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Hexagram 49: Ge (革) — Revolution
Hexagram 49, Ge (革) — Revolution, is the forty-ninth figure of the I Ching, composed of the Lake trigram over the Fire trigram; the ancients read it as change that transforms from within.
Meaning
Ge is the hexagram of fundamental change. Fire and water meet and struggle, and the old readers saw two forces that cannot coexist — the one evaporates the other — so that what results is a complete transformation. The name itself comes from the word for the moulting of an animal, the shedding of an old skin. The judgment's phrase, on your own day you are believed, was read as the teaching that change is only accepted when its time has truly come.
Read against institutions and the working world, the figure is about the difference between reform and upheaval. The lines move carefully: wrapping in the hide of a yellow cow, waiting for one's own day, letting talk of change go the rounds three times before committing. A real change is not rushed — it is prepared, announced, and only then carried through, so that people accept it rather than resist it. The ancients trusted the change that comes in its season.
For two people bound to each other, Ge was read as the transformation a relationship must undergo to survive. The fifth and sixth lines are striking: the great man changes like a tiger, the superior man like a panther, the inferior man only in the face. The commentators saw in this that real change alters the whole person, while shallow change only alters the surface — and that the difference is visible to everyone.
Within the turning of a cycle, this figure marks a point where the old order has run its course and the new is ready to be born. The image of fire under the lake is the book's picture of pressures that have built to the point where something must give. The counsel is to move only when the time is ripe, and then to move completely.
The Judgment
“Revolution. On your own day you are believed. Supreme success, furthering through perseverance. Remorse disappears.”
The Six Lines of Revolution
Line 1Wrapping in the hide of a yellow cow.
Line 2When one's own day comes, one may create revolution. Starting brings good fortune. No blame.
Line 3Starting brings misfortune. Perseverance brings danger. When talk of revolution has gone the rounds three times, one may commit himself.
Line 4Remorse disappears. Men believe him. Changing the form of government brings good fortune.
Line 5The great man changes like a tiger. Even before he questions the oracle, he is believed.
Line 6The superior man changes like a panther. The inferior man molts in the face. Starting brings misfortune.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How are the trigrams of Hexagram 49 arranged?
Ge (革) sets the Lake trigram (Dui, 兑) over the Fire trigram (Li, 离). Fire and water meeting and struggling was the ancients' image of two forces that transform one another — the visual root of the meaning of revolution.
What does the name of Hexagram 49 literally mean?
The word ge (革) refers to the moulting of an animal — the shedding of an old skin so a new one can appear. The old commentaries drew on this root to describe change that is not a patch but a genuine transformation from within.
What is meant by changing like a tiger or a panther?
The fifth and sixth lines say the great man changes like a tiger and the superior man like a panther, while the inferior man changes only in the face. The commentators read this as a contrast between change that reaches the whole character and change that only touches the surface.
Related
Source: Judgment and line texts follow the Wilhelm/Baynes rendering of the Yijing.
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