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Hexagram 51 — Zhong Fu, Inner Truth
Chronological no. 51 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 61 · 中孚
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the eldest daughter
the youngest daughter
Upon the Lake, Wind: the image of inner truth. Wind brushes the water's surface and makes it vibrate down to its very center — a resonance that starts from outside but touches the deepest inside. This is the figure of sincerity transmitted without artifice. Thus the noble one deliberates over cases and delays sentences of death: inner truth requires taking the necessary time before deciding on what touches the essential.
The empty center of the heart becomes the place where trust dwells. It is precisely because the heart does not close in on itself, because it remains an open space, that true trust can settle there. This line teaches that the deepest sincerity is born of a welcoming emptiness, not a closed certainty.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, fullness stirs: the yang onset that carried the whole figure now yields its place.
The steadied earth reaches its limit: the solidity that upheld the structure is about to change its nature.
At the threshold between earth and man, suppleness gathers weight: what once yielded by nature is about to harden.
In the listening of man, the hollow fills: the openness that received is about to assert itself.
At the sage's seat, fullness hollows out: the force that governed the figure from its center is about to invert.
At the summit, fullness completes its course and breaks: what had culminated cannot go further without turning back.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
This hexagram is the binary complement of hexagram 12 — Xiao Guo, Preponderance of the Small (63 − 51 = 12): its patterns have exactly the same shape, only their colours are permuted. Here are the eight patterns of hexagram 12, one for each admissible family.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
50 — Huan, Dispersion · 52 — Jian, Development
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☴ Xun): 48 — Guan, Contemplation · 49 — Yi, Increase · 50 — Huan, Dispersion · 52 — Jian, Development · 53 — Jia Ren, The Family · 54 — Xun, The Gentle, Wind · 55 — Xiao Chu, The Taming Power of the Small
Same lower trigram (☱ Dui): 3 — Lin, Approach · 11 — Gui Mei, The Marrying Maiden · 19 — Jie, Limitation · 27 — Dui, The Joyous · 35 — Sun, Decrease · 43 — Kui, Opposition · 59 — Lu, Treading
