学 · learn · 周易
Reading the six lines
六爻 — the six lines — are the inside of a hexagram. Each one is a stage of the situation, and they are read from the bottom up: the beginning of the thing is at the bottom.
爻
Bottom is the beginning
The first line is where a situation starts — small, unformed, easy to miss. The sixth, at the top, is where it has finished and is about to tip over into something else.
Traditional readers pay closest attention to the second and the fifth: those are the middle positions, the ones that actually hold the situation together.
The moving line
Often one line is marked as moving — traditionally written as an old yin or old yang, a line that has become its opposite. That is where the change is entering.
The moving line gets read on its own, and it also turns into a second hexagram: the figure you are moving into. So a reading often has a before and an after.
Do you read all six?
Traditionally no. If one line moves you read that line, then the hexagram it becomes. If no line moves you read the hexagram as a whole. Reading all six line texts produces a wall of words and very little insight.
Why the picture helps
Seeing the six lines drawn out does something reading cannot: the shape of the situation becomes visible at a glance — top-heavy, bottom-heavy, one line out of place, one line changing.
Try it tonight
Cast one question and look at which line is moving — that is usually where the reading lands.
Ask and look at the linesQuestions people ask
Why is a hexagram read from the bottom up?
Because it describes a thing growing: it starts at the bottom and develops upward. Texts of the tradition therefore number the first line as the lowest.
What is a moving line?
A line that has turned into its opposite during the casting. It marks where the change in this situation is coming from.
What if no line moves?
Then the situation is stable for now, and you read the hexagram as a whole rather than a single line.
Keep reading
Last updated 3 November 2026
An ancient Chinese divination. If today is heavier than words, findahelpline.com lists real helplines near you.