Biting Through: The Breakout
The money seems like it should already be yours, except something keeps getting in the way — a competitor, a dispute, a term nobody will budge on. Biting Through is exactly this: until you bite through the obstruction, the money doesn't move.
Shi Ke: a mouth that can't close
Biting Through stacks Li (fire) above Zhen (thunder). The image is a mouth with something caught inside it — the two trigrams read like an open jaw, and the moving line in the middle sits like a hard piece of bone wedged between the teeth.
The judgment reads: Biting Through has success, it is favorable to let justice be administered. That's not literally about lawsuits — it's about decisiveness. Like a court settling a case, you have to name the obstruction and rule on it before the money can move again.
Biting Through has success. It is favorable to let justice be administered.
Self sits on Wealth — the money was already yours
Biting Through is the fifth hexagram of the Xun palace family — self on the fifth line, other on the second. The self line carries the Wealth line, yin earth. The money, in this reading, was never something you had to go chase — it was already sitting with you.
But the other line carries the Sibling line, yin wood — the relative that stands for competition, drain, the party trying to take what you have.
Biting Through — six relatives at a glance
| Line | Relative | Branch | Self / Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top | Offspring | si (fire) | |
| 5th | Wealth | wei (earth) | Self |
| 4th | Officer | you (metal) | |
| 3rd | Wealth | chen (earth) | |
| 2nd | Sibling | yin (wood) | Other |
| Bottom | Parent | zi (water) |
Self on Wealth, other on Sibling — yin wood overcomes wei earth, so other overcomes self.
The money is yours — and the other side has a grip on it
Yin wood overcomes wei earth: other overcomes self. In plain terms, you're already carrying the wealth, self sits on Wealth, but the Sibling line across from you, a competitor, a rival bidder, whoever's arguing the terms, is actively pressing down on it.
This is the classic Biting Through situation: the money isn't missing, it's blocked by something hard sitting in the middle. Until that piece gets bitten through, the jaw doesn't close and the wealth doesn't come through.
The Sibling line is the spirit that robs wealth — in a wealth reading, the thing most to be feared.
A stall isn't the end of the story — it's a cue to act
The resistance might be competition — or it might be a dispute
Sibling overcoming self can show up as a rival undercutting you, a partner who won't settle, or something that's genuinely turned into a dispute or a regulatory headache. The stronger that overcoming force reads, the more it's worth taking seriously, not brushing off as ordinary friction.
This reading isn't telling you the money is out of reach. It's telling you the order of operations: clear what's blocking the path first, then worry about actually banking what's already yours.
Biting Through isn't about whether you can earn it. It's about sequence — bite through what's in the way first, and the money gets its turn.
A note: a hexagram is a mirror that helps you see where you stand — not a verdict, and never a buy or sell signal. Everything here is framed as "how to read it" and "what to watch for"; none of it is investment advice. Markets carry their own risk, and the decision, with its consequences, stays yours.