Cui (Gathering) & Sheng (Pushing Upward): One Unites People, One Grows Yourself — Mix Them Up, More People Mean More Chaos

The Cui (Gathering Together) and Sheng (Pushing Upward) hexagrams are the 45th and 46th hexagrams of the I Ching (Book of Changes). Standing side by side, they address two distinct matters: one is about bringing people together, and the other is about growing and strengthening oneself.

A friend who runs a company was riding high the year before last.

Funding came through, and his team grew from just over a dozen people to more than 60 in a single year. He moved the office to a high floor of a commercial building, with green plants at the reception desk and value slogans hanging in the meeting rooms.

Last year, he told me that with more people on board, things were actually getting harder to push forward.

A single proposal had to be approved by five people, each with their own ideas. Meetings dragged on for three hours, but no one took ownership once they ended.

I said, "You’ve been doing the work of the Cui hexagram these past two years, and you’ve done it really well. But you’ve dropped the ball on the Sheng hexagram part."

Cui is 澤地萃 (Zedi Cui). The upper trigram is Lake (Dui / The Joyous), and the lower trigram is Earth (Kun / The Receptive). Water flows downward, pooling on the earth to form a lake.

The Xiang Commentary (Images) states: "The lake rises above the earth; this is the image of Cui (Gathering Together). The Junzi (Superior Person) accordingly prepares weapons and military equipment to guard against unforeseen dangers."

The first part is easy to understand: water gathers into a lake, and all things come to it. The second part is the real key: "prepares weapons and military equipment to guard against unforeseen dangers."

"Prepares weapons and military equipment" means tidying up and securing arms. "Guards against unforeseen dangers" means staying alert for unexpected troubles.

The more people you have, the more you need to be on guard. This truth was written down over two thousand years ago.

When it comes to gathering, the bustle is just the surface; risk lies beneath. The more people there are, the more diverse the stances and interests—you never know how a word might get twisted in someone’s mouth.

So what the Cui hexagram really talks about is not how to recruit people, but how to keep things from going wrong once people are gathered.

The Sheng hexagram is different.

Sheng is 地風升 (Difeng Sheng). The upper trigram is Earth (Kun / The Receptive), and the lower trigram is Wind (Xun / The Gentle)—wood grows from within the earth. A tree sprouts from the soil; you can’t see it growing, but it climbs higher year by year.

The Xiang Commentary (Images) states: "Wood grows within the earth; this is the image of Sheng (Pushing Upward). The Junzi (Superior Person) accordingly follows virtue in accord with his nature, accumulating small things to achieve greatness."

"Accumulating small things to achieve greatness." These five words sum up the entire Sheng hexagram.

No tree grows to full size overnight. It first sinks its roots deep, then grows the trunk, then branches, then leaves. Every step is unremarkable, yet none can be skipped.

Nowadays, many people do things in reverse order.

They set up the framework first, hire people first, put on a big show first, and then expect the business to grow on its own.

That’s like building the crown of a tree first, then going back to look for its roots.

No matter how beautiful the crown is, if the roots haven’t taken hold, a single gust of wind will knock it over.

I’ve seen far too many teams like this. Everyone’s hired, the office is nice, the processes are in place—but no one can clearly explain exactly what problem this thing solves, and for whom.

That’s what happens when the gathering (Cui) is done, but the growth (Sheng) never starts.

Then what is the "virtue in accord with one’s nature" that the Sheng hexagram speaks of?

It means following your own inherent nature.

A tree can’t grow into bamboo, and bamboo can’t grow into a tree. You grow according to what you’re made of. If you force yourself to become something you’re not, you’ll end up twisted halfway through.

That’s why I often tell people: to tell if a venture can grow big, don’t look at how many people it has right now—look at whether it has a solid core trunk.

What’s the core trunk? It’s that one clear sentence you can say: who you solve what problem for, and why people can’t do without you.

If you can’t put that into words, the more people you have and the bigger your operation gets, the more panicked you’ll feel.

There’s a line from the Top Line (Shang Liu) of the Cui hexagram that I find pretty harsh: 赍咨涕洟，无咎 (Ji zi ti yi, wu jiu — Sighing and weeping, no blame).

Ji zi means sighing. Ti yi means sniffling and crying, tears and snot running.

When you’ve gathered to the highest point, you end up crying instead. Why cry? Because the gathering has reached its limit, and you don’t know where to go next.

People are gathered, money is gathered, reputation is gathered—then what?

There is no "then." That’s what it looks like when you only have gathering (Cui) without growth (Sheng).

The Top Line (Shang Liu) of the Sheng hexagram says: 冥升，利于不息之贞 (Ming sheng, li yu bu xi zhi zhen — Rising in the dark, it furthers perseverance that never ceases).

Ming sheng means growing upward in the dark, pushing higher even when you can’t see the direction.

Put these two lines together, and they’re actually a reminder: both gathering and growing need a direction. Gathering without direction is just piling up; growing without direction is just reckless shooting up.

So the real way to use these two hexagrams is to apply them in different stages.

When you have few people, focus on Sheng first. Do one thing thoroughly, hone one capability until it’s rock-solid, and get that one core sentence clear. If you try to gather people at this stage, all you’ll attract is empty, unsubstantial help.

Once you have more people, circle back to reinforce Sheng. Reorganize your core trunk, prune the unnecessary branches, and deepen the roots that need to grow. If you only focus on gathering at this stage, all you’ll end up with is chaos.

Put simply, Cui is addition, and Sheng is multiplication. If you do too much addition without any multiplication, you’ll have a room full of people who can’t get a single thing done.

Finally, here’s a practical way to judge where you stand.

For your current team or business: if one-third of the people left tomorrow, would it still keep running?

If yes, that means you have a solid core trunk, and you’ve put in the work of Sheng.

If no, that means you only have a pile of people—you’ve taken the work of Cui as far as it can go, but you haven’t done any of the work of Sheng at all.

This test doesn’t feel good, but it’s more accurate than any post-mortem review.