Approach, Line 4

Above the threshold, the fourth line puts the approach right again. Legge's translation shows its subject advancing in the highest mode and states that there will be no error, while the Little Symbolism gives the whole explanation in a single clause: the subject is in the position appropriate to him. After the hollow advance of the line below, the hexagram recovers not by adding force but by placing the movement where it belongs.

This is the first line of the upper trigram Kun, the receptive earth, and a yielding stroke correctly occupies its even place. It also stands in direct correspondence with the strong first line at the foot of the hexagram, so an approach rising from below finds here a properly seated recipient rather than an obstacle. Fitness of position is the line's entire virtue, and the text asks nothing else of it.

Read across the hexagram, this is where an approach begun in the lower trigram is formally received in the upper. Nothing dramatic is promised; the verdict is simply no error. That restraint is the point. Where the third line reached for effect and gained nothing, the fourth reaches for nothing beyond its own proper station and is faulted with nothing at all.

Six in the fourth place is drawn when a querent occupies a role that genuinely fits them and is being asked whether to use it fully. The answer is that advancing in the highest mode brings no error, and the commentary attributes that entirely to appropriateness of position. Readings landing here concern situations where the querent's standing is legitimate, their remit is clear, and there is no need to reach beyond either.

The line is yielding in an even place, correct by the standard rule, at the base of the upper trigram Kun, and it corresponds to the strong first line at the foot of the hexagram. In practical terms that pairing describes someone well placed to receive an approach coming from below, whether an application, a proposal or a person seeking access. The counsel is to receive it completely rather than partially, since the highest mode named here is a matter of thoroughness rather than of ambition.

The verdict of no error, rather than good fortune, sets the expectation accurately. This line does not promise advantage or reward. It promises that a properly seated person who does the whole of what their position asks will not be found at fault, which after the wasted advance of the third line is exactly the correction the hexagram needed.