Two strong lines rise toward four soft ones, drawing near. Things go through greatly while correctness holds, though the text warns of a turn by the eighth month.
Dui ☱, the lake, whose quality is joy (說), lies below Kun ☷, the earth, whose quality is yielding (順). Zhu Xi reads lin as advancing and pressing close: two yang lines are growing upward against four yin, making this the hexagram of the twelfth month. Gladness below, compliance above and a strong center bring great success, but the judgment adds that this tide will turn.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
臨，元亨，利貞。至于八月有凶。
Lin: great success. It is fitting to stay correct and firm. On reaching the eighth month, there will be misfortune.
Lin, as Zhu Xi glosses it, is advancing and pressing close: two yang lines grow from below toward the four yin. The lake below is glad, the earth above yields, and the strong central second line answers the fifth, so things go through greatly, provided correctness holds. The eighth month he counts from the month of Hexagram 24, Fu, with one yang, to that of Hexagram 33, Dun, with two yin, when yin grows and yang retreats. Another view takes it as the eighth month of the Xia calendar, whose hexagram, Hexagram 20, Guan, is Lin turned over. Either way, the warning is attached to the promise itself.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
澤上有地，臨。君子以教思无窮，容保民无疆。
Above the lake there is earth: Lin. In teaching and concern the noble person is never spent, and in embracing and protecting the people knows no bounds.
Earth stands over the lake, the higher looking down on the lower, which Zhu Xi calls approaching those below. Both tasks belong to that kind of care. He matches them to the trigrams: the endless teaching to the lake, the boundless embrace to the earth.
Lines (爻辭)
From the bottom line to the top. In the line names, nine (九) marks a yang line and six (六) a yin line.
Line 1, yang (初九)changing line in the shared reading
咸臨，貞吉。
Drawing near to all. Correct and firm: good fortune.
With only two yang lines in the whole figure, both reach out over all four yin lines, so the first and second lines alike are said to draw near to all. The first line (初九) is firm and stands in a correct place, yang in a yang position, which is why its verdict is good fortune through correctness. Reaching everyone begins with standing straight oneself.
Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading
咸臨，吉，无不利。
Drawing near to all. Good fortune; nothing that is not favorable.
The same words open this line, but the verdict widens. The second line (九二) is firm and holds the center of the lower trigram, and the growth of the yang carries it upward. Zhu Xi gives those two facts as the reason the text finds good fortune and nothing unfavorable: balance joined to momentum.
Line 3, yin (六三)changing line in the shared reading
甘臨，无攸利。既憂之，无咎。
Drawing near with sweetness. Nothing is favorable. Once it worries over this, there is no blame.
Soft, neither central nor correct, the third line (六三) sits at the top of the lower trigram, the lake of gladness. Zhu Xi sees someone who approaches others by pleasing them, sweetness in place of substance, and the text finds nothing favorable in that. Yet the door stays open: if the person grows uneasy and changes, there is no blame. He calls this a deep form of teaching, urging people toward the good.
Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading
至臨，无咎。
Drawing near to the utmost. No blame.
Placed correctly, a yin line in a yin position, the fourth line (六四) answers its proper partner, the first line below. Zhu Xi calls this drawing near at its fullest, upper and lower meeting directly, and says no blame is only fitting. Closeness this proper needs no justification.
Line 5, yin (六五)changing line in the shared reading
知臨，大君之宜，吉。
Drawing near with wisdom: what befits a great ruler. Good fortune.
In the ruler's place, soft and central, the fifth line (六五) answers the strong second line below. Zhu Xi reads its wisdom as not relying on itself but entrusting capable people, which is exactly what suits a great ruler, and the text judges it good. Knowing whom to rely on counts here for more than doing everything oneself.
Top line, yin (上六)changing line in the shared reading
敦臨，吉，无咎。
Drawing near wholeheartedly. Good fortune; no blame.
At the top of the figure, where drawing near comes to its close, the top line (上六) still approaches with steady, generous warmth. Zhu Xi calls that wholehearted care the way to good fortune without blame. Where the third line approached with sweetness alone, this one brings substance, and the verdicts differ accordingly.
If you drew this hexagram
Which text to read depends on how many lines are changing. With none, read the judgment; with one, read that line; with more, follow Zhu Xi's rules in the Yixue qimeng.
Text: Zhu Xi, Yuanben Zhouyi benyi (原本周易本義), Siku Quanshu Wenyuange copy, as transcribed by the Kanseki Repository (KR1a0031), corrected and punctuated by K-magpie. Translation and explanation: written by AI (Claude) from Zhu Xi's commentary and checked against the text and commentary. Sources and the list of corrections are on the Today's Hexagram page.
Characters corrected in this hexagram — image: 教思無窮 → 教思无窮