63 · After Completion (JÌ JÌ)
After Completion means the crossing has been made, not that care can end. Water over fire can bring a meal to readiness; even small matters find their place. Yet the Judgment warns of disorder at the end if achievement becomes complacency. Six lines move from a controlled ford and patient recovery through exhausting effort and a repaired leak, then distinguish sincere simplicity from display before the final danger of pushing into water too deep.
The judgment
After Completion: even small things pass through. Steadfastness benefits. At first auspicious; at the end disorder.
Classical commentary reads the small as finding passage too: a completed settlement should leave no minor part neglected. The early good result is fragile. Disorder follows when people treat success as a reason to stop tending the work.
Original Chinese text
既濟：亨小。利貞。初吉終亂。
The six lines
- 初九 · Line 1 — Drag back the wheel; wet the tail: no blame.
Original Chinese
曳其輪，濡其尾，无咎。
- 六二 · Line 2 — A woman loses her fu; do not pursue it. In seven days it is recovered.
Original Chinese
婦喪其茀，勿逐，七日得。
- 九三 · Line 3 — Gao Zong campaigns against Gui Fang; after three years he prevails. Do not employ the unfit.
Original Chinese
高宗伐鬼方，三年克之，小人勿用。
- 六四 · Line 4 — Have cloth rags ready against wetness; stay alert all day.
Original Chinese
繻有衣袽，終日戒。
- 九五 · Line 5 — The eastern neighbor sacrifices an ox, yet is not equal to the western neighbor's modest seasonal rite, which truly receives blessing.
Original Chinese
東鄰殺牛，不如西鄰之禴祭，實受其福。
- 上六 · Line 6 — The head is wet: danger.
Original Chinese
濡其首，厲。