I Ching hexagram 46
Hexagram 46: Sheng
Ascending · 地風升 · Earth above, Wind below
Like a tree, you grow upward step by step, and a person above you welcomes the climb.
What this hexagram is about
Steady upward movement, such as a promotion or a new level of skill, is built from many small steps and met with a welcome from those above. Sheng (Ascending) pictures a tree growing up out of the earth.
A way to think about it
Which small steps are already adding up in your favor? Look for the person above you who can welcome your next level, and keep building at the pace the growth allows.
The text, with Legge's translation
Judgment
元亨，用見大人，勿恤，南征吉。
Shăng indicates that (under its conditions) there will be great progress and success. Seeking by (the qualities implied in it) to meet with the great man, its subject need have no anxiety. Advance to the south will be fortunate.
Great progress is named here, and you can meet a person of standing without worry. Heading south, toward the light, is the way to go.
Image
地中生木，升；君子以順德，積小以高大。
(The trigram representing) wood and that for the earth with the wood growing in the midst of it form Shăng. The superior man, in accordance with this, pays careful attention to his virtue, and accumulates the small developments of it till it is high and great.
Line 1 · 初六
允升，大吉。
The first line, divided, shows its subject advancing upwards with the welcome (of those above him). There will be great good fortune.
Those above you agree with your rising and draw you upward, so you start with a very good omen.
Line 2 · 九二
孚乃利用禴，无咎。
The second line, undivided, shows its subject with that sincerity which will make even the (small) offerings of the vernal sacrifice acceptable. There will be no error.
A plain spring offering is enough when you serve those above with real sincerity. Nothing in this is wrong.
Line 3 · 九三
升虛邑。
The third line, undivided, shows its subject ascending upwards (as into) an empty city.
An empty city lies open and you move up into it without resistance. The commentary adds that there is nothing here to hesitate over.
Line 4 · 六四
王用享于岐山，吉无咎。
The fourth line, divided, shows its subject employed by the king to present his offerings on mount Khî. There will be good fortune; there will be no mistake.
You serve at the king's offering on Mount Qi, a cause larger than yourself. Humble service of that kind goes well and brings no fault.
Line 5 · 六五
貞吉，升階。
The fifth line, divided, shows its subject firmly correct, and therefore enjoying good fortune. He ascends the stairs (with all due ceremony).
The stairs are climbed one step at a time, in good order, and holding to what is right is the sound way to do it.
Line 6 · 上六
冥升，利于不息之貞。
The sixth line, divided, shows its subject advancing upwards blindly. Advantage will be found in a ceaseless maintenance of firm correctness.
You keep climbing in the dark, unable to see where it ends. What helps now is steady, tireless correctness.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi, public domain. English: James Legge, The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. 16 (1882), public domain. Plain notes written by this site.
Questions
I cast hexagram 46. Which text do I read?
With no changing lines, read the judgment: "Shăng indicates that (under its conditions) there will be great progress and success. Seeking by (the qualities implied in it) to meet with the great man, its subject need have no anxiety. Advance to the south will be fortunate." With changing lines, read the lines that changed. When several change at once, Zhu Xi's rules decide which text leads, and the casting page marks it for you.
What are the nuclear, opposite and inverted hexagrams of Sheng?
The nuclear hexagram is 54. Gui Mei (Uneven Union). The opposite is 25. Wu Wang (Innocence). The inverted hexagram is 45. Cui (Gathering).