初九：利用为大作，元吉，无咎。
With support available, take on a worthwhile undertaking. Turn the opportunity into contribution rather than remaining with the pleasure of being favored.
I Ching Hexagram 42
Yì · Increase
益 · Hexagram 42
Yi concerns growth created through practical contribution. Wind and Thunder strengthen one another as resources move toward need. It asks you to use opportunity for a tangible benefit rather than simply wait to receive more.
Upper trigram: Wind/Xùn
Lower trigram: Thunder/Zhèn
The situation you may be in
Support may be available, or you may be able to improve someone else's circumstances. Direct the benefit where it is useful, learning from good examples and correcting shortcomings so that opportunity produces lasting change.
How to respond
Act on something that genuinely helps and is worth sustaining. Use and share support when it arrives, checking whether circumstances improve rather than only whether your reputation grows.
Judgment and Image
Judgment
益：利有攸往，利涉大川。
Increase. It furthers one to undertake something. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Image
风雷益；君子以见善则迁，有过则改。
Wind and thunder: Increase. The superior person, if he sees good, imitates it; if he has faults, he rids himself of them.
Applying it to real life
Love & relationships
Offer support that strengthens both people, such as sharing pressure or encouraging growth. Giving should not carry an invisible bill or substitute for respect for the other person's choices.
Career & work
Seek resources, improve the work, and develop others' ability. Direct investment toward actual needs and share methods and results so the whole group can sustain the gain.
Choice & decisions
Ask who will experience an actual improvement and whether the promise can be fulfilled. Favorable conditions allow initiative, but the name Increase does not remove facts or costs from the decision.
Timing & pace
Use a favorable opening without waiting for perfection. Notice whether the benefit reaches others in practice; if the activity has become only taking, reconsider its direction.
The six changing lines
The lines unfold from the bottom upward, describing one pattern of change from its first appearance to its extreme. If your reading has a changing line, begin with that position.
六二：或益之，十朋之龟弗克违，永贞吉。王用享于帝，吉。
Dependable help is arriving. Lasting integrity allows you to receive it without resorting to clever maneuvering to justify the support.
六三：益之用凶事，无咎。有孚中行，告公用圭。
Assistance during difficulty can repair an old problem. Explain the circumstances and purpose honestly rather than using the crisis for private advantage.
六四：中行，告公从。利用为依迁国。
Balanced coordination and shared agreement can support a substantial change. Ensure that the people involved understand the direction.
九五：有孚惠心，勿问元吉。有孚惠我德。
A sincere wish to benefit others builds trust through action. You need not repeatedly ask how the favor will be repaid.
上九：莫益之，或击之，立心勿恒，凶。
Continual demands and shifting intentions can turn support into resentment. Stop extracting and rebuild a stable, trustworthy position.
A common misreading
Yi does not guarantee greater income or endorse wanting ever more. Its final line shows continual demands eroding trust. Growth is connected to sincerity and reciprocal benefit.
Related hexagrams
Text and interpretation
Updated 12 September 2026Reviewed by MysticEast Research
This page preserves the Chinese Judgment, Image, and line texts of the received Zhouyi. MysticEast's modern explanations are newly written to emphasize stages of change and practical judgment rather than fixed good-or-bad predictions.
Read the Zhouyi at the Chinese Text ProjectLet the hexagram meet your actual question
A guide gives you the map. A cast made with a clear question can help locate the exact stage of change you are experiencing.