In love
As a couple, Xian emphasizes the attraction that is being born: listening, the gesture that touches, mutual openness, before any commitment.
Hexagram 31
I Ching hexagram 31: Influence (Xian)
Xian means influence, mutual attraction: what touches one person answers in the other, and sets them both in motion.
- attraction
- reciprocity
- openness
The essentials
Xian at a glance
For you, Xian describes an impulse that touches and answers: attraction awakens, and it gains by staying open rather than calculated.
A strength
A capacity for openness that draws people closer: letting yourself be touched without trying to control the other.
Something to watch
Acting on the impulse of the moment alone: an attraction that does not take time to settle stays superficial.
- What it advises
- Stay available and sincere, let the exchange happen on both sides, without forcing or trying to please.
- Its opposite
- 41. Decrease (Sun)
The situation
Xian joins the Mountain beneath the Lake: the high leans toward the low, the low answers the high. The Judgment speaks of a free and successful course, provided you hold to your integrity, as in the idea of taking a young woman as a wife in complete sincerity.
The hexagram speaks of influence more than decision. Attraction is born from receptivity, from an openness that lets the other in, not from conquest. It is a movement you feel first, then express.
It invites you to welcome this movement with sincerity, and to tell the impulse that touches apart from the mere wish to attract.
The image: the Lake above the Mountain
- AboveLake: joy that is shared
- BelowMountain: the stillness that steadies
The Lake above the Mountain: water seeping into the heights. The Great Image reads in it a welcome without prejudice: receiving others with an empty mind, ready to listen.
Consult the I Ching
Throw three coins six times: your hexagram, the lines that change, and the direction they point to.
Free, no account · nothing is sent · no predictions
The six lines
- 1st line (bottom) · brokenMoving the big toe: an influence barely sketched, an inner movement that has no visible effect yet.
- 2nd line · brokenMoving the calves: rushing ahead is a bad omen, staying in place is fortunate. The impulse is not yet ripe.
- 3rd line · solidMoving the thighs and eagerly following those you follow: advancing this way gives rise to regret. The impulse depends too much on the other.
- 4th line · solidUpright perseverance brings a good outcome and removes regret. If you keep fidgeting, only your closest friends follow your thinking.
- 5th line · solidThe influence reaches the upper back, where you do not choose: no regret to fear. A gesture without artifice, without intended effect.
- 6th line (top) · brokenMoving the jaws and the tongue: an influence reduced to words, and the text promises nothing more.
Xian in your life
At work
In your activity, Xian favors influence by example and the quality of your listening: convince by touching rather than by pressing.
The I Ching helps you reflect on how to act: it does not say what is coming.
How is it built?
- Character
- 咸 (xián)
- Number
- 31 in the King Wen sequence
- Trigrams
- Lake (兌) above, Mountain (艮) below
- Inner hexagram
- 44. Coming to Meet (Gou) (lines 2 to 4 and 3 to 5)
- Read upside down
- 32. Duration (Heng)
- Symbol
- ䷞ (U+4DDE)
The English names are the usual renderings of the Chinese characters; the texts rely on the Chinese and on early public-domain translations (Legge, 1882; Philastre, 1885–1893).
Sources
- Wikipedia (English), “List of hexagrams of the I Ching,” read on October 15, 2026: numbers, characters, pinyin, lower and upper trigrams.
- Wikipedia (English), “Bagua,” read on October 15, 2026: lines of the eight trigrams, from bottom to top.
- James Legge (1815–1897), The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East, vol. XVI, 1882 (Wikisource): public domain.
- Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre (1837–1902), Le Yi King ou Livre des changements de la dynastie des Tsheou, Annales du Musée Guimet, 1885–1893: public domain (the author died more than 70 years ago).
Frequently asked questions about hexagram 31
What does I Ching hexagram 31 mean?
Hexagram 31, Xian, means influence and mutual attraction: two beings or two forces touch each other and are set in motion together.
Why do the lines of Xian name parts of the body?
The six lines climb from the big toe to the jaws, an image of an influence spreading step by step. They describe degrees of engagement, from a barely sketched gesture to mere speech.