Hexagram 5: Waiting
需Xū
Patience with a full bowl.
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
需。 有孚，光亨，貞吉。利涉大川。
Our English rendering
Waiting. There is sincerity, brightness, and success. Steadfastness brings good fortune. Crossing the great river is favorable.
The Image
Classical Chinese
象曰：雲上於天，需。君子以飲食宴樂。
Our English rendering
Clouds rise above heaven: Waiting. A person of integrity therefore eats and drinks, feasts, and takes pleasure.
A modern reading
Clouds gather in the sky while the ground waits for rain. The Image gives waiting a material setting, then turns to food, drink, and enjoyment. A pause can include the ordinary care that keeps people able to act when conditions change. Consider the resources your waiting consumes: attention, physical energy, and the patience of those around you. Keeping those resources supplied can be part of preparing for the eventual crossing.
The great river gives the Judgment a destination with real difficulty. Its favorable language sits beside sincerity and steadfastness, so the pause has a relationship to an intended passage. In a present situation, it can help to distinguish what you are waiting for and what would make movement reasonable. A named condition, such as an answer or an available resource, lets you review the wait without treating each anxious moment as a new decision.
A question to sit with
What condition are you waiting for, and how can you care for yourself while it remains unresolved?
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