Following is about adaptation, and it is a harder hexagram than it looks. The structure is the strong element placing itself beneath the yielding one — which sounds like capitulation until you read the judgment and find it promising supreme success.

The structure: Lake over Thunder

Thunder below, the lake above. Movement underneath and joy above it. The thunder does not stop being thunder; it is simply not the top of the image.

The Judgment

Following has supreme success. Perseverance furthers. No blame.
Judgment

Note what the condition is: perseverance. Following works when you are following something — a principle, a person worth following — not when you are drifting. That is the whole distinction the hexagram rests on.

The Image

Thunder in the middle of the lake: the image of Following. Thus the superior man at nightfall goes indoors for rest and recuperation.
Image

The instruction is to stop at the right time. Following does not mean continuing indefinitely; it means moving with the rhythm of things, which includes resting when it is dark.

The lines

  • Line 1 — The standard is changing. Perseverance brings good fortune. Going out to join with others brings achievement.
  • Line 2 — If one clings to the little boy, one loses the strong man.
  • Line 3 — If one clings to the strong man, one loses the little boy. Remain persevering.
  • Line 4 — Following creates success. Perseverance brings misfortune. To go one's way with sincerity brings clarity.
  • Line 5 — Sincere in the good. Good fortune.
  • Line 6 — He meets with firm allegiance and is still bound. The king presents him with a mountain.

Lines 2 and 3 are the ones to sit with. Both describe a real loss — you cannot follow both the strong man and the little boy. The text is explicit that following requires choosing, and that the choice costs something.

In practice

  • Ask what exactly you are following. Adaptation without a fixed point is just drift.
  • Line 4 is the counterintuitive one: there are moments where continuing to follow is the wrong move, and sincerity is what makes the break clean.
  • The hexagram favours flexibility, not passivity. Thunder is still moving underneath.

Following vs. agreement

The distinction the text draws is between movement with something and mere compliance. Following here retains its own position — the strong line puts itself below deliberately, which is different from having been put there.

That is why lines 2 and 3 read as they do. Both describe losing something, and both are framed as choices rather than misfortunes.