Decoding Hexagram 19 (Lin) in the I Ching - Structure and Lessons

What is the Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram?

The Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram (臨) is the 19th of the 64 hexagrams in the Zhou Yi sequence. It consists of the upper trigram Khôn (Earth) and the lower trigram Đoài (Marsh), that is, earth above a marsh. The image suggests a bank of earth close to the water's surface, implying drawing near, approaching and overseeing.

What does the original text of the Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram say?

The hexagram statement reads: 臨：元亨。利貞。至于八月有凶。 (Lâm: nguyên hanh, lợi trinh. Chí vu bát nguyệt hữu hung.) Close meaning: Lâm: greatly successful, favourable to be upright and steadfast. When it comes to the eighth month, there is misfortune.

The line statements of the six lines read in order:

• Line Sơ cửu: 初九：咸臨，貞吉。 (Sơ cửu: hàm lâm, trinh cát.) Close meaning: Approaching through mutual response, upright and steadfast, then good.
• Line Cửu nhị: 九二：咸臨，吉无不利。 (Cửu nhị: hàm lâm, cát vô bất lợi.) Close meaning: Approaching through mutual response, good, nothing that is not favourable.
• Line Lục tam: 六三：甘臨，无攸利。既憂之，无咎。 (Lục tam: cam lâm, vô du lợi. Ký ưu chi, vô cữu.) Close meaning: Approaching with sweetness, nothing favourable. Once one worries about it, there is no fault.
• Line Lục tứ: 六四：至臨，无咎。 (Lục tứ: chí lâm, vô cữu.) Close meaning: Approaching to the utmost, no fault.
• Line Lục ngũ: 六五：知臨，大君之宜，吉。 (Lục ngũ: trí lâm, đại quân chi nghi, cát.) Close meaning: Approaching with wisdom, fitting for a great ruler, good.
• Line Thượng lục: 上六：敦臨，吉无咎。 (Thượng lục: đôn lâm, cát vô cữu.) Close meaning: Approaching with generosity, good, no fault.

The Thoán truyện (part of the Thập Dực, traditionally attributed to Khổng Tử; modern scholarship places it around the 5th to 2nd century BCE) says: 臨，剛浸而長。說而順，剛中而應，大亨以正，天之道也。至于八月有凶，消不久也。 Close meaning: Lâm, the firm soaks in gradually and grows. Pleased and compliant, firm and centred and responsive, greatly successful through uprightness, this is the way of heaven. When it comes to the eighth month there is misfortune, because decline does not take long.

The Đại Tượng (Tượng truyện, part of the Thập Dực) says: 澤上有地，臨；君子以教思无窮，容保民无疆。 Close meaning: Above the marsh there is earth, this is Lâm; the noble person accordingly thinks of teaching without end, and embraces and protects the people without boundary.

How did Wang Bi and Zhu Xi annotate the Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram?

Wang Bi's commentary (in the Zhou Yi zhengyi):

