The Story

A lighthouse had stood at the cape for two hundred years. The keepers changed; the lamp was replaced; the roof was rethatched, retiled, then recopper-topped. Storms had taken the outbuildings three times. Each new keeper faced the same small daily labors: the stair, the oil, the glass, the log. "Nothing I do is new," said one keeper, "and yet if I stop for one night, ships die." Constancy is not sameness. It is direction preserved through a thousand small renewals. The lighthouse endures not despite change but because of ceaseless, faithful change within a single purpose.

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The Judgment

Success. No blame. Perseverance furthers. It furthers one to have somewhere to go.

The Image

Thunder and wind: the image of duration. Thus the superior person stands firm and does not change their direction.

Interpretation

Not stasis but sustained dynamic — like a storm that keeps its character while continuously renewing. The hexagram counsels long-term commitment and consistent direction; change in means, constancy in ends. Drift is the enemy.

Trigrams

The Six Lines

1. First (Bottom) Seeking duration too hastily brings misfortune persistently. Nothing that would further. Demanding permanence too early in a relationship or enterprise ruins it.
2. Second Remorse disappears. Endurance in the right place; constancy vindicated.
3. Third He who does not give duration to their character meets with disgrace. Persistent humiliation. Wavering character invites public loss of face.
4. Fourth No game in the field. Persistent effort in the wrong place; no reward.
5. Fifth Giving duration to one's character through perseverance. This is good fortune for a woman, misfortune for a man. In some roles steady constancy is the virtue; in others it must be balanced with initiative.
6. Sixth (Top) Restlessness as an enduring condition brings misfortune. A permanent agitation that never settles into direction; damaging.