Hexagram 7 · line 5
The Army
師Shī
There is game in the field; capturing it is beneficial. No fault. The elder son leads the army; the younger carries corpses. Even with constancy, misfortune.
Line statement
六五
田有禽，利執言，无咎。長子帥師，弟子輿尸，貞凶。
There is game in the field; capturing it is beneficial. No fault. The elder son leads the army; the younger carries corpses. Even with constancy, misfortune.
The central fifth line distinguishes an experienced commander from the younger subordinate whose wagons carry corpses. In the traditional reading, divided command defeats the purpose of a justified campaign. Changing Line 5 to firm turns upper earth to water and produces Hexagram 29.
Computed position
How this place works
- Trigram position
- outer · center
Line 5 is the center of the outer trigram.
- Polarity and place
- yin in an odd place: not aligned
Its yin polarity does not match the traditional odd-place convention.
- Correspondence
- Line 2: responsive
Its counterpart is Line 2; the two have opposite polarities and can be read as responsive.
One line changes