I Ching · Hexagram 61 of 64
Hexagram 61: Zhong Fu （中孚） — Inner Truth
Wind below, Lake above: wind over the lake. The lake is the wide sea and the wind-blown wood is a boat, so the image is a lone boat on a great sea in raging waves. The hexagram is about faith in the heart, the power of faith that arises when a person is small before the vastness of nature, and how through that central faith one attains the firm and the middle, transforms a people, reaches even the fishes and the pigs, and comes at last to the fullness of blessing and wisdom.
At a glance
| Hexagram | 61 of 64 |
|---|---|
| Name | Zhong Fu 中孚 · Inner Truth |
| Upper trigram | Xun （巽）· Wind |
| Lower trigram | Dui （兑）· Lake |
| Structure | Wind over Lake |
| Lines | 6 lines |
The Judgment （卦辞）
Inner Truth. Pigs and fishes. Good fortune. Favorable to cross the great water. Favorable to persevere.
ExplainedFaith is the heart's trust; inner truth means that the heart holds nothing but faith and can rely on nothing else. The wind-blown wood is the boat and the lake is the sea: before the vast waves the only thing a small human can depend on is faith. The pigs and the fishes stand for all walking and swimming creatures; that they are blest means a true faith can reach into the minds of beasts and commune even with the spirits and the sages, and whether a faith is true is judged by whether it touches the birds and beasts and fishes and can help them. Favorable to cross the great water: a firm and true faith has power to help living creatures, to cross the wide river, and to dissolve calamity. In favorable to persevere, favor is blessing and perseverance is virtue, and only with both can one benefit self and others; virtue is the storehouse, and blessing must have a storehouse to be kept.
Tuan Zhuan — Commentary on the Judgment （彖传）
Inner Truth: the yielding are within and the firm attains the middle. To speak and to be gentle - faith thereby transforms a people. Pigs and fishes, good fortune: faith reaches the pigs and the fishes. Favorable to cross the great water: riding on a hollow boat of wood. Inner truth, favorable to persevere: thus it accords with Heaven.
ExplainedInner truth goes deeper still, to the center within. The center is the great root of the world, before joy and anger, sorrow and fear have risen; to hand on the way is to hand on the central way, and when the heart returns to the center the negative feelings cease, the waves lie level as a mirror, and the heart becomes vast as empty space. The yielding are within and the firm attains the middle: two yielding lines are enclosed at the center and the firm lines hold the middle of both the inner and the outer trigram - the heart is soft and accepts guidance, and so attains the firm middle, fear being the catalyst that drives one to let go of obstinacy. To speak and to be gentle, and faith transforms a people: with a heart open, soft, free of preconception and of hatred yet holding the central way, one's words persuade and reform a whole people, for knowledge and force can only coerce, but only faith can transform. Riding on a hollow boat: the wood is benevolence, and compassion is the ferry that carries the living across the sea of birth and death. Faith aims to lead life toward favor and perseverance; Heaven's wisdom surpasses that of earthly parents, for it knows that blessing without virtue cannot be given, and so requires the twofold fullness of blessing and wisdom, in accord with the way of Heaven.
Xiang Zhuan — Image Commentary （大象）
Wind over the lake: Inner Truth. The gentleman deliberates lawsuits and delays executions.
ExplainedWind over the lake is not only a single boat but a small one on a great sea in a storm, with nothing to rely on but faith: the gale stands for karma arriving and the hour of death at hand. Of the four virtues, embracing the One and holding to the center are the invisible state of the heart, while favor and perseverance are the visible blessing and virtue. Whoever has not yet reached that station should ask Heaven for time to adjust himself, as one reconsiders a capital case and delays the execution. Everyone dies once, but one should die in blessing and virtue - not asking merely for long life, health and wealth, but to be a noble person and a sage before going; and when blessing and wisdom are both cultivated, Heaven sets the person in his fitting place.
The Six Lines （六爻）
The lines are read from the bottom upward. Each carries its own text, a Small Image commentary, and a plain-English reading.
Line 1 · YangLine 1
Deliberation brings good fortune. If there is something else, there is no peace.
Small ImageThe good fortune of careful thought: the will has not changed.
ExplainedFaith must not be blind but carefully weighed, for there are many false and crooked faiths, and only deliberation brings good fortune. What is chosen after careful thought is not lightly altered, and so the will does not change. If the object is crooked it brings unrest: a good faith settles body and mind, while one that leaves the heart uneasy and anxious is already suspect. Fraud can take a man's money, but an evil faith takes him to hell; as long as the heart stays anxious one must not enter.
Line 2 · YangLine 2
The crane calls in the shade. Its young answer. I have a good cup. I will share it with you.
