31 · King Wen sequence
Hexagram 31: Influence
咸 · Xián · upper Lake over lower Mountain
Attraction begins as feeling, not argument: the lake rests on the mountain, joy settling on stillness, and influence flows before words.
The reading
Influence is the hexagram of attraction. The lake above the mountain gives joy resting on stillness, feeling answering feeling. This is how people are truly moved: not by argument but by resonance. A leader's sincerity stirs a team, a friend's warmth opens a heart, an idea whose time has come spreads without pushing. Influence here is mutual and involuntary; it happens in the space between people before anyone decides anything.
Because influence works beneath words, honesty is its only safeguard. Do not manufacture feeling to move people; the lake that is stirred artificially soon goes still again. Let your influence come from what is genuine in you, and check what you awaken in others. The mountain's stillness beneath the lake is the model: be steady enough to receive influence as well as give it. Mutual, honest attraction builds bonds. Manufactured attraction builds only dependence.
The image
The lake rests upon the mountain, water held high by stillness. The wise receive others with humility, because influence that stoops to listen is influence that lasts.
Influence begins where argument ends: in honest feeling.
When you cast this hexagram
- An attraction you did not plan for and cannot explain.
- Trying to persuade, inspire, or win someone over to your side.
- Examining your influence as a leader, for better or worse.
- Someone's charm is working on you; stay honest about it.
In love and relationships
In love, Influence is the home hexagram: attraction, courtship, the electric beginning. It honors exactly what you feel, the pull that arrives before reasons. Follow it, but stay honest. Do not perform a feeling you do not have, and do not let flattery substitute for character. The mountain beneath the lake is the model for lasting attraction: stillness under joy, substance under charm. What begins as honest feeling can deepen into honest devotion. What begins as performance ends when the performance tires.
In work and career
At work, Influence is the art of moving people without pushing them. Your sincerity, your steadiness, your genuine enthusiasm: these persuade more than any deck of slides. But the hexagram warns against manufactured charm. Do not perform passion you do not feel or manufacture urgency to drive a team; people sense the artificial and withdraw. Lead from what is real in you, stay open to being influenced in return, and your quiet presence will move the whole room.
When you have a decision to make
When a real decision is on the table, Influence says to consult your honest feeling, not just your analysis. Attraction begins as feeling: notice what genuinely draws you before you argue yourself into something else. But test the feeling for honesty. Is it real resonance or manufactured charm, yours or someone else's? Decide for the option that moves you truly, and be wary of the one that merely dazzles. The right choice here feels right in the quiet, not just in the pitch.
The six changing lines
Read only the lines that came up moving in your own cast. If none did, stay with the hexagram as a whole. Each line below links to the hexagram that line turns into.
Influence in the jaws, cheeks, and tongue: mere talk. At the top, feeling has become chatter; let it pass without acting on it.
Influence in the neck and shoulders, close to the head yet not of it. Feeling held near thought, but not ruled by it; no regret.
Perseverance brings good fortune and regret disappears. In restless agitation, only what your true friends think with you can steady the heart.
Influence in the thighs, clinging to whoever follows. Grasping at the feeling and going after it brings only humiliation.
Influence in the calves: the urge to chase what stirs you. Running after it brings misfortune; staying still brings good fortune.
Influence in the big toe: the first stirring, before you even move. Notice the impulse at its birth; what you feel first is often truest.
How it relates to the other hexagrams
These links are derived from the line structure, not from editorial opinion. Flip a line, reverse the stack, or read the inner lines, and you land on a specific neighbour.
Nuclear · 互卦
Lines 2–4 and 3–5 of this hexagram form another one. It is the inner situation — what is really going on underneath what you were asking about.
Complementary · 错卦
Every line flips. This is the exact opposite stance: the position you are not taking, which is often the thing the reading is contrasting you with.
Inverse · 综卦
Turn the whole stack upside down and you get this. The same circumstance seen from the other end — usually the person on the other side of it.
If one line changes
Same upper or lower trigram
Scholar's details
| Number | 31 of 64 |
|---|---|
| Binary (bottom → top) | 001110 (1 = yang, 0 = yin) |
| Upper trigram | ☱ 兑 Duì — Lake, Metal, Youngest Daughter |
| Lower trigram | ☶ 艮 Gèn — Mountain, Earth, Youngest Son |
| Key ideas | attraction, influence, feeling, resonance, honesty, courtship |
Have a question of your own?
This page tells you what the hexagram means. A casting tells you which one you are actually in.