Jin Hexagram First Line: Pushed Down When Climbing Up? Grasp These 3 Words to Stay Calm

不知道你有没有过这种经历——

You’ve been grinding steadily at your company for a whole year,

and you finally feel like you’ve got some real skills under your belt.

You want to go for a promotion,

or take on more responsibility at work.

But what happens?

Your boss doesn’t think much of you,

senior colleagues give you the cold shoulder,

and even the coworkers who started at the same time as you

talk behind your back, saying you’re biting off more than you can chew.

You feel so wronged and frustrated inside:

All I want is to move up, right?

Who did I even bother or hurt?

Why is everyone picking on me?

The truth is, no one is targeting you on purpose.

You’ve just reached a stage where this kind of setback is inevitable.

This is exactly what the First Line of the *Jin* (Progress) Hexagram in the *I Ching* is about.

The first line of the Jin Hexagram marks the starting point of the upward path.

The moment you try to poke your head up and get ahead,

someone above will push you right back down.

The Line Text says: 「晋如摧如，贞吉。」 (*Jin ru cui ru, zhen ji*)

These six characters perfectly capture the dilemma of a newcomer trying to climb the ladder.

Getting pushed back right as you start climbing? It’s not personal

The *Six at the Beginning* (初六, *Chu Liu*) is the bottommost line of the Jin Hexagram,

a Yin Line sitting in a Yang position.

It’s in the lowest position,

with the least strength,

but it’s burning with the desire to move up.

The Line Text says “Jin ru cui ru” —

*Jin* means to advance, to move upward;

*cui* means to be broken, to be suppressed.

You just start climbing, and you get pushed down.

Two steps forward, one step back.

It’s so frustrating.

Why does this happen?

Most people’s first thought is —

Someone’s out to get me,

my boss can’t recognize talent,

my coworkers are jealous of me.

But it’s really not that complicated.

You’re at the very bottom,

and you want to move up.

Every single person above you

is a roadblock in your path.

It’s not that they’re deliberately blocking you —

they were already there to begin with.

If you’re going to squeeze past them,

of course they’re going to check if you’re actually up to the task.

Think about it:

a new hire joins the company

and immediately wants to show off and get promoted.

How do senior employees react?

Usually, they watch coldly from the sidelines,

or even deliberately throw a few obstacles your way

to see what you’re really made of.

This isn’t cruelty —

it’s a normal filtering mechanism.

Who knows if you actually have real skills,

or if you’re just here to ride the coattails of others?

Who knows if you can handle pressure,

or if you’ll bail the second things get tough?

The people pushing you down

aren’t necessarily trying to ruin you.

More often than not, they’re testing you,

seeing if you’re worth investing in.

Put simply,

the first step of moving up

is being tested.

If you can hold your ground,

the path ahead will open up for you.

If you can’t,

then it just means you’re not ready yet.

Why does it say “Perseverance Brings Good Fortune”? Staying true to your path is your only trump card

So what should you do at the *Six at the Beginning* stage?

The Line Text follows up with three characters: *zhen ji* (贞吉) — Perseverance Brings Good Fortune.

Stick to the right path, and things will turn out well.

What does “sticking to the right path” mean?

It means don’t let being pushed around

make you cut corners or do the wrong thing.

Don’t let other people’s low opinion of you

drive you to play dirty tricks,

use cheap shortcuts, or take the low road.

A lot of people panic the second they face pushback

and start looking for quick fixes.

They think, if I can’t get ahead on ability, I’ll use connections;

if I can’t make it on merit, I’ll suck up to people.

But think about it —

you’re a new hire,

no background, no resources.

What kind of underhanded trick could possibly get you ahead?

Chances are, you’ll end up

losing on both fronts:

you won’t learn any real skills,

and you’ll ruin your reputation on top of it.

“Perseverance Brings Good Fortune” means this —

the more you’re being suppressed,

the more you need to hold fast to your own proper path.

Do your work when you’re supposed to work,

study when you’re supposed to study,

improve when you’re supposed to improve.

It doesn’t matter if other people don’t believe in you —

you have to believe in yourself.

For example:

you just joined a new department,

your boss won’t give you important tasks,

and the senior staff won’t take you under their wing.

What do you do?

Spend every day complaining that your talent is going to waste?

Or do you take the tiny, trivial tasks you *do* have and do them perfectly?

Smart people pick the second option.

Oh, you want me to do grunt work? Fine — I’ll do it better than anyone else.

Oh, you want me to organize files? Fine — everyone who uses my files will say they’re the best.

Slowly but surely,

everyone will start to notice:

this new hire is something special.

If they can do this well with small tasks,

they’ll definitely be reliable with big ones.

