Duration
- Upper Trigram
- Thunder
- Lower Trigram
- Wind
The Judgment
Thunder above and wind below, thunder moving and wind following, and in that stir-and-response a lasting, unchanging pattern — Duration is about constancy, holding fast, and a bond or a commitment that can be kept up over the long run. Duration is not being frozen in place, unchanging; it is like the coursing of sun and moon and the turning of the seasons, keeping to an unchanging direction within continual change. The tone here is a steady, enduring commitment to what deserves it: once you have settled on the right direction and values, keep to them and walk on, not lightly shaken by a passing ease or hardship. But Duration also asks you to discern — true constancy holds to the core and to character, not to a stubborn repetition of what no longer works. Adjust the method that should be adjusted; keep unchanged the original heart that should stay. That thing you are persisting in — are you keeping a root worth keeping for the long haul, or just repeating a habit?
The Six Lines
First line
Demanding a deep and lasting bond right from the start is too hasty, and so it is unfitting and gains little. This line is about how haste defeats the goal: enduring feeling needs time to build up slowly, and to demand a promise of forever at the very outset only frightens both of you off. It reminds you that duration is walked into, not extracted at the start; let the bond take root naturally first, and only then can it last.
Second line
Regret vanishes. Brief as it is, this is a rare line of steadiness in Duration, about the security that comes from holding to the balanced center. When you neither rush ahead nor shrink back, but rest at ease in the place that is properly yours and walk it steadily, the earlier regret and unease dissolve of themselves. Keep your measure, and the heart settles.
Third line
Failing to keep constant in your own character, you may invite embarrassment, and to go on so leaves regret behind. This line is about the cost of being fickle: one way today, another tomorrow, giving others nothing to rely on. It reminds you that the key to duration is steadiness of character; if your virtue comes and goes, people find it hard to trust you, and opportunities slip away with the trust.
Fourth line
Hunting in the wrong place, you naturally catch nothing. This line is about persistence in the wrong direction: perseverance alone is not enough — keep to the wrong spot and the wrong method, and all your effort is spent in vain. It reminds you to apply endurance where it belongs; rather than standing guard in a wood with no game, see it in time, turn to a fitter direction, and then hold on.
Fifth line
Long holding to a fixed principle — this single-minded constancy is good for certain roles content to keep to their part, but for one who must adapt to circumstance and meet change as it comes, rigidly clinging ties the hands. This line is about how constancy too must read its situation: the same steadfastness is a virtue in the right place and stiffness in the wrong one. Beyond keeping to the constant, do not forget the flexibility to respond to change.
Top line
In the end you become restless and unable to settle, and this unsteady state of mind shakes the very foundation of what has endured. This line closes the hexagram, about the warning of falling short at the last stretch. It is no verdict that all the earlier effort is lost; it reminds you the other way — the nearer the end, the steadier you must be. Grow agitated and keep grasping for change just before the finish, and you undo the constancy you had built. The last mile of endurance rests on exactly that composure that can hold still.
Reading the Change
Duration is about constancy and holding fast; from the first line to the top, it runs through not being too hasty, resting at ease in the center, the cost of being fickle, the futility of the wrong direction, constancy that must read its situation, and not growing restless at the last stretch. When a line changes, the measure of what to persist in and how to endure turns at one particular stage. A change low down usually asks you not to rush the goal but to steady the foundation first; a change up top speaks to the composure and the flexibility of endurance near its end. Read where the changing line falls, then the resulting hexagram, and you know which way this constancy is adjusting. True duration is holding to your core while knowing how to adapt.