# Hexagram 43: Breakthrough

Canonical page: https://thefreeiching.com/library/43
Last updated: 2026-10-07

```
━━━  ━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
```

- **Upper trigram:** [Dui 兌](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/dui), Lake, the joyous, open
- **Lower trigram:** [Qian 乾](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/qian), Heaven, the creative, strong
- **Lines, bottom to top:** 111110 (1 = solid yang, 0 = broken yin)

## Contemporary judgment

Breakthrough. What has long been building comes to a head. The situation calls for open, truthful speech and resolute action, but without aggression. A breakthrough won through righteousness endures; one won through rage collapses into new conflict.

## Image

The lake rising to the heavens. The superior person shares resources with those below and avoids building up private stores.

## Counsel

Speak the truth now, plainly and in the open. Do not scheme, and do not posture. Your strength comes from the clarity and sincerity of your position, not from the force of your voice. Be resolved, not vengeful. Act, and then let the action stand on its own.

## The six lines

*Numbered from the bottom upward. These line texts are read when that line is changing in a cast.*

### Line 1

> A nine at the beginning means:
> Powerful in the forward-striving toes.
> If one goes and is not equal to the matter,
> one makes a mistake.

### Line 2

> A nine in the second place means:
> Alarm cry. Evening and night weapons.
> Fear nothing.

### Line 3

> A nine in the third place means:
> To be powerful in the cheekbones brings misfortune.
> The noble one is firmly resolved.
> They walk alone and come into the rain.
> They are spattered, and people murmur against them.
> No blame.

### Line 4

> A nine in the fourth place means:
> On the thighs there is no skin,
> and walking comes hard.
> If one let oneself be led like a sheep,
> remorse would vanish.
> But if one hears these words,
> one will not believe them.

### Line 5

> A nine in the fifth place means:
> In dealing with weeds, firm resoluteness is needed.
> To walk in the middle remains free of blame.

### Line 6

> A six at the top means:
> No call! Misfortune comes in the end.

## Related hexagrams

- **Nuclear (lines 2 to 5):** [1 The Creative](https://thefreeiching.com/library/1)
- **Inverse (turned upside down):** [44 Coming to Meet](https://thefreeiching.com/library/44)
- **Opposite (every line flipped):** [23 Splitting Apart](https://thefreeiching.com/library/23)

## If one line changes

| Changing line | Relating hexagram |
| --- | --- |
| Line 1 | [28 Great Preponderance](https://thefreeiching.com/library/28) |
| Line 2 | [49 Revolution](https://thefreeiching.com/library/49) |
| Line 3 | [58 The Joyous](https://thefreeiching.com/library/58) |
| Line 4 | [5 Waiting](https://thefreeiching.com/library/5) |
| Line 5 | [34 Great Power](https://thefreeiching.com/library/34) |
| Line 6 | [1 The Creative](https://thefreeiching.com/library/1) |

Previous: [42 Increase](https://thefreeiching.com/library/42). Next: [44 Coming to Meet](https://thefreeiching.com/library/44). [All sixty-four hexagrams](https://thefreeiching.com/library).

*The judgment, image and counsel are original contemporary paraphrases written for The Free I Ching. The line text is the CC0 translation from [jesshewitt/i-ching](https://github.com/jesshewitt/i-ching), derived from Richard Wilhelm's 1924 German edition.*

## Cite this page

The Free I Ching. "Hexagram 43: Breakthrough." https://thefreeiching.com/library/43 (updated 2026-10-07).

*The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice. Short quotations with a link back are welcome. Please do not republish a page in full. The open data files at [/data](https://thefreeiching.com/data) are licensed CC BY 4.0.*

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Source: The Free I Ching (https://thefreeiching.com/library/43). The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice.