Hexagram 42.6 — Increase (Top Line)
Yi · 上爻 — Increase without increase; caution at the peak
益卦 · 上九（弗益之）
Read from the bottom upward. The highlighted bar marks the top line (上爻), which is the focus of this page.
If You Just Cast This Line
The oracle text of this line closes the hexagram's arc. It speaks to what happens when increase reaches its natural limit — when the upward motion of benefit exhausts itself or turns counterproductive. The top line of Increase warns that generosity without boundaries becomes depletion, and expansion without consolidation invites collapse.
Its message is strategic restraint at the summit. "No one increases him" means that the resources, goodwill, or momentum that fueled your rise may now reverse. Overextension, arrogance, or clinging to growth-at-all-costs thinking can trigger backlash. The wisdom here is to stabilize, protect what you have built, and resist the temptation to push for one more round of increase.
Key Concepts
Original Text & Translation
「弗益之,或擊之,立心勿恒,凶。」 — No one increases him; someone may even attack him. Do not let your heart be constant in this way. Misfortune.
The image is of someone who has climbed to the top of the increase cycle but fails to recognize the shift. What once brought support now brings resistance. The counsel is to stop seeking more, to shift from acquisition to preservation, and to acknowledge that every cycle has a ceiling. Clinging to perpetual growth invites reversal — not because you are unworthy, but because the structure cannot sustain it.
Core Meaning
Line six sits at the apex of the hexagram, where yang energy is fully expressed but also isolated. In Increase, this position marks the exhaustion of the upward trend. The forces that once multiplied your resources — whether allies, capital, attention, or energy — have reached their natural boundary. Attempting to extract more from a tapped well does not yield water; it yields resentment, breakdown, or backlash.
Practically, this line separates sustainable success from hubristic overreach. The leader who cannot stop expanding eventually fragments the organization. The investor who cannot take profits eventually rides the position back down. The giver who cannot say no eventually becomes depleted and bitter. This line asks: can you recognize sufficiency and shift from growth mode to stewardship mode?
Symbolism & Imagery
The top line of Increase evokes a tree that has grown tall but whose roots can no longer support additional height. Wind and thunder — the trigrams of Increase — have done their work, but now the structure needs reinforcement, not more stimulus. In organizational terms, it is the moment when scaling gives way to systems-building, when charisma must yield to process, when inspiration must be encoded into culture.
This imagery also addresses identity. The temptation at the peak of Increase is to believe that you are the increase — that your worth is tied to perpetual upward motion. The line restores perspective: you are not the wave; you are the surfer. Waves crest and recede. Wisdom lies in riding the descent with as much skill as the ascent.
Action Guidance
Career & Business
- Shift from growth to optimization: audit existing operations for waste, redundancy, and fragility. Strengthen what you have rather than adding new initiatives.
- Protect margins and morale: resist the pressure to chase every opportunity. Selectivity is now a competitive advantage.
- Distribute leadership: if you have been the central node, begin delegating authority and building succession paths. Centralization is a vulnerability at this stage.
- Set explicit boundaries: with clients, partners, and internal teams. Scope creep and mission drift are the dangers of late-stage increase.
- Prepare for contraction: build reserves, reduce fixed costs, and stress-test your model for a downturn. The next phase may not be growth.
Love & Relationships
- Recognize saturation: if you have been giving endlessly, check whether the relationship can metabolize more. Sometimes love requires space, not intensity.
- Avoid performative generosity: giving to prove your worth or to control outcomes breeds resentment on both sides.
- Invite reciprocity: healthy bonds require flow in both directions. If you are always the source, the dynamic is unsustainable.
- Accept sufficiency: not every relationship needs to deepen forever. Some connections are complete as they are.
- Guard against burnout: emotional overextension is as real as financial. Rest is not betrayal.
Health & Inner Work
- Recognize overtraining signals: persistent fatigue, irritability, declining performance, or injury are signs that more input yields less output.
- Prioritize recovery architecture: sleep quality, nervous system regulation, and tissue repair are now more valuable than volume or intensity.
- Shift from addition to subtraction: identify stressors, obligations, or habits that no longer serve. Elimination is a form of increase.
- Embrace plateau: not every phase is about PRs or breakthroughs. Maintenance is mastery.
- Check stimulant dependence: if you are relying on caffeine, supplements, or willpower to sustain output, the system is borrowing from the future.
Finance & Strategy
- Take profits: if a position has run well, consider scaling out. Holding for "just a bit more" is how winners turn into losers.
- Rebalance aggressively: late-cycle portfolios tend to be overweight risk. Shift toward preservation and liquidity.
- Avoid leverage at peaks: borrowing to amplify gains when the trend is exhausted is a recipe for forced liquidation.
- Audit assumptions: strategies that worked in the growth phase may fail in the reversal phase. Stress-test for adverse scenarios.
- Build optionality: cash, unused credit lines, and diversified income streams are insurance against reversal.
Timing, Signals, and Readiness
How do you know when you have reached the limit of increase? Look for diminishing returns: (1) additional effort yields smaller gains; (2) allies or stakeholders begin to withdraw or push back; (3) you feel strain rather than flow; and (4) the narrative shifts from "how do we grow?" to "how do we hold this together?" When these signals converge, the season has changed.
If you feel compelled to justify continued expansion with increasingly complex arguments, that is a sign you are past the peak. If you feel relief at the idea of pausing, that is a sign your system knows the truth. Trust the fatigue. It is information, not weakness.
When This Line Moves
A moving top line in Increase usually signals the transition from expansion to consolidation, or from benefit to balance. The reading often indicates that your current strategy of maximizing growth is reaching its natural end, and the next phase will demand different skills — restraint, repair, redistribution, or even strategic retreat. Depending on your casting method, the resultant hexagram will clarify the nature of the shift.
Practical takeaway: do not interpret this line as failure. It is completion. The increase you sought has been granted; now the task is to integrate it, protect it, and prepare for the next cycle. Move from the posture of acquisition to the posture of stewardship — from "more" to "better," from "grow" to "sustain."
Concise Summary
Hexagram 42.6 is the wisdom of the peak. It asks you to recognize when increase has reached its limit and to shift from expansion to consolidation. "No one increases him" is not punishment — it is the natural boundary of any growth cycle. When you stop chasing more and start protecting what you have built, you transform potential misfortune into sustainable success. The dragon does not fly forever; it lands, rests, and prepares for the next ascent.
