Dui to Kun (Oppression): working it out together

Date not recorded · A friend of Takashima · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 58 Duì (The Joyous Lake), line 1 moving, changing to Hexagram 47 Kùn (Exhaustion).

Original text

友人某來。請占謀事成否。筮得兌之困。爻辭曰。初九和兌吉。斷曰。此卦一陰在二陽之上。以柔之卑。居剛之上。初爻得陽剛。剛以嚴。柔以和。以剛制柔。所謂和而不流者也。今足下占謀事。得此爻。爻屬於初。知其事尙在初起。和者。爲彼此同心。和衷共濟。初與四應。四曰商兌。商謂商量也。正合謀事之意。初爻傳曰行未疑。謂其事必成無疑也。四爻傳曰有慶。謂其事成後。又有慶福也。足下安心從事可也。

In plain words

A friend of Takashima came to ask whether a plan would succeed. The cast gave Dui with its first line moving, changing into Kun (Oppression). The line reads: "Nine at the beginning: harmonious joy; good fortune."

Takashima's judgment: in Dui one yin line sits above two yang lines, the humble softness placed above the firm. The first line is firm: firmness is strictness, softness is harmony, and the firm keeps the soft in check. That is what is called "harmonious but not drifting".

Asking about a plan and drawing this line, in the first place, shows that the matter is only just beginning. "Harmony" means being of one mind and pulling together. The first line answers the fourth, which says "deliberating joy"; to deliberate is to talk things over, which fits a plan exactly. The commentary on the first line says "his conduct is not in doubt", meaning it will surely succeed; that on the fourth says "there is cause for celebration", meaning more good things will follow. Go ahead with an easy mind.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the first line of Dui is read, with the fourth line and both lines' Small Image commentaries brought in.
The figure is one yin above two yang: the firm first line is read as firmness keeping softness in check, "harmonious but not drifting", agreeable without going along with everything.
The line's place is the beginning: the matter has only just started.
Correspondence supplies the meaning: the first answers the fourth, whose "deliberating" is read as talking things over, just right for a plan; the two commentaries' "not in doubt" and "cause for celebration" confirm the good outcome.

About the outcome

The text does not say whether the plan succeeded. The advice is simple: get along, and talk things through.

Applying it to your situation

"Harmonious but not drifting": agreeable, but not giving way on everything. In what you are working out with others, where can you graciously give ground, and where do you need to hold firm?

Original: Takashima Kaemon, Takashima Ekidan (expanded edition), recorded by Yanagida Ikusaku, Chinese text by Wang Zhiben, 1901. Translation, notes and reflection by this site.

These are historical records kept by the diviner himself. The outcomes are his own account; this site uses them to study how the lines were read, not as evidence that divination predicts events.

Cast a hexagram · All of Takashima's cases · The 64 hexagrams