Approach, Line 6

Generosity closes the hexagram. Legge's translation describes the advance of honesty and generosity, with good fortune and no error, and the Little Symbolism explains it by saying that the will of this line is set on the inner trigram. The topmost position, farthest from the two strong lines that began the movement, turns its attention back toward them, and it is that turning back rather than any further advance that the text rewards.

A yielding stroke correctly occupies this even place at the summit of the upper trigram Kun, the receptive earth carried to its fullest extent. Top lines frequently mark excess or exhaustion, and this one does not, because the quality being extended is magnanimity rather than force. There is nothing left above to approach, so the only direction generosity can travel is downward.

Read against the opening lines, the hexagram closes where it began. Two strong lines advanced from the foot in company, and the highest line of all answers them by inclining toward the interior instead of standing apart from it. Good fortune and freedom from error are both stated, an unqualified ending that few top lines receive, and the reason given is simply where this line has chosen to look.

Six at the top is drawn when a querent has reached the furthest point of an approach and the question is what to do with the standing they have gained. The line answers with honesty and generosity, and promises both good fortune and freedom from error. Readings landing here rarely concern further advancement, since there is no position above this one; they concern the disposition of someone who has already arrived.

The commentary's note that the will is set on the inner trigram gives the counsel its direction. Whatever the querent has reached should now be turned back toward the people and commitments that carried them there, and generosity in this line is practical rather than sentimental: attention, access and open dealing extended downward to those still advancing. A yielding line correctly placed at the very top of Kun has capacity to give precisely because it holds nothing back.

The pairing of good fortune with no error is worth noting for how complete it is. Most top lines carry a warning about going too far, and this one carries none, because magnanimity is the single quality that cannot be overdone at the summit of an approach. The querent is told, in effect, that the safest use of arrival is to make it useful to somebody else.