Pushing upward — effortful, steady, patient ascent.
Like a sprout growing into a tree, advance step by step with persistence. Rise by adapting and accumulating small efforts. Push upward without pause and you reach the heights.
ascentgrowthperseveranceeffort
Pushing Upward places Earth (receptive, devoted) above Wind (gentle, penetrating). The interplay of these two trigrams gives the hexagram its character.
The Classical Textoriginal Chinese
The Judgment · 卦辞
元亨，用见大人，勿恤，南征吉。
The Image · 大象
地中生木，升；君子以顺德，积小以高大。
The Six Lines · 爻辞
- 初六允升，大吉。象曰：允升大吉，上合志也。
- 九二孚乃利用禴，无咎。象曰：九二之孚，有喜也。
- 九三升虚邑。象曰：升虚邑，无所疑也。
- 六四王用亨于岐山，吉无咎。象曰：王用亨于岐山，顺事也。
- 六五贞吉，升阶。象曰：贞吉升阶，大得志也。
- 上六冥升，利于不息之贞。象曰：冥升在上，消不富也。
The judgment, image and line texts above are quoted from the original Zhou Yi. A modern Chinese translation of the full classic is available on the original-text page.