Clouds have risen into the sky and rain will come in its time. Strength faces danger without rushing in; the text ties success to sincere, unhurried waiting.
Heaven ☰, whose quality is strength, lies below water ☵, whose quality is peril. Zhu Xi reads xu as waiting: strength meets danger and does not rush ahead, and so it does not fall in. The judgment pictures someone at the edge of a river who will cross, but only after waiting with sincerity and staying correct.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
需，有孚，光亨，貞吉，利涉大川。
Xu. There is sincerity: bright success. Correct and firm: good fortune. It is favorable to cross the great river.
Xu means waiting. Strength below meets danger above, and firmness that faces danger without rushing in does not fall into it. Sincerity, Zhu Xi says, is trust held at the center, pictured by the solid fifth line, firm, central and correct in the place of honor. With water ahead and strength drawing near, the figure is someone about to cross who does not step in lightly. Waiting with sincerity, things go through brightly; being correct as well brings good fortune and a safe crossing. A crossing above all needs the patience not to hurry into trouble.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
雲上於天，需。君子以飲食宴樂。
Clouds rise up into the sky: Xu. The noble person, accordingly, eats and drinks, feasts and is at ease.
Once clouds have risen into the sky there is nothing more for them to do; the rain falls on its own when yin and yang come into harmony. Zhu Xi applies this to matters that must be waited for: no further effort fits, only eating, drinking and ease until the thing arrives. The moment one starts forcing it, he says, it is no longer waiting.
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
需于郊，利用恆，无咎。
Waiting in the outskirts. It is favorable to keep steady. No blame.
The outskirts are open ground, still far from the danger. A firm yang line at the bottom can stay in its place without wavering, and Zhu Xi reads the line as a caution: keep that steadiness and there is no blame. The test at this distance is simply not to leave one's post too early.
Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading
需于沙，小有言，終吉。
Waiting on the sand. A little criticism. In the end, good fortune.
Sand lies nearer the water, so the danger is closer now. Zhu Xi counts harm from words as a minor kind of trouble. Having moved up toward the perilous trigram, the line draws some talk, but because it is firm and central it can go on waiting, and the end is good.
Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading
需于泥，致寇至。
Waiting in the mud. It brings raiders upon itself.
Mud is the edge where one is about to sink, and raiders stand for serious harm. The third line is the closest yet to the water above, and it is overly firm and off-center, so Zhu Xi sees trouble drawn in by its own position. No verdict word is attached; the picture itself carries the warning.
Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading
需于血，出自穴。
Waiting in blood. Coming out of the pit.
Blood marks a place of wounding, and a pit is where one falls into danger. The fourth line has entered the water trigram, so it is now inside the peril. Yet it is soft and rightly placed, so it waits instead of pushing on, and Zhu Xi reads that restraint as the way out: even in a place of harm, the one who holds still gets out in the end.
Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading
需于酒食，貞吉。
Waiting over wine and food. Correct and firm: good fortune.
Wine and food belong to a feast, and Zhu Xi takes them to mean waiting calmly. Firm, central and correct, this line waits from the place of honor and can afford to be at ease. The text ties good fortune to staying correct and firm within that calm. Ease of this kind is not idleness; it is waiting that trusts the timing.
Top line, yin (上六)changing line in the shared reading
入于穴，有不速之客三人來，敬之終吉。
Going into the pit. Three guests arrive uninvited. Treat them with respect: good fortune in the end.
At the far end of the danger, a yin line has no more waiting to do and drops into the pit. Its partner, the third line, has also finished waiting and pushes upward with the two yang lines below it: three guests no one invited. A soft line cannot hold them back but can go along with them. Meeting the unexpected with respect, Zhu Xi says, leads to a good end.
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 — Line 1, yang (初九): 需于郊利用恆 → 需于郊利用恆无咎 · 怕 → 恆 (transcription)