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Hexagram 5 of 64

I Ching hexagram 5 ☵☰ Waiting

I Ching hexagram 5, Waiting, is water above, heaven below. In brief: the situation is not ready; patience is the action. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 1, 2, 3 and 5 and its broken lines in 4 and 6.

Lines, bottom up
⚊⚊⚊⚋⚊⚋ 111010 · 1 = solid
Trigrams
Water over Heaven Kan ☵ / Qian ☰
Every line changed
№ 35 Progress
In Legge, 1882
p. 67 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16

Legge, The Yî King, 1882.

Paired with it line by line — changed, turned over or read from the inner lines: 35, Progress, 6, Conflict and 38, Opposition.

Also with Water above: 3, Difficulty at the Beginning, 8, Holding Together and 29, The Abysmal.

Also with Heaven below: 1, The Creative, 9, Small Taming and 11, Peace.

To draw a hexagram of your own, cast the I Ching with three coins.

I Ching Hexagram 5: Waiting

Upper trigram

☵

Water (Kan) above

Danger and depth.

FamilyMiddle son
ElementWater

Lower trigram

☰

Heaven (Qian) below

Creative force.

FamilyFather
ElementMetal

What the text says, in plain terms

The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 5

The Judgement

Waiting with confidence. Something needed is on its way; success comes from staying calm and sincere while you wait rather than rushing toward it.

The Image

Clouds rising into the sky: rain is coming but has not yet fallen. The lesson is to keep strength up, eat, rest and stay cheerful while the moment approaches.

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 5 in James Legge’s translation

The Judgement
“Hsü 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 Image
“(The trigram for) clouds ascending over that”

The lines

  1. Line 1 · bottom The first line, 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.
  2. Line 2 The second line, 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.
  3. Line 3 The third line, undivided, shows its subject in the mud (close by the stream). He thereby invites the approach of injury.
  4. Line 4 The fourth line, divided, shows its subject waiting in (the place of) blood. But he will get out of the cavern.
  5. Line 5 The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject waiting amidst the appliances of a feast. Through his firmness and correctness there will be good fortune.
  6. Line 6 · top The topmost line, 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.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 67 — 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.

Waiting for a decision

Timing is the issue, not the goal. Prepare, keep your nerve and do not act out of impatience. The hexagram is favorable — as long as waiting does not turn into anxious interference.

I Ching 5 in love and relationships

A pause before something develops. Pressure and ultimatums spoil it; ordinary warmth and patience let it arrive in its own time.

Hexagram 5 at work

Waiting for approval, funding or a decision from others. Use the time to prepare so you can move the moment the answer comes.

The six lines of hexagram 5

Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yang yang yin yang yin — what each position means.

Hexagram 5: Water over Heaven
Hexagram 5, Waiting, line by line from the bottomlineplace · answer1Line 1 · yang, solidin its placeanswered by 42Line 2 · yang, solidout of placeno answer from 53Line 3 · yang, solidin its placeanswered by 64Line 4 · yin, brokenin its placeanswered by 15Line 5 · yang, solidin its placeno answer from 26Line 6 · yin, brokenin its placeanswered by 3LowerQianHeavenUpperKanWaterKing Wen sequence · read bottom to topastrohot.com

4 yang and 2 yin lines. Five of the six stand in their proper place, and the pairs 1–4 and 3–6 answer.

What the two trigrams do to each other

Inner and outer

Heaven below — creative force — is the private, inner side of hexagram 5.

Water above — danger and depth — is the world that side meets.

The five-element relation

Metal below generates Water 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 middle son sits above and the father below. A child over a parent — an inversion of the expected order, and usually read as a situation where the junior position carries the initiative.

Calculated from the lines

Hexagrams connected to hexagram 5

Hexagram 38, Opposition

Nuclear hexagram

38 · Opposition

What is happening beneath the surface.

Lines 2–4 give Dui (Lake) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Li (Fire) as the upper.

Hexagram 35, Progress

Opposite hexagram

35 · Progress

The situation turned inside out.

Change all six lines and Water over Heaven becomes Fire over Earth.

Hexagram 6, Conflict

Inverse hexagram

6 · Conflict

The situation seen from the other side.

Turn the figure upside down and Water over Heaven becomes Heaven over Water.

None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.

The image

Water above, Heaven below.

Water over Heaven: danger and depth meeting creative force.

← 4 · All 64 · 6 →

1 The Creative 2 The Receptive 3 Difficulty at the Beginning 4 Youthful Folly 6 Conflict 7 The Army 8 Holding Together

Sources

  1. James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 67

Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.

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