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HEXAGRAM 32 · héng

Duration

Duration through change: keeping principle without freezing the form

雷风恒Classical Chinese included
Translation approach

The Chinese source stays visible. Where an editorial close rendering is available, it stays near the wording before Astro I Ching expands into cultural interpretation. Why we separate these layers →

CLASSICAL CHINESE

The source anchor

Read the source first. The English layer below remains accountable to these passages rather than replacing them with a simplified verdict.

卦辞 · Judgment
恒：亨，无咎，利贞，利有攸往。
Close rendering

Duration: success; no blame. Favorable to remain correct; favorable to have somewhere to go.

《大象》 · Image
雷风，恒；君子以立不易方。
Close rendering

Thunder and Wind: Duration. The noble person therefore stands firm and does not change direction.

How to read the middle layer

Close rendering stays near wording and sequence. It is not presented as the only possible translation; the cultural reading below is where Astro I Ching explains image, structure, and practical logic in fuller English.

ASTRO I CHING · CULTURAL READING

Why this hexagram says what it says

Cultural reading of the image

Thunder moves with Wind, continuous motion with direction. Heng is not immobility; it is the capacity to preserve a long-term principle while specific forms continue to change.

Cultural reading of the judgment

What lasts is not necessarily the same action repeated forever. Direction, character, and proportion may endure while methods adjust to circumstance.

SIX LINES · ONE STORY

How the hexagram develops from bottom to top

Line 1 · 初六
Classical Chinese
浚恒，贞凶，无攸利。
Close rendering

Seeking duration too deeply at the very beginning. Constancy brings misfortune; nothing is favorable.

Cultural reading

Demanding permanence at the very beginning can force a relationship or project deeper than its real foundation can support.

Line 2 · 九二
Classical Chinese
悔亡。
Close rendering

Regret disappears.

Cultural reading

Duration can be quiet. Staying centered does not require continual declarations of commitment.

Line 3 · 九三
Classical Chinese
不恒其德，或承之羞，贞吝。
Close rendering

Not maintaining one’s virtue brings shame. Even constancy brings regret.

Cultural reading

Principles that appear and disappear unpredictably damage trust more than a clear failure often does.

Line 4 · 九四
Classical Chinese
田无禽。
Close rendering

No game in the field.

Cultural reading

Persistence in the wrong location remains unproductive even when it lasts for years.

Line 5 · 六五
Classical Chinese
恒其德，贞，妇人吉，夫子凶。
Close rendering

Maintaining one’s virtue with constancy: good fortune for a woman, misfortune for a man.

Cultural reading

The old text uses role differences to show that constancy still requires judgment about what should remain and what should adapt.

Line 6 · 上六
Classical Chinese
振恒，凶。
Close rendering

Agitated duration. Misfortune.

Cultural reading

Anxiously trying to make something last can destroy the very steadiness one hopes to preserve.

BRING IT BACK TO LIFE

What this can help you notice

Useful for long-term projects and commitments where continuity has to survive changing methods and changing circumstances.

A common misreading

Duration is not sameness. What lasts may be the principle precisely because the form is allowed to adapt.

Keep the classical text and the interpretive layer separate: one is the source, the other is Astro I Ching's explanation of how the source can be read.

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