I Ching hexagram 61
Hexagram 61: Zhong Fu
Inner Truth · 風澤中孚 · Wind above, Lake below
Sincerity at the center is strong enough to reach even people and creatures that are hard to reach.
What this hexagram is about
Wind moves over a lake in Zhong Fu (Inner Truth), touching the surface all the way across. The trust it describes grows from an honest center and earns a hearing even from stubborn people.
A way to think about it
Who in your life is hard to reach, and what would an honest gesture from you look like? Start from what sits at the center of what you want.
The text, with Legge's translation
Judgment
豚魚吉，利涉大川，利貞。
Kung Fû (moves even) pigs and fish, and leads to good fortune. There will be advantage in crossing the great stream. There will be advantage in being firm and correct.
Sincerity can move even pigs and fish, the least responsive creatures, and that is called good. If you stay steady and correct, it is also a good time to take on something large.
Image
澤上有風，中孚；君子以議獄緩死。
(The trigram representing the waters of) a marsh and that for wind above it form Kung Fû. The superior man, in accordance with this, deliberates about cases of litigation and delays (the infliction of) death.
Line 1 · 初九
虞吉，有它不燕。
The first line, undivided, shows its subject resting (in himself). There will be good fortune. If he sought to any other, he would not find rest.
You weigh carefully where to place your trust, and settling on one right place is favorable. If you look elsewhere as well, you lose your calm.
Line 2 · 九二
鳴鶴在陰，其子和之，我有好爵，吾與爾靡之。
The second line, undivided, shows its subject (like) the crane crying out in her hidden retirement, and her young ones responding to her. (It is as if it were said), 'I have a cup of good spirits,' (and the response were), 'I will partake of it with you.'
A crane calls from the shade and its young answer. A good cup of wine is offered to be shared, a picture of sincere voices finding each other.
Line 3 · 六三
得敵，或鼓或罷，或泣或歌。
The third line, divided, shows its subject having met with his mate. Now he beats his drum, and now he leaves off. Now he weeps, and now he sings.
You depend on another person, so your mood swings with theirs, from drumming to stopping and from weeping to singing.
Line 4 · 六四
月既望，馬匹亡，无咎。
The fourth line, divided, shows its subject (like) the moon nearly full, and (like) a horse (in a chariot) whose fellow disappears. There will be no error.
Like a moon near full, you stand close to the center, and like a chariot horse you part from your partner to serve a larger purpose. No fault attaches.
Line 5 · 九五
有孚攣如，无咎。
The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject perfectly sincere, and linking (others) to him in closest union. There will be no error.
Your sincerity is so complete that it ties other people to you in close union, and nothing about it is wrong.
Line 6 · 上九
翰音登于天，貞凶。
The topmost line, undivided, shows its subject in chanticleer (trying to) mount to heaven. Even with firm correctness there will be evil.
A rooster's crow tries to climb to the sky, all sound and no substance. Insisting on a show of sincerity with nothing behind it is a bad sign.
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 61. Which text do I read?
With no changing lines, read the judgment: "Kung Fû (moves even) pigs and fish, and leads to good fortune. There will be advantage in crossing the great stream. There will be advantage in being firm and correct." 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 Zhong Fu?
The nuclear hexagram is 27. Yi (Nourishment). The opposite is 62. Xiao Guo (Small Crossings). The inverted hexagram is Zhong Fu itself, since the figure reads the same upside down.