Hexagram 1 · line 1

The Creative

乾Qián

A dragon remains hidden. Do not act.

Line statement

初九

潛龍勿用。

A dragon remains hidden. Do not act.

The hidden dragon has capacity before it has a suitable field of action. The restraint belongs to this stage of the image, not to a permanent judgment of ability. Changing the bottom line produces Hexagram 44.

Computed position

How this place works

Trigram position
inner · base

Line 1 is the base of the inner trigram.

Polarity and place
yang in an odd place: aligned

Its yang polarity matches the traditional odd-place convention.

Correspondence
Line 4: same polarity

Its counterpart is Line 4; the two share a polarity, so this structural correspondence is not responsive.

One line changes

Moving to 44 · Coming to Meet