Judgment
Increase. It furthers one to undertake something. Cross the great water. Times like these don't last—use them. Execute the project. Start the build. The conditions are favorable.
Image
Wind and thunder: the image of increase. The superior man sees good and imitates it; perceives faults and eliminates them. Active self-improvement through observation and correction.
Digital Artifact
Multiplayer BBS Door Games: LORE and Legend of the Red Dragon
Seth Able Robinson (1989)
In 1989, Seth Able Robinson released Legend of the Red Dragon, the BBS door game where that pixelated red dragon on the title screen unified thousands of local dial-up communities. You'd connect at 2400 baud—that screech-and-handshake—and get your daily turns. But unlike single-player games, your actions rippled through the entire server. Kill the dragon? Everyone benefits. Gain a level? The whole community's power distribution shifts. The game explicitly incentivized the strong descending to help the weak: marriage bonuses for partnerships, mentorship rewards, economic interdependence woven into the mechanics. Meanwhile, the sysop maintained the hardware and phone lines at personal expense so strangers could play together. Hexagram 42 is Increase (益)—thunder below, wind above, each force amplifying the other. LORD worked because it was architected as mutual increase: the strong descending to strengthen the weak, generous action propagating through the network, the red dragon watching over fellowship born from sacrifice.
Historical Context
- Period
- Zhou Dynasty
- Oracle Bone Etymology
- Wind (☴) sits above, Thunder (☳) sits below—gentle penetration over arousing movement.
- Traditional Use
- The classical text describes increase as the strong above descending to strengthen the weak below—not forced redistribution, but natural flow like wind and thunder amplifying each other.
- Character Analysis
- Thunder rises from below, wind descends from above, and in their interaction both forces intensify. Neither diminishes; both gain.
- Energy State
- Mutual amplification, generative increase. Read bottom to top: yang line from above has descended to foundation (Thunder), creating upward arousing force that meets downward gentle penetration (Wind).
- Trigram Symbolism
- ☴ Wind (Upper) - Gentle, penetrating, descending ☳ Thunder (Lower) - Arousing, movement, rising Wind and thunder increase each other's power.
Sources
Lines
Line 1: 利用為大作元吉無咎
Line 2: 或益之十朋之龜弗克違永貞吉王用享于帝吉
Line 3: 益之用凶事無咎有孚中行告公用圭
Line 4: 中行告公從利用為依遷國
Line 5: 有孚惠心勿問元吉有孚惠我德
Line 6: 莫益之或擊之立心勿恆凶
Practical Guidance
Transformations
When changing lines appear in a reading, this hexagram can transform into another.
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