Hexagram 49, Revolution: Even Revolution Waits For The Right Day
Hexagram 49 is the hexagram of root-and-branch change, yet its judgement asks you to wait until the appointed day before anyone believes you. Cast a reading and read the full text.
Hexagram 49, Revolution, is the hexagram of root-and-branch change. The strange thing is that this revolutionary hexagram does not open with a rallying cry. It opens with an appointment: "on your own day you are believed."
Today is Tuesday 1 September 2026, a Wu-Yin day in the solar term "End of Heat", under the "Break" officer. The old almanac gives Break days to demolition and to finishing off what is over, and warns against most large undertakings.
A day marked "break", set beside a hexagram whose name means a hide stripped from an animal. Yet the hexagram does not say strip away. It says: wait for the right day.
What does Hexagram 49 mean?
Revolution is the forty-ninth of the 64 hexagrams: the lake above, fire below. The character *ge* originally meant an animal hide taken off and tanned. The hexagram is therefore about change down to the root, not decoration on the surface.
Its image is fire burning in the middle of a marsh. Two things in one place that cannot both remain — the definition of revolution, written as a picture instead of a slogan.
Why does a hexagram about revolution insist on a date?
The judgement reads: "revolution — on your own day you are believed; sublime success, furthering through perseverance, remorse disappears." The condition comes before the promise.
The stem *ji* sits in the middle of the ten heavenly stems, the point where a cycle is past halfway. The same act done three months early is called vandalism; done at the right moment it is called reform. The content does not change, only the day.
What does the Image teach?
"Fire in the lake: Revolution. The superior man sets the calendar in order and makes the seasons clear." Among all 64 hexagrams, this is the only Image that tells you plainly to make a calendar.
If change depends on timing, the essential thing is not the slogan but knowing what time it is now.
Which line of Hexagram 49 is most memorable?
The top line reads: "the superior man changes like a panther; the inferior man moults in the face." One sentence splits every change in two: change that reaches the skin, or a change of expression to satisfy the audience.
The fifth line goes further: "the great man changes like a tiger" — believed before any divination is needed. Three grades in a row: the tiger, the panther, and the face — a ranking built the same way as the seven judgements of Hexagram 1.
Why Revolution suits 1 September 2026
1 September 2026 is a Wu-Yin day, Break officer, in the term End of Heat. Break suits demolition and closing out the old, and dislikes most large undertakings. Revolution says exactly that, and adds a condition the almanac does not state: the breaking must be timed.
End of Heat means the heat has withdrawn and the seasons are handing over — precisely the kind of moment the Image speaks of, and the same meeting of heaven and earth found in Hexagram 11, Peace. Today the branch Yin (Wood) restrains the stem Wu (Earth): big things cost effort, small things still run smoothly.
So what should you do today?
A Break day suits clearing the old away rather than raising the new. Pick one thing that needs changing and ask it straight: do you intend to change the substance, or the face? If only the face, leave it alone and save everyone the trouble.
If the change really does go to the root, clear the old part first today. And before changing anything, check what day it actually is — that is what this hexagram's own Image instructs.
Frequently asked questions
Is Revolution favourable or unfavourable?
Favourable, conditionally: the promise holds only when the change arrives at the right time.
Where does it sit among the 64?
Number 49, immediately before The Cauldron, number 50.
What does drawing it mean?
The matter needs change at the root; the next question is when, not whether.
*Last updated: 1 September 2026*