Small ImageIts young answer: it is the wish of the center.
ExplainedThe first stage of faith is deliberation; the second is a settled body and mind with reward appearing. The crane's cry is clear and the shade is the sheltered side of the mountain: the mother calls and the young answer, the sound passing over the high hill. The good cup is the cup of reward and rank, and the mother who finds food calls her young to it - so, entering the true faith and settling the body, the reward comes. One should call to Heaven often, and what the center truly wishes, Heaven grants. This is the stage of blessing and gratitude: faith though unseen, as the workings of Heaven are without sound or scent, felt as a right field of energy, and then the wish is met.
Line 3 · YinLine 3
He finds his foe. Now he drums, now he halts. Now he weeps, now he sings.
Small ImageNow he drums, now he halts: his place is not right.
ExplainedAfter the smooth passage of faith comes the third stage, when karma arrives: just as the body and mind were settled and every request was answered, a crash or an illness comes. Before the enemy visible or invisible one drums for war and then rests, weeps and then sings, tossed about in the grinding of karma - this is the cutting and polishing of the mind, by which the true way is tested, and without the test no way is made. His place is not right because he is still at the stage of asking for blessings and has not yet won the firm middle, so quarrels and contests keep him at war until his time is done.
Line 4 · YinLine 4
The moon nearly full. The team of horses is lost. No blame.
Small ImageThe team of horses is lost: he cuts through his kind and ascends.
ExplainedThe grinding of karma goes on until the character is nearly perfected. The moon nearly full is the virtue of the moon, bright and gentle, approaching its fullness. The team of horses is the most precious thing one can own: to lose it and not care means not that the horses are gone but that they are gone from the heart, and poverty no longer matters. He has cut through his kind: he is no longer one of those who chase wealth but has risen above. The sage is not without wealth; he simply does not care - and in that single turn of the mind, when truth is loved and wealth is light, one already ascends.
Line 5 · YangLine 5
Sincere, and bound closely. No blame.
Small ImageSincere, and bound closely: his place is right and central.
ExplainedWhen faith is firm and settled, the sincere are bound closely together as twins, closer even than brothers, so that one not only believes himself but leads others to believe and gathers them into a common faith. His place is right and central: having reached it, all walk the road of dissolving karma and err less and less. In a community of practice, diet, habits and outlook are gradually adjusted as one rises from the aesthetic through the moral to the religious stage.
Line 6 · YangLine 6
The sound of the cock crows up to heaven. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Small ImageThe sound of the cock crows up to heaven: how can it last?
ExplainedThe crowing cock is the one who flies up to heaven: the cultivator who values his station above his virtue, bringing into faith the worldly wish to climb and outdo others, to be a saint by force and to rise in rank and draw riches from the way. Great virtue is lacking, and one without virtue cannot be given a mandate. The cock may fly up, but it must come down, and Heaven's punishment will bring illness and reversal. Such climbers appear even in a true community, but nothing built this way lasts.
Key takeaway
Inner truth is the power of faith that rises when a lone person faces the vastness of nature, and through it one attains the center, transforms a people, and reaches even the beasts.
Frequently asked questions
What does Hexagram 61 (Zhong Fu) mean in the I Ching?
Wind below, Lake above: wind over the lake. The lake is the wide sea and the wind-blown wood is a boat, so the image is a lone boat on a great sea in raging waves. The hexagram is about faith in the heart, the power of faith that arises when a person is small before the vastness of nature, and how through that central faith one attains the firm and the middle, transforms a people, reaches even the fishes and the pigs, and comes at last to the fullness of blessing and wisdom.
What is the judgment of Hexagram 61?
Inner Truth. Pigs and fishes. Good fortune. Favorable to cross the great water. Favorable to persevere. Faith is the heart's trust; inner truth means that the heart holds nothing but faith and can rely on nothing else. The wind-blown wood is the boat and the lake is the sea: before the vast waves the only thing a small human can depend on is faith. The pigs and the fishes stand for all walking and swimming creatures…
What do the six lines of Hexagram 61 say?
Line 1: Deliberation brings good fortune. If there is something else, there is no peace. Line 2: The crane calls in the shade. Its young answer. I have a good cup. I will share it with you. Line 3: He finds his foe. Now he drums, now he halts. Now he weeps, now he sings. Line 4: The moon nearly full. The team of horses is lost. No blame. Line 5: Sincere, and bound closely. No blame. Line 6: The sound of the cock crows up to heaven. Perseverance brings misfortune.
What is the main lesson of Hexagram 61 (Inner Truth)?
Inner truth is the power of faith that rises when a lone person faces the vastness of nature, and through it one attains the center, transforms a people, and reaches even the beasts.
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