• On the hexagram statement, Wang Bi comments: "In the eighth month yang declines and yin grows, the way of the petty person grows, the way of the noble person declines, and so it says 'there is misfortune'."
• On line Sơ cửu, Wang Bi comments: "'Hàm' means to move. To move is to respond. It responds to line four, and approaches through this moving. Line four occupies the correct position, and it responds to it, its will is to carry out what is correct. Using firmness to move compliance, its will is to carry out what is correct, and approaching things in this way, being correct it obtains good fortune."
• On line Cửu nhị, Wang Bi comments: "It has a response in line five, and approaches through this moving. When the firm prevails, the yielding is in danger, and line five is yielding in substance, and cannot share its will. If it complies with line five, then its firm virtue is not great, how could it obtain 'good, nothing that is not favourable'? If it is entirely at odds with it, then it loses the mutual response, and to obtain 'hàm lâm, good, nothing that is not favourable', it surely has not yet complied with the mandate."
• On line Lục tam, Wang Bi comments: "Sweet is the name for flattery and deviation, meaning to beguile without correctness. It occupies an incorrect position, lives in a time when the firm is growing, and approaches things with deviant beguilement, and so 'nothing favourable'. If it can worry about danger and correct its way, the firm will not harm what is correct, and so 'the fault does not last'."
• On line Lục tứ, Wang Bi comments: "It occupies compliance and responds to yang, does not shun the growing firm, and responds to it, obtains its position, and approaches to the utmost. When the firm prevails, the yielding is in danger, but the yielding does not lose correctness, and only then obtains 'no fault'."
• On line Lục ngũ, Wang Bi comments: "It occupies the honoured position, obtains the centre, and can accept the firm according to propriety, using it to establish what is correct, does not shun the growing firm but can use it, delegates work to the able without infringing on them, and so the clear-sighted devote their strength, the wise exhaust their plans, and it accomplishes without acting, arrives without going. 'Fitting for a great ruler', it is like this, and so it says 'trí lâm đại quân chi nghi cát'."
• On line Thượng lục, Wang Bi comments: "It occupies the extreme of Khôn and approaches with generosity. Its will is to help the worthy, it takes generosity as its virtue, and though it is in a time of the growing firm, the firm does not harm generosity, and so 'no fault'."

Zhu Xi's commentary (Zhou Yi benyi):

• On the hexagram statement: "Lâm means advancing and drawing near, pressing upon things. The two yang lines soak in and grow to press upon the yin, and so it is the hexagram of the twelfth month. Moreover, this hexagram has Đoài below, which is pleased, and Khôn above, which is compliant, and cửu nhị takes firmness in the centre and responds above to lục ngũ, and so the diviner obtains great success and it is favourable to be correct. But when it comes to the eighth month there is sure to be misfortune. The eighth month is counted from the Fu hexagram, the month of one yang, to the Dun hexagram, the month of two yin, when yin grows and yang withdraws. Others say the eighth month is the eighth month of the Xia calendar, which in hexagrams is Quan, also the opposite of Lâm. Again, it is a warning given along with the divination."
• On line Sơ cửu: "The hexagram has only two yang lines that everywhere approach the four yin lines, and so both lines have the image of hàm lâm. Sơ cửu is firm and obtains correctness, and so the divination is correct and good."
• On line Cửu nhị: "Firm and obtaining the centre, with a momentum of advancing upward, and so the divination is good and nothing is not favourable."
• On line Lục tam: "Yielding and soft, neither centred nor correct, and it is between above and below, which is the image of approaching people with sweetness. The divination is originally not favourable, but if one can worry and correct oneself, then there is no fault. This encourages people to correct themselves toward goodness, a deep teaching."
• On line Lục tứ: "It obtains its position, and responds below to sơ cửu, approaching one another to the utmost, and so no fault."
• On line Lục ngũ: "The character tri is read as trí (wisdom). Taking yielding in the centre, responding below to cửu nhị, not using oneself but using others, this is the work of wisdom, fitting for a great ruler, a good way."
• On line Thượng lục: "It is at the top of the hexagram, approaching at the end, approaching with generosity, a good way without fault. And so the image and divination are like this."

Nhật Nguyệt's way of understanding the Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram

In Nhật Nguyệt's way of understanding, the Lâm hexagram sits beside the image of earth close to the water's surface: the earth bank holds the water, and the water relies on the bank to have a place. The two yang lines below move upward while the four yin lines above wait, creating a posture that has both momentum of advance and strength of compliance. The hexagram statement says "greatly successful, favourable to be upright", then at once adds "when it comes to the eighth month there is misfortune", suggesting that a favourable time does not last without limit.

Reading the Thoán truyện, what stands out is "the firm soaks in gradually and grows" and "firm and centred and responsive". That is, strength does not rush in all at once, it soaks in gradually, and it must have something to respond to before it succeeds. The Đại Tượng then shifts from the posture of the hexagram to human affairs: teaching without end, protecting the people without boundary. This is where the structure of the hexagram connects with the general spirit of the I Ching.

