Wind over a lake, hollow at the center yet solid within each half: a hexagram of sincerity strong enough to move even pigs and fish.
The lower trigram is Dui ☱, the lake, whose quality is joy; the upper is Xun ☴, wind and wood, whose quality is entering. Zhu Xi sees two yin lines inside and four yang outside: empty at the core taken as a whole, solid at the core of each trigram, both images of trust. Joy below answers compliance above, and sincerity this complete can win a response even from pigs and fish.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
中孚，豚魚吉，利涉大川，利貞。
Zhong Fu: when even pigs and fish respond, good fortune. It is favorable to cross the great river. It is fitting to be correct and firm.
孚 means trust. Two yin lines sit inside four yang lines, and the second and fifth lines are yang and central: hollow at the center as a whole, solid at the center of each trigram, both pictures of trust. The lower trigram is glad and answers upward; the upper yields to what is below. Pigs and fish have no understanding, yet trust at its height can move even them. Wood over a lake, solid outside and hollow within, is the image of a boat. So sincerity can cross the river, provided it keeps correct in danger.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
澤上有風，中孚。君子以議獄緩死。
Wind above the lake: Zhong Fu. The noble person, accordingly, deliberates over legal cases and holds back sentences of death.
The wind stirs and the water takes it in: for Zhu Xi this is the image of sincerity within. Weighing cases with care and holding back from death sentences is, he says, what sincerity within means in practice.
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
虞吉，有它不燕。
Weighing first brings good fortune. With another in view, there is no peace.
At the start of sincerity, the first line answers the fourth. If it first weighs whether the other can be trusted and then trusts, there is good fortune. If it then turns to someone else as well, it loses the correctness of its own judgment and finds no rest. Zhu Xi calls the words a warning.
Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading
鳴鶴在陰，其子和之。我有好爵，吾與爾靡之。
In the shade a crane calls, and its chick answers. I have a fine goblet; you are bound to it along with me.
The second line is the solid core of sincerity, and the fifth answers in kind: hence the crane and its young, the goblet and the bond. “In the shade” means a yang line in the second place; the fine goblet stands for holding the center. Zhu Xi reads 靡 as “to tie”: fine virtue is loved by all, so though the goblet is one's own, the other is drawn to it and holds on.
Line 3, yin (六三)changing line in the shared reading
得敵，或鼓或罷，或泣或歌。
Meeting its match: now drumming, now stopping, now weeping, now singing.
Its match is the top line, where trust has run to its end. Weak, neither central nor correct, and at the top of the glad trigram, the third line pairs with it and so cannot govern itself, swinging between drumming and halting, weeping and singing.
Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading
月幾望，馬匹亡，无咎。
The moon is almost full. The horse's mate is gone. No blame.
Yin in a yin place, correct, and close to the ruler, the fourth line is like the moon just short of full. The horse's mate is the first line, its correspondent; the fourth breaks off from it and gives its trust upward to the fifth. Whoever does likewise, Zhu Xi says, has no blame.
Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading
有孚攣如，无咎。
There is sincerity, binding close. No blame.
Firm, strong, central and correct, the fifth line is the solid heart of sincerity in the seat of honor: the master of trust. It answers the second line, which shares its quality, so the two are bound together, and there is no blame.
Top line, yang (上九)changing line in the shared reading
翰音登于天，貞凶。
The rooster climbs toward heaven. Even being correct and firm, misfortune.
Trust carried to its limit, unable to change: even if correct, Zhu Xi says, this is a road to misfortune. 翰音, “sounding wings,” is a name for the rooster, an image of Xun; at the top of Xun it climbs to heaven. A rooster is not made to fly to heaven, yet it tries; trusting what should not be trusted, without knowing when to change, is the same.
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 label: 九三鳴鶴 → 九二鳴鶴 · Line 3, yin (六三): 或位或歌 → 或泣或歌