Hexagram 42 — 益 Yì (yì), usually rendered Increase or Augmenting — is built from the trigram Xun (巽 xùn), Wind, over the trigram Zhen (震 zhèn), Thunder. Both are Wood in element, so this is a figure of the same force at two pitches: the steady penetrating push of wind above, the sudden arousing movement of thunder below. Read together they picture growth that is both driven and directed — energy rising from beneath while a gentler influence draws it onward. Where its neighbour Hexagram 41 (Decrease) pictures giving something up, hexagram 42 pictures the current running the other way: something is being added, and the question is how to receive and steward it well.
The two trigrams and what they picture
Thunder below is the impulse to move — the season when energy stirs and things begin. Wind above is the influence that spreads and shapes, patient and pervasive. In the classical reading of hexagram 42 the increase flows downward: what is above gives to what is below, and the whole strengthens because its base is fed. In plain terms, this is the pattern of a good leader who invests in the ground floor, a season when effort compounds, or a relationship where one party’s generosity lifts the other. The energy of Increase is real, but note that both trigrams are Wood, which grows fast and can also overreach. The figure carries momentum; it does not promise that momentum manages itself.
易经 · Book of Changes
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The overall counsel of 益 Yì is that this is a favourable time to undertake something and to move across difficulty — the moment supports action rather than holding back. The traditional phrase points toward “furthering to cross the great water,” the old image for committing to a large venture. But the counsel is not a blank cheque. Increase is fortunate when it is put to use and shared, not hoarded; the benefit is meant to move through you to others, not simply accrue. The practitioner reading is straightforward: when the wind is at your back, act, and let the gain flow outward. Advantage that is used to lift the people or work beneath you renews itself. Advantage clutched tends to sour.
The Image and its lesson
The Image of hexagram 42 sets wind and thunder together as forces that reinforce one another — each makes the other stronger when they move in the same direction. The lesson drawn from this in the classical commentary is a lesson of self-cultivation: when a person sees good, they move toward it; when they see a fault in themselves, they correct it. That is the human echo of increase. You grow not only by what circumstance adds but by borrowing what is good in others and amending what is weak in yourself. It is an active, almost restless picture — thunder does not sit still — but the movement is aimed at improvement rather than mere accumulation.
Practical guidance
In work, hexagram 42 tends to mark a window where initiative is rewarded and investment pays back: a good season to begin a project, extend generosity to a team, or put resources where they will compound. The caution embedded in the Wood-over-Wood structure is against overextension — increase invites you to grow, not to sprawl. In relationships it reads as a phase of mutual lift, where one person’s giving genuinely strengthens the bond, provided the giving is not tallied. On timing, treat this as tendency and not verdict: the figure describes a supportive current, the kind of moment when crossing the great water is favoured, but it still asks for judgement about what to build and how far. The most reliable way to hold the increase is to pass some of it on.
Changing lines and where it shifts
The changing lines of 益 Yì mark where the pattern of increase is turning. Lower lines often speak to the beginning of a benefit and the responsibility that rides with it; middle lines to steadiness and sincere use of what has come; the top line carries the classic warning that increase pursued without limit turns against itself — no one adds to it, and someone may take from it instead. Read the specific moving line as the live edge of your situation, and note the hexagram it changes into: flipping different lines can move hexagram 42 toward figures of gathering, of the family, or of inner truth, each redirecting the same rising energy. The through-line is consistent: increase is a current to be steered, and it lasts only as long as it keeps moving through you rather than stopping at you.
If you are tracing how the same trigrams and five elements shape a person rather than a moment, that is the territory of Ba Zi. Start with the I Ching hub, browse the full set from the 64 hexagrams overview, or read the mirror figure at Hexagram 41 (損 Sǔn, Decrease) — then plot your own chart free with the Ba Zi calculator to see which elements are increasing in your year.
