After completion — order achieved, now to be carefully maintained.
For the moment everything is in its proper place, and the danger is complacency. Hold the order with vigilance, for what is complete begins to unravel. Guard the success you have won.
completionordervigilancemaintenance
After Completion places Water (abysmal, dangerous) above Fire (clinging, light-giving). The interplay of these two trigrams gives the hexagram its character.
The Classical Textoriginal Chinese
The Judgment · 卦辞
亨，小利贞，初吉终乱。
The Image · 大象
水在火上，既济；君子以思患而预防之。
The Six Lines · 爻辞
- 初九曳其轮，濡其尾，无咎。象曰：曳其轮，义无咎也。
- 六二妇丧其茽，勿逐，七日得。象曰：七日得，以中道也。
- 九三高宗伐鬼方，三年克之，小人勿用。象曰：三年克之，惫也。
- 六四繻有衣袽，终日戒。象曰：终日戒，有所疑也。
- 九五东邻杀牛，不如西邻之禴祭，实受其福。象曰：东邻杀牛，不如西邻之时也。实受其福，吉大来也。
- 上六濡其首，厉。象曰：濡其首厉，何可久也。
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.