Meaning
Broken, whole, broken, whole, broken, whole: every line is the opposite of what its place calls for, the mirror of hexagram 63. Fire is above and rises away; water is below and sinks away; they do not meet. 未濟 means not yet across, and the Judgment gives the book's last picture: a young fox has nearly crossed the river when its tail gets wet, and nothing is gained.
The Image draws the lesson of sorting: the superior man distinguishes things carefully and puts each in the place where it belongs, which is exactly what the figure lacks. In our own reading, it matters that the book ends here, on a crossing not yet made rather than on completion. The sequence the Wings attach to the received order says as much: things cannot come to an end, so the book closes with what is unfinished.
The lines
The first line is the fox "whose tail gets immersed", in Legge's words, and regret; the second drags its wheel back and keeps firm. The third advances before things are set right and fares badly, and yet the great crossing is possible; the fourth stirs itself as if for a three-year campaign, and is rewarded. The fifth has the brightness of the superior man and sincerity, and good fortune. The top line drinks wine in confidence, and is warned not to drink until its head goes under.
Its pair, inverse, opposite and nuclear hexagram are all one: 既濟, hexagram 63.
In the birth cast
The time cast arrives at 未濟 when the year, month and day leave 3 on eight, which puts 離 fire above, and the same total with the hour added leaves 6, which puts 坎 water below. Which line moves depends on what the whole total leaves on six, and each line turns the figure into a different hexagram:
- Line 1 (初六) moving: becomes 38 睽 Kuí, Estrangement
- Line 2 (九二) moving: becomes 35 晉 Jìn, Advance
- Line 3 (六三) moving: becomes 50 鼎 Dǐng, The Cauldron
- Line 4 (九四) moving: becomes 4 蒙 Méng, The Untaught Mind
- Line 5 (六五) moving: becomes 6 訟 Sòng, Dispute
- Line 6 (上九) moving: becomes 40 解 Xiè, Release
Lines 2 to 5 give the hexagram within, 63 既濟 Jì Jì, Already Across. Everyone born in the same lunar day and double hour has the same cast, so the figure describes a moment, not a person.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Trigram virtues (Shuogua, chapter 7)
- 坎 sinking, perilous below; 離 bright, attached above, in our English sourced
- Trigram family places (Shuogua)
- middle son below, middle daughter above sourced
- Trigram body and animal images (Shuogua)
- ears and pig below; eyes and pheasant above sourced
- Trigram phases (a classical correspondence: the Plum Blossom text's table)
- Water below, Fire above. The Han assignment of 梅花易數, book 1, also used by Jing Fang; not stated as such in the Zhouyi sourced
- Inverse and opposite
- Upside down: 63 既濟 Jì Jì, Already Across; every line flipped: 63 既濟 Jì Jì, Already Across sourced
- Human Design gate
- Gate 64, from 161.375° to 167° of the tropical zodiac on Ra Uru Hu's wheel (1987): a modern placing, not the I Ching's sourced
- Our English title
- Not Yet Across: EsoTerrier's own, from the sense of 未濟 our construction
How the schools read it
- The Zhouyi, in Legge's translation (1882)
- “(We see) a young fox that has nearly crossed (the stream), when its tail gets immersed. There will be no advantage in any way.”
- The Image (大象), one of the Wings, in our paraphrase
- Water with fire above it; the superior man carefully distinguishes among things and the positions they naturally occupy.
- The Plum Blossom method (Ming)
- A figure reached by numbers: 離 above when the year, month and day leave 3 on eight, 坎 below when the same total with the hour leaves 6.
- Human Design (Ra Uru Hu, 1987)
- Takes the number for its gate 64 and puts it on the zodiac; its own reading, which we do not quote.
- EsoTerrier
- Fire over water, nothing yet in its place: nearly across, not yet; like the young fox at the river, the danger is in thinking oneself over, and putting each thing in its place carries one across.
Claims about it
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Gate 64 of Human Design, at 161.375° to 167° of the zodiac, is where the I Ching itself places hexagram 64.
falseWhat the record shows: The wheel is Shao Yong's circle rotated by Ra Uru Hu in 1987 to 1989 so that hexagram 41 starts at 2° Aquarius. No Chinese source we found puts the hexagrams on degrees of the zodiac.
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Being born under 未濟 Wèi Jì fixes a person's character.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: A modern reading with no source in the tradition. The Zhouyi has no birth hexagram; the cast reads a figure, not a person, and everyone born in the same lunar day and double hour shares it.
