Hexagram 61: Inner Truth
Outer trigram (upper)
Tốn
Wind · Wood
Inner trigram (lower)
Đoài
Marsh · Metal
Judgment
中孚：豚魚吉，利涉大川，利貞.
Translation
Trung Phu (sincerity at the center): even pigs and fish respond to it — auspicious. Favorable to cross the great river. Favorable to hold to correctness.
Commentary
Tốn above is wind, Đoài below is a marsh. Wind blowing over the marsh stirs everything it touches. The two yin lines at the center — lines 3 and 4 — form an empty middle: a heart free of bias lets sincerity pass straight through. Even pigs and fish, the least perceptive of creatures, can be moved by it.
Line Readings
Line 1 (yang)
初九：虞吉，有他不燕.
Translation
Staying calm and settled is auspicious; being drawn toward other concerns brings unease.
Commentary
Line 1, yang, is in its correct position. Holding sincerity in calm stillness is auspicious. If the mind turns outward toward other concerns, sincerity is no longer whole, and unease follows.
Line 2 (yang)
九二：鳴鶴在陰，其子和之，我有好爵，吾與爾靡之.
Translation
A crane calls in the shade, and its young answer in harmony; I have a fine cup of wine, and I share it with you.
Commentary
Line 2, yang, holds the center. Sincerity expressed naturally — the crane's call — is answered in kind by its young, and joy is shared with those of like mind. Sincerity carries far.
Line 3 (yin)
六三：得敵，或鼓或罷，或泣或歌.
Translation
Meeting a rival — now beating the drum, now resting; now weeping, now singing.
Commentary
Line 3, yin, is neither centered nor correctly placed. Its sincerity is unsteady; facing a rival (line 6) it wavers between advancing and retreating, joy and sorrow. Unstable.
Line 4 (yin)
六四：月幾望，馬匹亡，无咎.
Translation
The moon nearly full; the paired horse is let go. No blame.
Commentary
Line 4, yin, is in its correct position. It lets go of its tie to line 3 — the paired horse is lost — to give itself fully to line 5, the moon nearly full and close to perfect. No blame.
Line 5 (yang)
九五：有孚攣如，无咎.
Translation
Sincerity that binds people together; no blame.
Commentary
Line 5, yang, centered and correct, holds the position of honor. Its sincerity binds everyone together. No blame.
Line 6 (yang)
上九：翰音登于天，貞凶.
Translation
A rooster's crow trying to rise to heaven — holding to correctness is inauspicious.
Commentary
Top line, yang, at the extreme. Its sincerity has become nothing but an empty sound — a rooster's crow straining toward heaven, noise without substance. Even holding to correctness is inauspicious here, because there is nothing real behind it.