The six line statements sketch out ways of "drawing near": approaching through mutual response (hàm lâm), approaching with sweetness (cam lâm), approaching to the utmost (chí lâm), approaching with wisdom (trí lâm), approaching with generosity (đôn lâm). Both Wang Bi and Zhu Xi stress the word "correct": to draw near without being correct brings short-term gain but long-term harm. On line Lục tam in particular, both commentators read it as the image of sweet flattery, and both also leave a way to correct it: if one knows to worry, the fault does not last.

One point should be made clear: the line statements carry the social standards of ancient times, such as ruler and minister, man and woman, above and below. That is the historical context of the text, not a formula to be applied to relationships today. The same line, which people of old read within the frame of ruler and subject, people today may read within the frame of an organisation or a team, but one should know which frame one is borrowing.

As for authorship, tradition attributes the drawing of the hexagrams to Fu Xi, the setting of the hexagram statements to King Wen, the setting of the line statements to the Duke of Zhou, and the making of the Thập Dực to Khổng Tử; modern scholarship does not regard that chain as proven, but treats the Kinh and the Truyện as layers of text from different periods.

What should one understand when the Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram comes up in a question about work?

Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion: the Lâm hexagram suggests a setting in which one is drawing near to an opportunity, a position, a group of people, and it does not promise an outcome. The hexagram statement has "greatly successful, favourable to be upright" but adds "when it comes to the eighth month there is misfortune", so whatever is going well should be settled while it is still going well, not dragged out through overconfidence. Line Cửu nhị is read by both Wang Bi and Zhu Xi as good when firm and obtaining the centre: that is, keep to principles but know how to respond to those above, not so rigid as to end up in confrontation. Line Lục tam is a reminder about approaching with sweet words: it may win favour in the short term but it does not last.

What should one understand when the Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram comes up in a question about love?

Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion: the line statements of the Lâm hexagram belong to the social setting of ancient times, in which relations of above and below, and of man and woman, had their own standards. Read today, one can take the idea of "drawing near through mutual response" as a foothold: being close because one understands one another, not because of pressure or sweet words. Line Lục tam reminds us that sweet words without substance bring "nothing favourable"; line Thượng lục reminds us that generosity and endurance are what make for "good, no fault". The hexagram should not be read as a verdict on a particular relationship.

What should one understand when the Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram comes up in a question about money?

Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion: the Lâm hexagram has the image of an earth bank holding water, suggesting the keeping and use of resources. The hexagram statement says "favourable to be upright", that is, favourable when one takes the correct path; take the shortcut, use sweet words to seize advantage, and line Lục tam has already recorded "nothing favourable". "When it comes to the eighth month there is misfortune" is a reminder that a favourable cycle does not last, so one should plan for the long term instead of putting everything into one wave. This is a way of reading a setting, not a financial forecast for any individual.

What should one understand when the Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram comes up in a question about health?

Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion: the content of the Lâm hexagram does not speak of illness, so one should not attach specific health advice to the hexagram. If one wants to draw an idea from its general spirit, the Thoán truyện stresses "the firm soaks in gradually and grows": many problems come on gradually rather than all at once, so one should monitor steadily instead of waiting until things are serious. All health matters should be taken to a qualified professional, not based on a hexagram for self-diagnosis.

What should one understand when the Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram comes up in a question about leadership?

Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion: line Lục ngũ is the most worth reading for a leader. Wang Bi comments that such a person "does not use oneself but uses others", "delegates work to the able without infringing on them", and so the clear-sighted devote their strength and the wise exhaust their plans. Zhu Xi also reads it in the direction of "not using oneself but using others". The Đại Tượng says "teaching without end, protecting the people without boundary": leadership is long-term work, not a one-off task. Lines Sơ cửu and Cửu nhị remind us that those below who advance need something to respond to them, so those above must know how to receive them.

Quick reference table: the Địa Trạch Lâm hexagram

The figures in the table match the results of the reference tools on Nhật Nguyệt.

Overview article on the topic: What the I Ching is and how to look up the 64 hexagrams

*The above content is for reference on the text and the tradition of reading the I Ching, and is not advice for any particular situation.*