Hexagram 42 · Increase
益 · Yì
The Judgment
Increase. It furthers one to undertake something; it furthers one to cross the great water. Wind and thunder strengthen each other, and what is above is sacrificed to enrich what is below. This is a season of expansion in which giving multiplies rather than depletes. Act now, boldly and generously, for such times do not last indefinitely.
The Image
Wind and thunder: the image of Increase. Thus the superior man, when he sees good, imitates it, and when he has faults, he corrects them without delay. His growth comes from constant, unhesitating self-improvement.
Interpretation
Conditions are working in your favour and effort is being repaid with interest. Undertake the thing you have been postponing, including the risky crossing; the hexagram explicitly encourages it. But the mechanism of this good fortune matters. Increase flows here because those above give to those below: resources move downward, the strong support the weak, and the whole system grows as a result. So the way to participate is to be generous. Invest in other people, share credit, fund the thing that helps your team rather than only your position. The Image adds a personal version of the same principle: grow by copying whatever good you see and fixing your faults the moment you notice them, without the usual delay and self-justification. A generous, self-correcting person in a season of increase compounds quickly. Just remember the final warning of the hexagram, that whoever takes without giving in such a time invites a sharp reversal.
Love
A genuinely expansive phase. Give more than you calculate, meet the other person's needs before they have to ask, and let the relationship take a real step forward. Commitments made in this spirit tend to hold, because both people are gaining together.
Career
Invest, launch, hire, learn. Support the people below you and share the benefit of your position; your standing will rise faster through their success than through your own manoeuvring. Move now while the conditions are generous rather than waiting for certainty.
Advice
Give freely and improve yourself without delay while conditions are running in your favour.
Line by line
It furthers one to accomplish great deeds. Supreme good fortune, no blame. Unusual support is behind you, so use it for something substantial rather than personal comfort. Small ambitions would waste an opening this generous.
Someone increases him; ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it. Constant perseverance brings good fortune. The king presents him before God. Sustained openness and correctness attract help that cannot be blocked, and it comes with real honour.
One is enriched through unfortunate events. No blame, if you are sincere and walk in the middle, reporting to the prince with a seal. Hard circumstances bring unexpected gain; handle it transparently and with due authority, and no fault attaches.
If you walk in the middle and report to the prince, he will follow. It furthers one to be used in moving the capital. Act as a fair intermediary and you will be trusted with a large, difficult change that benefits everyone.
If in truth you have a kind heart, do not ask. Supreme good fortune. Truly, kindness will be recognised as your virtue. Give without needing the gift acknowledged; the goodness returns to you anyway, multiplied.
He brings increase to no one; indeed someone strikes him. His heart is not steady; misfortune. Taking during a season of giving isolates you and invites attack. Inconsistency of purpose is the deeper fault here.