I Ching Hexagram 42
Hexagram 42: Yi-Increase (益)
Composed of 震 (Zhen) below and 巽 (Xun) above · increase · benefit · expansion · reception
The Judgment
益：利有攸往，利涉大川。
Yi (yì) — wind above, thunder below: the wind gets behind the thunder and pushes it. Benefit favours going somewhere, and favours crossing the great water. Growth here is real and it is directional, but it only works when something is given downward to make room for it.
The judgment above quotes the classical Chinese of the Zhou Yi (public domain); the English gloss and modern reading are our own. Compare with James Legge's The I Ching (Sacred Books of the East, Vol 16) , 1882 (public domain).
Quick Answers
Is hexagram 42 (Yi-Increase) good or bad?
Good, and explicitly so: the judgment is two sentences, both favourable, and the first says it helps to go somewhere. Yi is one of the strongest hexagrams for beginnings, expansion, and starting something larger — the 彖 says the people take unbounded joy in it. What it is not is a promise that any growth works. There is a direction requirement: 自上下下, the top moves down to the bottom, so an increase that only benefits whoever is already on top lands you on the top line instead, where 莫益之，或擊之, unlucky. The verdict depends almost entirely on whether your growth gives anything downward.
What does hexagram 42 (Yi-Increase) mean in love?
It means a relationship benefits from investment and suffers from accounting. Single, it favours contact over evaluation — say yes to the thing you have been deferring, because 六二 describes receiving a better reading of your situation from someone who has one. Partnered, it says give, and hands you a specific instruction from 九五: 勿問, do not ask, do not keep score. The benefit returns as 惠我德, the world telling you it noticed, and it does that after the fact rather than on request. If you have started listing what you are owed in a relationship, you have already become the top line.
What happens when line 6 of hexagram 42 (Yi-Increase) changes?
Line 6 is 上九 — nobody benefits him, somebody strikes him down, a heart set up that will not stay constant. It is the collapse of the hexagram into pure self-interest, and changing that top yang to yin turns Yi into Hexagram 3 (Zhun), difficulty at the beginning: sprout-like, ungainly, and barely started. That is the useful part — the excessive, demanding, overgrown thing gets put back to the beginning of its life. Concretely, this is a project or a relationship that grew too large for the goodwill that began it, and the correction is not to push through but to go back to the small early version that people were actually willing to help with.
The Six Lines
Read your line of interest below. Lines are read from the bottom (line 1) to the top (line 6). A changing line means the hexagram is transforming — see the related hexagrams at the bottom.
初九
利用为大作，元吉，无咎。Good for undertaking something great. Greatly fortunate, no fault. Changes into Hexagram 20 (Guan, contemplation).
The most enthusiastic line in the hexagram, and it sits at the very bottom with almost no standing. The 象 reads it as 下不厚事也 — the one at the bottom is not yet carrying heavy duties, which is both the reason for the enthusiasm and the reason it needs care. Enthusiasm with no base is cheap. If this is your line, start the big thing small enough that you can still see the whole of it.
六二
或益之十朋之龟，弗克违，永贞吉。王用享于帝，吉。Someone adds to you the valued shells worth ten pairs of turtle, and you cannot refuse them. Hold to it for good: good fortune. The king offers to Heaven, and it is fortunate. Changes into Hexagram 61 (Zhong Fu, inner trust).
The same gift-image as Sun's fifth line, arriving in the beneficiary's position instead of the giver's. 六二 is soft, centred, and correct, and it is described as receiving what the world's wise people bring. The 龜 here is a valued tortoise shell used for divination — someone with real standing has looked at your situation and handed you a better reading than the one you were working from. The instruction is 永貞吉: keep it, and hold on to it for the long run rather than spending it early.
六三
益之用凶事，无咎。有孚中行，告公用圭。To increase, use it for the hard things. No fault. With trust, walk the middle way, and announce it to the ruler holding the jade tablet of office. Changes into Hexagram 37 (Jia Ren, the family).
