恆
“Persevering” — King Wen #32
Duration. Lasting bonds succeed through steady, unforced constancy.
The Judgment 卦辞
亨，無咎，利貞，利有攸往。
Heng indicates successful progress and no error (in what it denotes). But the advantage will come from being firm and correct; and movement in any direction whatever will be advantageous.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
浚恆，貞凶，無攸利。
The first SIX, divided, shows its subject deeply (desirous) of long continuance. Even with firm correctness there will be evil; there will be no advantage in any way.
悔亡。
The second NINE, undivided, shows all occasion for repentance disappearing.
不恆其德，或承之羞；貞吝。
The third NINE, undivided, shows one who does not continuously maintain his virtue. There are those who will impute this to him as a disgrace. However firm he may be, there will be ground for regret.
田無禽。
The fourth NINE, undivided, shows a field where there is no game.
恆其德，貞；婦人吉，夫子凶。
The fifth SIX, divided, shows its subject continuously maintaining the virtue indicated by it. In a wife this will be fortunate; in a husband, evil.
振恆，凶。
The topmost SIX, divided, shows its subject exciting himself to long continuance. There will be evil.
Reading the Picture
Hexagram 32 places wind (巽) beneath thunder (震) —gentle influence working inward below, movement breaking out of stillness above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Persevering”:duration. Lasting bonds succeed through steady, unforced constancy Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
Questions About Hexagram 32
What does 恆 (héng) mean?
Hexagram 32 of the I Ching is named 恆 (héng), usually rendered "Persevering" in English editions. Its figure pairs wind (巽) below with thunder (震) above.
Which trigrams form hexagram 32?
震 (Thunder) sits above and 巽 (Wind) sits below — the classical picture is gentle influence working inward beneath movement breaking out of stillness.
How is hexagram 32 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 32 gives hexagram 42 — 益 (Augmenting). Turned upside down it becomes hexagram 31 — 咸 (Conjoining). Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 43 — 夬 (Displacement).
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1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1899), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text. · For reflection and entertainment — not financial, medical, or life advice.