Hexagram 63 · 水火既济

After Completion

Water · Kan palace

The task is done; the risk now is complacency.

Meaning

Water above fire: each element in its proper place, everything in order. After Completion describes a state in which the arrangement is correct — and therefore fragile.

Decision Framework

Consolidate; success is the point of maximum hazard.

Decision Guidance

After Completion is the reading of a goal achieved. Everything is in its proper place: the project has shipped, the agreement is signed, the problem is solved. The hexagram is favourable and it contains one of the tradition's sharpest warnings.

Its counsel is that completion, not difficulty, is where things most often go wrong—momentum relaxes, attention drifts, and the disciplines that produced the result get abandoned. Look after what has been built: maintain it, watch for the small disorder that grows into a large one, and treat the ending as the beginning of a new phase rather than a rest.

Judgment — Classical Text

亨，小利贞，初吉终乱。

EN Success in small matters, perseverance furthers. Good fortune at the start, disorder at the end.

The Six Lines — Classical Text

初九：曳其轮，濡其尾，无咎。
EN Initial nine: dragging the wheel and wetting the tail — no blame.
六二：妇丧其茀，勿逐，七日得。
EN Six in the second: the woman loses her carriage-veil — do not chase it; in seven days you will find it.
九三：高宗伐鬼方，三年克之。
EN Nine in the third: the great emperor attacks the demon realm and conquers it in three years — do not employ great men.
六四：繻有衣袽，终日戒。
EN Six in the fourth: the fine robes become rags — be on guard all day.
九五：东邻杀牛，不如西邻之禴祭。
EN Nine in the fifth: the eastern neighbour's ox-sacrifice is not equal to the western neighbour's small offering — sincerity receives the blessing.
上六：濡其首，厉。
EN Topmost six: wetting the head — danger.

Keywords

I Ching hexagram 63, After Completion hexagram, Ji Ji hexagram meaning, hexagram for consolidation