節Jie · Limitation
In one sentence
Have restraint, but do not be so harsh that even you cannot bear it.
The hexagram of limitation: it is because there are limits that things go through. Set reasonable rules and limits for yourself, and act within your means. Restraint that is too hard on you will not last long; adjust it.
Asking about work, love or money
- Work
- Draw limits around your work: how much you take on, how late you work, what you turn down. Set reasonable rules and things go through. Act within your strength. But don't set a plan so harsh that you can't bear it yourself; restraint held by gritting your teeth doesn't last, so adjust once you see it has gone too far.
- Love
- A relationship needs measure and boundaries: how far words go, each person's space, how much each gives. With limits in place, being together goes smoothly. But don't govern the other person with harsh rules, and don't keep things going by always swallowing your own hurt. Restraint that makes people suffer can't hold for long, and has to change.
- Money
- This hexagram speaks most directly about money: spend within your income, set a budget and limits, and things go through. Save where you should. But saving until life is bitter and you don't dare spend even on what you should can't be kept up, and it isn't the right course either. Set a measure you can actually live with over the long run.
This is the hexagram as a whole. If your cast has changing lines, the line text governs; each line's page has its own reading for work, love and money.
The judgment
In plain wordsThings go through. But when restraint reaches the point of making people suffer, it cannot be kept up forever as the right way.
The Tuan commentary
節，亨，剛柔分，而剛得中。苦節不可貞，其道窮也。說以行險，當位以節，中正以通。天地節而四時成，節以制度，不傷財，不害民。
Jie: "success." The firm and the yielding are evenly divided, and the firm holds the center. "Bitter limitation cannot be held to as the true course": its way is exhausted. Joyful in going through danger; in its proper place, and so setting limits; central and correct, and so getting through. Heaven and earth have their limits, and the four seasons are completed. When limits are set by measures and rules, wealth is not wasted and the people are not harmed.
The Tuan (“judgment”) commentary is one of the Ten Wings. It explains the hexagram name and the judgment from the two trigrams and the positions of the lines.
The image
澤上有水，節。君子以制數度，議德行。
Water over the lake: Jie (Limitation). The noble one sets up numbers and measures and deliberates on virtue and conduct.
The lines
Nine at the beginning
Text不出戶庭，无咎。Not going out of the door to the inner courtyard. No blame.In plain wordsYou do not step out of the inner courtyard door. You know the way is blocked for now and can hold yourself back and stop. No blame. More on this line →
Nine in the second place
Text不出門庭，凶。Not going out of the gate of the outer courtyard. Misfortune.In plain wordsYou will not even leave the yard inside the front gate. Misfortune. When it is time to go out you do not go out; you know only restraint and not how to adapt, and the moment is missed. More on this line →
Six in the third place
Text不節若，則嗟若，无咎。No limitation, and then lamenting. No blame.In plain wordsIf you know no restraint, afterward there is nothing left but sighing. This is your own doing; you cannot blame anyone else. More on this line →
Six in the fourth place
Text安節，亨。Limitation at peace. Success.In plain wordsYou keep to your limits calmly, without feeling forced. Things go through. More on this line →
Nine in the fifth place
Text甘節，吉。往有尚。Sweet limitation. Good fortune. Going earns esteem.In plain wordsYou take restraint as something sweet, measured and centered and correct. Good fortune. Go forward like this and you will be held in esteem. More on this line →
Six at the top
Text苦節，貞凶，悔亡。Bitter limitation. Persisting brings misfortune. Regret vanishes.In plain wordsRestraint carried to the point of making people suffer brings misfortune even when it comes from the right way. Still, better frugal than extravagant: once you know to regret it, the remorse too will vanish. More on this line →
Lines are counted from the bottom. “Nine” is a yang (solid) line, “six” a yin (broken) line. A line applies to your reading only when it is a changing line.
Related hexagrams
Primary, resulting, nuclear, opposite and inverted hexagrams explained →
In the hexagram calendar
In the Tang monk Yixing’s Dayan calendar, Jie belongs to the second pentad of Start of Autumn, “White dew falls” (August 13 to August 17, 2027).