Hexagram 49 of 64
革 gé
Revolution
兑 (duì, Lake) above · 离 (lí, Fire) below
The Judgment 卦辞
The old skin must come off. Revolution succeeds only when the moment is ripe — the day it is believed in. Change your own patterns the same way: fully, once.
The Image 大象
Fire in the lake: revolution. The wise person clarifies the calendar and makes the seasons plain.
The six lines 爻辞
Each line of 革 has its own classical text. If a line in your cast is changing, its text is the heart of your reading.
Line 1 · 初九
Bound fast with oxhide — do not change yet. The moment has not ripened.
「巩用黄牛之革」
Line 2 · 六二
On the right day, change. Advance — good fortune, no blame.
「巳日乃革之，征吉，无咎」
Line 3 · 九三
Marching is fatal; even holding steady is tense. Speak the change three times, fully — then be believed.
「征凶，贞厉，革言三就，有孚」
Line 4 · 九四
Regret gone: trust established, the mandate changed. Good fortune.
「悔亡，有孚改命，吉」
Line 5 · 九五
The great one changes like a tiger — stripes distinct, no divination needed. Conviction this clear persuades by itself.
「大人虎变，未占有孚」
Line 6 · 上六
The wise change like the leopard's sleek coat; the small change their faces. Now stay put — steadiness is good fortune.
「君子豹变，小人革面，征凶，居贞吉」
If you drew this in a reading
A pattern of tension and craft. This hexagram belongs to the large middle family of mixed patterns: it works, but only along its own grain. Read the Judgment closely — mixed hexagrams usually name the exact condition on which their promise depends.
In yes/no questions this hexagram reads as “not yet clear” — the answer hinges on timing and execution.
The trigrams give the flavor: 兑 (Lake) above — joyous openness — exchange, persuasion, pleasure shared — over 离 (Fire) below — clarity and clinging — insight, illumination, dependence on fuel. Where those two energies meet, 革 is born.
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