The fifth line gives the hexagram's central image and its ruling position. Legge renders it as the dragon on the wing in the sky, advantageous for meeting with the great man, echoing the second line's counsel but now at the height of the hexagram's ascent rather than its beginning. Where the second line's dragon stood in an open field among other things, the fifth line's dragon has left the ground entirely, and the sky itself becomes the measure of its reach.
This is the central line of the upper trigram, the position Chinese commentary treats as the throne of the hexagram, the place where a ruling figure's virtue and authority coincide most fully with the moment for exercising them. Of all six lines, the fifth carries the least qualification and the fewest cautions: no warning to wait, no note of strain, only the flight itself and the counsel to seek out a great man while that flight continues.
Set against the whole sequence, the fifth line is the fulfillment the hidden dragon of the first line was always moving toward: strength that was once submerged and unseen now occupies the sky in full view, at the height proper to it and matched by a position of genuine standing rather than mere visibility. It is also the line most commentators read as answering the second line's meeting with the great man, since a ruler at the height of the hexagram still needs capable others to work beside him rather than acting alone.