Hexagram 46: Growing Upward
升Shēng
Rising like a sapling, season by season.
The passages below are historical language. Their references to fortune, danger, and the exemplary person belong to the text’s world. Our modern explanation is an invitation to reflect on your situation.
The Judgment
Classical Chinese
升。 元亨。用見大人，勿恤，南征吉。
Our English rendering
Growing Upward. Great success. It is fitting to see a person of great standing. Do not be anxious. Advancing south is auspicious.
The Image
Classical Chinese
象曰：地中生木，升。君子以順德，積小以高大。
Our English rendering
Wood grows within the earth: Growing Upward. A person of integrity follows virtue, accumulating small things to reach height and greatness.
A modern reading
A tree begins its ascent inside the earth, where much of its growth is hidden. Growing Upward connects visible height with what has accumulated beneath it. The Image describes an increase made from small things, giving progress a scale that can be lived day by day. A skill, project, or relationship may be developing through repeated effort long before there is an impressive result to point to.
The Judgment adds a meeting with someone of stature and an auspicious advance to the south. Its movement has both assistance and direction. A modern reflection can ask where experience or support would help the next stage of growth. The image of a rooted tree also invites attention to whether the base can carry the height being sought. Advancement has demands of its own, including deeper knowledge and the capacity to sustain new responsibilities.
A question to sit with
What small practice or source of guidance would support the next stage of your growth?
Source and method
The Judgment and Image are classical passages from the Book of Changes. The English rendering and modern explanation are Meow Ching’s editorial work. This page covers these two passages; it does not translate the six individual line texts.
Read the classical text on Wikisource · Our sources and method