Hexagram 64
未濟
Wèi Jì
Before Completion
Upper Trigram
離 Lí
Fire — Clinging
Lower Trigram
坎 Kǎn
Water — Abysmal
Classical Texts
The Judgment
亨。小狐汔濟。濡其尾。无攸利。
The Image
火在水上，未濟。君子以慎辨物居方。
The Lines
Line 1
初六 濡其尾。吝。
Line 2
九二 曳其輪。貞吉。
Line 3
六三 未濟征凶。利涉大川。
Line 4
九四 貞吉悔亡。震用伐鬼方。三年有賞于大國。
Line 5
六五 貞吉无悔。君子之光。有孚吉。
Line 6
上九 有孚于飲酒。无咎。濡其首。有孚失是。
The Veteran in a New Field
Winslow Homer, 1865
Before Completion
A lone farmer swings his scythe through wheat, Union jacket discarded at the field's edge. Winslow Homer painted this in 1865, just months after the Civil War's end. The man who wore that blue coat weeks earlier now harvests grain, his scythe cutting in rhythmic strokes. War has ended but peace has not yet been established—he stands between identities, soldier and civilian, destroyer and cultivator. The harvest itself marks transition: wheat falling before the blade, stalks that will become bread, destruction that enables nourishment.
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Homer captures Wei Ji (未濟), Before Completion—Fire above Water, Li over Kan. This hexagram inverts hexagram 63's structure: fire strains upward while water sinks downward, their natural movements pulling apart. No lines occupy ideal positions—yang sits in even places, yin in odd places. Yet this disorder contains potential; everything remains possible because nothing has fixed. The character 未濟 means "not yet across," the river yet unforded, work approaching but not reaching conclusion. The veteran stands at this threshold, his old life ended but new life not yet established. Zhou Dynasty diviners saw this configuration at transitional moments—between war and peace, winter and spring, intention and realization. Homer painted a Union soldier turned farmer harvesting wheat shortly after the Civil War ended. His discarded jacket lies at the field's edge as he swings a scythe. Before Completion (Wei Ji) describes transition between two states—the veteran stands between war and peace, soldier and civilian, destruction and cultivation, with the new order not yet established. The Judgment addresses the veteran's position: "Before Completion. Success. But if the little fox, after nearly completing the crossing, gets his tail in the water, there is nothing that would further." Ancient texts describe the young fox crossing ice, nearly across but still in danger—one careless step and it breaks through. The veteran must maintain focus through this final transition, neither celebrating prematurely nor losing attention before the threshold fully passes. In divination, Wei Ji appeared at beginnings disguised as endings, at moments requiring sustained care precisely when completion seems near. The Image Text offers guidance for Homer's farmer: "Fire over water: the image of the condition Before Completion. Thus the superior one is careful in the differentiation of things, so that each finds its place." The veteran must carefully distinguish his new role from his old, must find where the soldier ends and the farmer begins. In the I-Ching sequence, Wei Ji occupies the final position, yet the text immediately loops back to hexagram 1's Creative—suggesting that completion and beginning are phases in continuous transformation rather than fixed endpoints. The scythe swings, wheat falls, the field slowly empties. Almost across.
Yilin: Forest of Changes
From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 64 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.
忠慢未習，單酒糗脯。數至神前，欲求所顧，反得大患。
Devotion slack and rites unlearned; plain wine, dried meat and grain. Approaching the spirit again and again; seeking what one desires; instead receiving great calamity.
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Fire above water, and the circle closes without resolution. The rites have been performed carelessly — the offerings are meager, just thin wine and dried meat. Repeated visits to the shrine seek divine favor, yet instead of blessings, great misfortune descends. The verse indicts ritual without sincerity: going through the motions with inferior offerings and expecting results. From Before Completion to Before Completion, the hexagram transforms into itself — the only pairing in the entire Yilin where source and target are identical. Nothing changes. The fire remains above the water, each element straining away from the other, forever. This is the Yi's ultimate statement on the cost of hollow devotion: when you bring nothing real to the altar, the cosmos returns you to exactly where you started.
中文注释
火在水上，循環不解。忠慢未習——敬意怠慢，禮儀未備。單酒糗脯——薄酒乾肉，祭品寒酸。數至神前——反覆至神靈之前。欲求所顧——希冀神明眷顧。反得大患——反而招致大禍。此詩控訴無誠之祭——形式敷衍、祭品潦草而妄求福佑。從未濟至未濟——全部四千零九十六卦變中唯一自身化自身之組合。什麼都沒有改變。火仍在水上，各據非位，永無交合。此為《易》對虛偽之終極判語：帶空手至祭壇，宇宙只會將你送回原點。慎辨物居方——未濟之自警，永不過時。
Related Hexagrams
Same upper trigram: Fire (離)
Same lower trigram: Water (坎)