Hexagram 42.5 — Increase (Fifth Line)

Original Text & Translation

「有孚惠心，勿問元吉。有孚惠我德。」 — With sincerity and a kind heart, do not question — supreme good fortune. With sincerity, kindness becomes my virtue.

The text emphasizes "having sincerity" (有孚) as the foundation. Kindness (惠) that springs from genuine care, not from calculation or image management, creates an unstoppable momentum of good fortune. "Do not question" means the outcome is certain when the heart is true — doubt and second-guessing are unnecessary. The final phrase suggests that this sincere kindness becomes internalized as virtue, shaping character and reputation alike.

Core Meaning

The fifth line is traditionally the position of the ruler, the leader, the one with resources and reach. In Hexagram 42, Increase, this position asks: how do you use your advantage? The answer is unambiguous — through sincere kindness. Not transactional favors, not conditional support, but genuine care that asks nothing in return and expects no specific outcome.

This is the paradox of increase: the more you give without grasping, the more returns to you. But the line warns against performing generosity. If kindness is a tactic, people sense it. If kindness is real, it creates loyalty, inspiration, and reciprocal generosity that far exceed the initial gift. Supreme good fortune arises not because you are owed it, but because you have set in motion a cycle of trust and mutual benefit.

Practically, this line speaks to anyone in a position of influence — managers, parents, mentors, investors, community leaders. Your power is not in control but in cultivation. When you sincerely invest in others' growth and well-being, the entire network becomes more resilient and productive. You become the center not by domination but by being a reliable source of support.

Symbolism & Imagery

The fifth line sits at the heart of the upper trigram, the place of clarity and visibility. It is yang (strong, active) in a yang position, meaning it has both the capacity and the mandate to act. In Increase, the structure shows wind above, thunder below — movement and arousal supported by gentle penetration. The fifth line channels this: it does not force increase, but creates the conditions in which increase naturally occurs.

The imagery of "kindness of heart" (惠心) evokes a spring that flows without calculation. Water does not choose who drinks from it; it simply flows. Similarly, sincere generosity does not audit worthiness or track debts. It gives because giving is the expression of abundance, and abundance recognized becomes abundance multiplied.

This line also addresses the shadow of leadership: the temptation to use generosity as leverage, to give in order to obligate. The text's emphasis on sincerity (孚) is a corrective. Sincerity means your interior matches your exterior. People feel this alignment and respond with genuine loyalty rather than performative gratitude.

Action Guidance

Career & Business

• Lead by investing in people: prioritize mentorship, skill development, and psychological safety. These are not "soft" initiatives — they are infrastructure for sustained performance.
• Share credit generously: highlight team contributions publicly and specifically. Authentic recognition compounds morale and attracts talent.
• Make decisions that benefit the whole: resist short-term extraction. Optimize for long-term trust and ecosystem health, even when it costs you immediate advantage.
• Be transparent about constraints: sincerity includes honesty. When you cannot help, say so clearly and kindly. This preserves trust better than vague promises.
• Create systems of increase: build structures (profit-sharing, open feedback loops, knowledge repositories) that distribute benefit automatically, not just when you remember to be generous.
• Ask for nothing in return: give advice, introductions, resources without tracking reciprocity. The network remembers and reciprocates in unexpected ways.

Love & Relationships

• Give without scorekeeping: offer support, affection, and presence because you want to, not to balance a ledger. Relationships thrive when generosity is unconditional.
• Listen with full attention: sincere kindness means being genuinely interested in your partner's inner world, not just solving surface problems.
• Celebrate their growth: take joy in their successes, skills, and independence. Secure love amplifies the other; insecure love diminishes them.
• Apologize and repair sincerely: when you cause harm, acknowledge it fully and change behavior. Sincerity in repair deepens trust more than perfection ever could.
• Create space for their flourishing: sometimes the kindest act is stepping back, trusting, and letting them navigate their own path.

Health & Inner Work

• Practice self-compassion: extend the same kindness inward that you offer outward. Harsh self-judgment blocks the flow of increase.
• Give your body what it needs: rest, nourishment, movement, sunlight. Sincere care for your physical vessel is the foundation of sustained energy.
• Cultivate gratitude: notice and name what is already working. Gratitude is the interior mirror of generosity — both recognize abundance.
• Support others' well-being: cook a meal, offer a walk, listen without fixing. Acts of care create reciprocal cycles of health.
• Release resentment: holding grudges is the opposite of sincere kindness. Forgiveness (of self and others) clears the channel for increase.

Finance & Strategy

• Invest in people and platforms: back founders, teams, and ecosystems you genuinely believe in. Authentic conviction attracts better deals and deeper partnerships.
• Share knowledge freely: publish your frameworks, introduce competitors to collaborators, teach without paywalling everything. Generosity builds reputation and deal flow.
• Structure win-win terms: design agreements where all parties benefit from success. Alignment of incentives is sincerity encoded in contracts.
• Be patient with returns: supreme good fortune does not mean instant profit. Trust that sincere investment compounds, even when the timeline is unclear.
• Avoid extractive models: strategies that benefit you at others' expense erode trust and limit long-term scale. Build systems where your success requires others' success.

Timing, Signals, and Readiness

This line appears when you are in a position to influence outcomes — you have resources, visibility, or authority. The timing is ripe for generous action, but only if that action is sincere. The signal to proceed is internal: do you genuinely care about the well-being of those you are helping, or are you performing generosity to manage your image?

If your kindness feels strategic or effortful, pause. Reflect until you reconnect with authentic care. If your kindness feels natural and unforced, act immediately. The text says "do not question" — when sincerity is present, hesitation is unnecessary. Trust the impulse to give, to support, to invest in others.

Watch for feedback loops: when your generosity is met with gratitude, deepening relationships, and unexpected reciprocity, you are in the flow of increase. When it is met with suspicion, obligation, or transactional responses, check your sincerity. The external mirrors the internal.

When This Line Moves

A moving fifth line in Hexagram 42 often signals a transition from personal generosity to systemic impact. Your sincere kindness is about to scale — through reputation, through structures you create, through people you have influenced who now carry that ethos forward. The resultant hexagram (which depends on your divination method) will show the new configuration that emerges when your influence becomes embedded in the larger pattern.

Practical takeaway: document your principles, formalize your practices, and mentor others to lead with the same sincerity. Your kindness should not depend on your constant presence. Build it into culture, policy, and ritual so that increase continues even when you step back. This is how supreme good fortune becomes legacy.

Concise Summary

Hexagram 42.5 teaches that sincere kindness from a position of influence creates unstoppable momentum. When you give without agenda, invest in others' growth, and act from genuine care, supreme good fortune is not a hope but a certainty. Trust replaces transaction, loyalty replaces obligation, and the entire system becomes more generative. Lead with your heart; let sincerity be your strategy.