter
ElementMetal
Hexagram 49 of 64
I Ching hexagram 49 ☱☲ Revolution
I Ching hexagram 49, Revolution, is lake above, fire below. In brief: the old order must change. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 1, 3, 4 and 5 and its broken lines in 2 and 6.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚊⚋⚊⚊⚊⚋ 101110 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Lake over Fire Dui ☱ / Li ☲
- Every line changed
- № 4 Youthful Folly
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 167 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☲
Fire (Li) below
Clarity and attachment.
FamilyMiddle daughter
ElementFire
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What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 49
The Judgement
Revolution: a fundamental change whose time has come. It is trusted only once people see it is needed, and it succeeds when the reasons are sound and regrets disappear.
The Image
Fire inside a lake, each changing the other. The lesson is to keep an accurate calendar — to read the seasons of change and prepare for them.
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 49 in James Legge’s translation
“(What takes place as indicated by) Ko is believed in only after it has been accomplished. There will be great progress and success. Advantage will come from being firm and correct. (In that case) occasion for repentance will disappear.”
“(The trigram representing the waters of) a marsh and that for fire in the midst of them form Ko. The superior man, in accordance with this, regulates his (astronomical) calculations, and makes clear the seasons and times.”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom The first line, undivided, shows its subject (as if he were) bound with the skin of a yellow ox.
- Line 2 The second line, divided, shows its subject making his changes after some time has passed. Action taken will be fortunate. There will be no error.
- Line 3 The third line, undivided, shows that action taken by its subject will be evil. Though he be firm and correct, his position is perilous. If the change (he contemplates) have been three times fully discussed, he will be believed in.
- Line 4 The fourth line, undivided, shows occasion for repentance disappearing (from its subject). Let him be believed in; and though he change (existing) ordinances, there will be good fortune.
- Line 5 The fifth line, undivided, shows the great man (producing his changes) as the tiger (does when he) changes (his stripes). Before he divines (and proceeds to action), faith has been reposed in him.
- Line 6 · top The sixth line, divided, shows the superior man producing his changes as the leopard (does when he) changes (his spots), while small men change their faces (and show their obedience). To go forward (now) would lead to evil, but there will be good fortune in abiding firm and correct.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 167 — 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.
Revolution for a decision
Make the deep change, not a cosmetic one — but only after the need is clear to the people it affects. Timing and justification decide whether it takes hold.
I Ching 49 in love and relationships
A relationship that has to change its terms to survive. Explain the why before insisting on the what.
Hexagram 49 at work
Restructuring, rebranding or replacing a system. Build the case first, then move decisively.
The six lines of hexagram 49
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yin yang yang yang yin — what each position means.
4 yang and 2 yin lines. Five of the six stand in their proper place, and the pairs 2–5 and 3–6 answer.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Fire below — clarity and attachment — is the private, inner side of hexagram 49.
Lake above — joy and openness — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Fire below controls Metal above. The inner position restrains the outer, which reads as holding back circumstance rather than being carried by it.
Read as a family
The youngest daughter sits above and the middle daughter below. Two sisters, the younger one on top — siblings rather than parent and child, with the junior one taking the lead.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 49
Nuclear hexagram
44 · Coming to Meet
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Xun (Wind) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Qian (Heaven) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
4 · Youthful Folly
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Lake over Fire becomes Mountain over Water.
Inverse hexagram
50 · The Cauldron
The situation seen from the other side.
Turn the figure upside down and Lake over Fire becomes Fire over Wind.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Lake above, Fire below.
Lake over Fire: joy and openness meeting clarity and attachment.
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 49: Revolution.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/49/
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