A lake resting on a mountain: feeling that passes between two and draws a response. Things go through when the response is sincere and correct, not hurried or hollow.
Gen ☶, the mountain, whose quality is stopping (止), lies beneath Dui ☱, the lake, whose quality is joy (說). Zhu Xi reads xian as mutual feeling: the firm below and the soft above answer each other, the mountain's stillness making the feeling single-minded and the lake's gladness making the response full. Such feeling goes through, but only when it is correct.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
咸，亨，利貞，取女吉。
Xian: success. It is fitting to stay correct and firm. Taking a wife brings good fortune.
Zhu Xi glosses xian as feeling that passes between two and draws a response. The soft lake sits above the firm mountain and they answer each other: the mountain's stillness keeps the feeling single-minded, and the lake's gladness makes the response complete. The mountain's youngest son also places himself below the lake's youngest daughter, the man taking the first step, which he calls the proper order of man and woman at the time of marriage. Feeling naturally finds its way through, but without correctness it loses that success and whatever is done goes wrong.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
山上有澤，咸。君子以虛受人。
Above the mountain there is a lake: Xian. The noble person, keeping open and empty, receives others.
Zhu Xi explains the lake on the mountain in one phrase: it connects through emptiness. Water can rest on the heights only where there is a hollow to receive it. The noble person meets people the same way, leaving room for them instead of being already full of oneself.
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, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading
咸其拇。
Feeling in the big toe.
The hexagram draws its images from the human body, from the feet upward. At the very bottom, the first line (初六) feels only in the big toe: the stirring is shallow, wanting to move but not yet able to, so the text names neither good nor ill fortune. Zhu Xi adds a note for the whole hexagram: although it is about feeling, all six lines do better staying still than moving.
Line 2, yin (六二)changing line in the shared reading
咸其腓，凶，居吉。
Feeling in the calf: misfortune. Staying where one is brings good fortune.
The calf, Zhu Xi explains, is the part of the leg that moves first when one wants to walk, eager and hard to hold back. The soft second line (六二) sits right at that place and also finds it hard to hold steady. Yet it is central and correct, able to stay where it belongs, which is why the text pairs misfortune for moving with good fortune for remaining still.
Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading
咸其股，執其隨，往吝。
Feeling in the thigh. What it keeps hold of is following others. Going on brings humiliation.
A thigh moves only when the feet move; it has no motion of its own. Zhu Xi reads “holding” as what one ought to keep hold of, and here the third line (九三), though strong, keeps hold only of following: the two lines below want to move, and it cannot stand firm but goes along with them. Going that way brings humiliation.
Line 4, yang (九四)changing line in the shared reading
貞吉，悔亡。憧憧往來，朋從爾思。
Being correct and firm brings good fortune, and regret vanishes. Restless, coming and going, only your companions follow your thoughts.
Above the thighs and below the back, at the center of the three yang lines, lies the heart, and Zhu Xi makes the fourth line (九四) the master of the hexagram. The heart's response should be correct and steady, but a yang line in a yin place is neither. Hence the condition: correct and firm, good fortune and regret gone; wavering and tied to private feelings, and only one's own circle follows, never anyone far off.
Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading
咸其脢，无悔。
Feeling in the flesh of the back. No regret.
Lying above the heart but facing away from it, the muscle of the back cannot feel things, Zhu Xi says, and so has no private attachments either. The fifth line (九五) sits exactly there. The warning in the image is that staying unattached in this way, even if it moves no one, can at least leave no regret.
Top line, yin (上六)changing line in the shared reading
咸其輔頰舌。
Feeling in the jaws, cheeks and tongue.
Jaws, cheeks and tongue are what one speaks with, and they sit at the top of the body. The top line (上六) is a soft line at the end of the lake trigram, which stands for mouth and tongue, and at the furthest point of feeling. Zhu Xi sees someone trying to move others with words that have nothing behind them. The text names no outcome; he says misfortune and blame are evident.
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.