One of the most practical lines in the book: when you have extra capacity, spend it on trouble rather than on comfort. 六三 is out of its proper position, which the 象 confirms is why the help is needed in the first place. The 圭 is a token of office, so the second half is about reporting honestly to whoever holds the authority — do the hard thing, and say plainly that you did it.
六四
中行，告公从。利用为依迁国。Walk the middle way and tell the ruler; he will follow. It is good to rely on this in order to move the capital. Changes into Hexagram 25 (Wu Wang, innocence).
Quieter than three and more consequential. Six-four proposes, the ruler agrees, and then the text reaches for the biggest word available — 遷國, moving the seat of government — which tells you the change being proposed is structural, not cosmetic. In modern terms: the proposal everyone assumes is too big to raise is exactly the one to raise, as long as you raise it through the right person with a straight account of why.
九五
有孚惠心，勿问元吉。有孚惠我德。With trust, a heart that benefits others. You need not ask — it is greatly fortunate. Those you have helped will say your beneficence has reached them. Changes into Hexagram 27 (Yi, nourishing what sustains you).
The benevolence line, and it says something most modern readings miss: you are not going to be thanked in advance for it. 勿問 means do not ask, do not keep score. The second sentence is the return — 惠我德, the benefit comes back to you as reputation — but it arrives late and indirectly. Five has the most to give in this hexagram, and the text tells it to give without checking the return.
上九
莫益之，或击之，立心勿恒，凶。No one benefits him. Someone strikes him down. To set up a heart that does not stay steady — that is unlucky. Changes into Hexagram 3 (Zhun, difficulty at the beginning).
The hexagram's fall, and it is exactly 九五's success taken too far. Having been the one who gives, the top line has started to demand that the giving be returned — 莫益之, nothing benefits him, which is his own doing. 立心勿恒 describes a commitment that will not hold still long enough to mature. If your growth has turned into a question about what you are getting from it, the reading has already flipped.
Hexagram 42 in Love, Career & Decisions
Love & Relationships
Yi in love is a good time to invest and a bad time to keep score. Single, it favours putting yourself into contact with people rather than evaluating them — an introduction, a trip, a yes to the plan you keep deferring — because 六二 is the line about receiving what someone better informed than you hands over. Partnered, it says give more, and expect the return later and in a form you do not control. The one thing to watch is the top line: a relationship that has become a ledger, where you can list what you are owed, is 莫益之, and the text calls that unlucky. 九五 is the corrective.
Make the generous move you have been postponing, and do not plan what it gets you in return.
Career & Work
Yi at work favours expansion, and the interesting part is where the expansion goes. It is favourable to growing into a bigger remit, a new market, a team, a responsibility, and 六三 is the line to sit with: extra capacity should be spent on the difficult problem, not on visible comfort. The 彖 is blunt that the benefit has to move downward, which in an organisation means the people below you get something real from your growth — a decision they can act on, information they can use, credit they can point to. 九五 warns against the other failure, growth that becomes a transaction. If your expansion only serves you, this hexagram reverses.
Grow into one new responsibility this quarter, and put one decision you make in writing into somebody else's hands this week.
Making a Decision
Yes. This is one of the clearest yeses in the book — 利有攸往, it helps to go somewhere, and 利涉大川, it helps to cross the great water. The judgment names both a move and a hard crossing, which means the answer covers the risky version of your question, not only the safe one. The single condition is direction: the 彖 says the increase comes from the top going down, so ask who benefits from this move, not just what you gain by it. 六三 adds that if you have slack capacity, this is the week to spend it on the thing everybody has been avoiding.
Favourable: go, take the hard version, and make sure something concrete travels downward with you.
Health & Wellbeing
Yi in health terms is expansion — energy, appetite, and output all rising at once, which is good until it stops being good. The image is wind driving thunder forward, so it describes a body that is running well and being asked to run further. The 象 for the whole hexagram is 见善则迁，有过则改: move toward what helps, correct what does not, and treat both as ordinary maintenance rather than crisis. That makes Yi a good reading for starting something gentle and regular, and a warning against the top line, which is about pushing on past the point where the commitment will hold. For entertainment and reflection only, not medical advice.
Add one small thing you do most days — a walk, a proper meal, a wind-down — and keep it going rather than starting three.
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