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Hexagram 61 of 64

I Ching hexagram 61 ☴☱ Inner Truth

I Ching hexagram 61, Inner Truth, is wind above, lake below. In brief: sincerity that convinces without argument. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 1, 2, 5 and 6 and its broken lines in 3 and 4.

Lines, bottom up
⚊⚊⚋⚋⚊⚊ 110011 · 1 = solid
Trigrams
Wind over Lake Xun ☴ / Dui ☱
Every line changed
№ 62 Small Exceeding
In Legge, 1882
p. 199 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: 62, Small Exceeding and 27, Nourishment.

Also with Wind above: 9, Small Taming, 20, Contemplation and 37, The Family.

Also with Lake below: 10, Treading, 19, Approach and 38, Opposition.

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

I Ching Hexagram 61: Inner Truth

Upper trigram

☴

Wind (Xun) above

Gentle penetration.

FamilyEldest daughter
ElementWood

Lower trigram

☱

Lake (Dui) below

Joy and openness.

FamilyYoungest daughter
ElementMetal

What the text says, in plain terms

The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 61

The Judgement

Inner truth: sincerity that reaches even the most stubborn. Genuine trust makes great undertakings possible.

The Image

Wind over a lake, stirring the water to its depths. The lesson is to consider disputes carefully and temper severe judgments with understanding.

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 61 in James Legge’s translation

The Judgement
“Kung Fû (moves even) pigs and fish, and leads to good fortune. There will be advantage in crossing the great stream. There will be advantage in being firm and correct.”
The Image
“(The trigram representing the waters of) a marsh and that for wind above it form Kung Fû. The superior man, in accordance with this, deliberates about cases of litigation and delays (the infliction of) death.”

The lines

  1. Line 1 · bottom The first line, undivided, shows its subject resting (in himself). There will be good fortune. If he sought to any other, he would not find rest.
  2. Line 2 The second line, undivided, shows its subject (like) the crane crying out in her hidden retirement, and her young ones responding to her. (It is as if it were said), ‘I have a cup of good spirits,’ (and the response were), ‘I will partake of it with you.’
  3. Line 3 The third line, divided, shows its subject having met with his mate. Now he beats his drum, and now he leaves off. Now he weeps, and now he sings.
  4. Line 4 The fourth line, divided, shows its subject (like) the moon nearly full, and (like) a horse (in a chariot) whose fellow disappears. There will be no error.
  5. Line 5 The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject perfectly sincere, and linking (others) to him in closest union. There will be no error.
  6. Line 6 · top The topmost line, undivided, shows its subject in chanticleer (trying to) mount to heaven. Even with firm correctness there will be evil.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 199 — 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.

Inner Truth for a decision

Act from real conviction, and approach others without prejudice. Understanding their position is what makes your influence work.

I Ching 61 in love and relationships

Deep trust and honest communication. Sincerity convinces where arguments fail.

Hexagram 61 at work

Negotiations, leadership and conflict resolution that depend on credibility. Be exactly what you claim to be.

The six lines of hexagram 61

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

Hexagram 61: Wind over Lake
Hexagram 61, Inner Truth, line by line from the bottomlineplace · answer1Line 1 · yang, solidin its placeanswered by 42Line 2 · yang, solidout of placeno answer from 53Line 3 · yin, brokenout of placeanswered by 64Line 4 · yin, brokenin its placeanswered by 15Line 5 · yang, solidin its placeno answer from 26Line 6 · yang, solidout of placeanswered by 3LowerDuiLakeUpperXunWindKing Wen sequence · read bottom to topastrohot.com

4 yang and 2 yin lines. Three 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

Lake below — joy and openness — is the private, inner side of hexagram 61.

Wind above — gentle penetration — is the world that side meets.

The five-element relation

Metal below controls Wood above. The inner position restrains the outer, which reads as holding back circumstance rather than being carried by it.

Read as a family

The eldest daughter sits above and the youngest daughter below. Two sisters, 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 61

Hexagram 27, Nourishment

Nuclear hexagram

27 · Nourishment

What is happening beneath the surface.

Lines 2–4 give Zhen (Thunder) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Gen (Mountain) as the upper.

Hexagram 62, Small Exceeding

Opposite hexagram

62 · Small Exceeding

The situation turned inside out.

Change all six lines and Wind over Lake becomes Thunder over Mountain.

Hexagram 61 turned upside down is itself

Inverse hexagram

Symmetrical

Hexagram 61 reads the same upside down: Wind over Lake, turned over, is still Wind over Lake. Only eight of the sixty-four do.

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

The image

Wind above, Lake below.

Wind over Lake: gentle penetration meeting joy and openness.

← 60 · All 64 · 62 →

57 The Gentle 58 The Joyous 59 Dispersion 60 Limitation 62 Small Exceeding 63 After Completion 64 Before Completion

Sources

  1. James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 199

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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