# Hexagram 64: Before Completion

Canonical page: https://thefreeiching.com/library/64
Last updated: 2026-10-07

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

- **Upper trigram:** [Li 離](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/li), Fire, the clinging, clarity
- **Lower trigram:** [Kan 坎](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/kan), Water, the abysmal, danger
- **Lines, bottom to top:** 010101 (1 = solid yang, 0 = broken yin)

## Contemporary judgment

Before completion. You are close to the goal but not yet arrived. The final steps are where many efforts fail: through fatigue, overconfidence, or carelessness. The same attention that carried you this far must carry you through the last passage. Do not slacken now.

## Image

Fire above water, not yet joined. The superior person carefully discriminates things and keeps each in its place.

## Counsel

Attend to the final details with full care. Do not congratulate yourself prematurely or coast on momentum. Discriminate clearly what still needs to be done from what has already been accomplished, and finish each remaining step cleanly. The completion, when it comes, will come because you refused to stop early.

## The six lines

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

### Line 1

> A six at the beginning means:
> He comes with his tail into the water.
> Humiliating.

### Line 2

> A nine in the second place means:
> He brakes his wheels.
> Perseverance brings good fortune.

### Line 3

> A six in the third place means:
> Before completion, attack brings misfortune.
> It is favorable to cross the great water.

### Line 4

> A nine in the fourth place means:
> Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse vanishes.
> Shock in order to chastise the devil's land.
> For three years there are rewards with great realms.

### Line 5

> A six in the fifth place means:
> Perseverance brings good fortune. No remorse.
> The light of the noble one is truthful.
> Good fortune!

### Line 6

> A nine at the top means:
> In true confidence one drinks wine.
> No blame. But if one wets one's head,
> one loses it in truth.

## Related hexagrams

- **Nuclear (lines 2 to 5):** [63 After Completion](https://thefreeiching.com/library/63)
- **Inverse (turned upside down):** [63 After Completion](https://thefreeiching.com/library/63)
- **Opposite (every line flipped):** [63 After Completion](https://thefreeiching.com/library/63)

## If one line changes

| Changing line | Relating hexagram |
| --- | --- |
| Line 1 | [38 Opposition](https://thefreeiching.com/library/38) |
| Line 2 | [35 Progress](https://thefreeiching.com/library/35) |
| Line 3 | [50 The Cauldron](https://thefreeiching.com/library/50) |
| Line 4 | [4 Youthful Folly](https://thefreeiching.com/library/4) |
| Line 5 | [6 Conflict](https://thefreeiching.com/library/6) |
| Line 6 | [40 Deliverance](https://thefreeiching.com/library/40) |

Previous: [63 After Completion](https://thefreeiching.com/library/63). Next: none. [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 64: Before Completion." https://thefreeiching.com/library/64 (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/64). The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice.