What this hexagram is about
Fire above the water, the two never meeting — the image of the task not yet finished. At the point where the turn is about to come: discern things with care, let each thing keep its place, and go forward warily, and one may pass at last from incompletion to completion.
The Judgment 卦辞
亨，小狐汔济，濡其尾，无攸利。
Success. But if the little fox, nearly across the stream, wets its tail — nothing is favorable.
The Image 大象传
《象》曰：火在水上，未济；君子以慎辨物居方。
Fire rests above the water, not yet complete; so the noble person carefully distinguishes things and sets each in its place.
Commentary on the Lines 小象传
濡其尾，亦不知极也。
Wetting its tail in the crossing — not knowing its own limits.
The Six Lines (hover over the figure above)
Nine at the top有孚于饮酒，无咎，濡其首，有孚失是。
Holding sincerity, one drinks wine at ease and takes one's joy — in itself no fault; but to sink into it past all measure, joy run to excess and forgetting where to stop — like wetting the head — and even one's good faith loses its fitness.
Six in the fifth place贞吉，无悔，君子之光，有孚，吉。
Hold to the right, and good fortune; there is no remorse; this is the radiance of the noble person, who holds sincerity in the heart — good fortune.
Nine in the fourth place贞吉，悔亡，震用伐鬼方，三年有赏于大国。
Hold to the right, and good fortune; remorse fades; with rousing force one campaigns against the Devil's Country, and after years wins the reward of a great fief — steadfast in the work of completion, one comes at last to gain.
Six in the third place未济，征凶，利涉大川。
The thing is not yet done — the moment has not come; to go rashly forward now brings misfortune; but it is fitting now to gather strength and make ready to cross the great river and its perils.
Nine in the second place曳其轮，贞吉。
To drag at the wheels, holding back from over-haste — measuring one's strength and going slowly, holding to the right and biding the time — to hold to the right brings good fortune.
Initial Six濡其尾，吝。
To wet the tail, scarcely able to cross — too weak yet rushing in, stirring rashly at the start — there is cause for regret.