And just like that, opportunities show up.

Wen Laoshi often says,

when you’re at the bottom of the ladder,

being patient and steady

matters more than anything else.

The more desperate you are to prove yourself,

the more likely you are to make mistakes.

The more steady and down-to-earth you are,

the more likely you are to actually stand out.

No one trusts you yet? Take it easy — “Generous, No Blame”

There’s another line after the main text of the *Six at the Beginning*:

「罔孚，裕无咎。」 (*Wang fu, yu wu jiu*)

*Wang fu* means no one trusts you;

*yu wu jiu* means be generous and at ease, and there will be no blame.

This line is so important.

When a lot of people first start climbing up,

the hardest thing to take is not being trusted.

They think, I’m working so hard — why don’t you believe in me?

Why won’t you give me a chance?

But look at it from the other side —

why *should* they trust you?

You’ve only been here a little while,

you haven’t delivered results, you haven’t handled real responsibility.

Why would anyone hand you important work?

Trust isn’t something you beg for — it’s something you earn.

Every task you pull off adds a little more trust;

every task you mess up takes a little away.

“Generous, No Blame”

is telling you not to rush.

Relax, take it slow.

It’s normal that no one trusts you yet.

It doesn’t mean you’re not good enough —

it just means you haven’t proven yourself yet.

Once you nail task after task, one by one,

trust will come naturally.

I’ve seen so many young people

join a company dying to do big, important work.

When they can’t get those big tasks, they feel like their talent is being wasted,

and then they start slacking off.

They slack and slack,

until they actually *are* wasted and forgotten.

Let’s be real — who moves up that fast?

Everyone climbs the ladder step by step, slowly but surely.

First you have to earn the respect of the people around you,

then your boss’s respect,

and finally the respect of the whole company.

You can’t rush this process.

Put simply,

the most useless thing you can have on the way up

is a fragile ego.

If you can’t handle a little criticism,

if you think the sky is falling just because you don’t get an opportunity,

you’re not going to get very far.

The three most important things to do at the *Six at the Beginning* stage

The *Six at the Beginning* stage of the Jin Hexagram,

when you get right down to it,

is the “you want to move up but haven’t found your footing yet” stage.

The most important thing at this stage

isn’t how fast you charge ahead —

it’s building a solid foundation.

First: Accept that being pushed down is part of the deal.

When you first start climbing up,

getting pushback is normal.

It would be weird if you *didn’t* face any resistance.

No one is going to let you waltz right up the ladder easily.

You have to carve out a path for yourself

with your own two hands and your own skills.

Don’t feel wronged,

don’t complain that things aren’t fair.

Fairness is earned through strength —

it’s not something someone hands you out of pity.

Once you have real ability,

the world will feel fair to you.

Second: Do the work you have right now to absolute perfection.

Right now, you’re in a low position,

so you’re probably only getting

small, unremarkable tasks.

But small tasks are the best way to see what someone is really made of.

Two people can be organizing the same files:

one just copies and pastes mindlessly,

the other builds a clear, logical system out of them.

Two people can be doing the same grunt work:

one thinks it’s beneath them and wastes their talent,

the other uses it to learn exactly how the whole company runs.

Remember:

only when you do small things well

will people give you big things to do.

If you can’t even handle small tasks,

who would trust you with important work?

Third: Stick to your own rhythm.

It doesn’t matter if other people don’t believe in you —

you have to believe in yourself.

It doesn’t matter if everyone else is cutting corners —

you have to hold fast to your own bottom line.

The road up is long.

It’s not about who runs the fastest —

it’s about who walks the steadiest.

If you veer off the right path

just because of a little temporary pushback,

it’ll be so much harder to find your way back later.

But if you keep walking the proper path the whole time,

it’s okay to go a little slow.

You’ll get there eventually, one way or another.

Final thoughts

The *Six at the Beginning* line of the Jin Hexagram

is such perfect advice

for young people just starting to climb the ladder.

The advice this first line of the Jin Hexagram gives you is this —

don’t rush.

First, hold your ground.

“Jin ru cui ru, zhen ji” — Advance, and be pushed back; Perseverance Brings Good Fortune.

Getting suppressed right as you start climbing? That’s totally normal.

As long as you stay true to the right path and don’t go astray,

things will turn out well in the end.

No one’s upward path

is smooth sailing all the way.

Who among us hasn’t been pushed down

while still trying to move up?

The key is whether you can

hold on to your original intention

and keep walking the right path

even when you’re being pushed around.

The road up is long.

Don’t lose at the very first step.

All the pressure you’re bearing right now

will one day become the confidence that carries you higher.